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PrintFebruary 5, 2009
Tales of Stimulus pork
The Wall Street Journal highlights another outrageous piece of pork in the Stimulus bill"
Such as the amendment to Section 2(3)(F) of the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, which will permit payments to guys employed to repair "recreational vessels." Under Incentives for New Jobs, we find a credit to employ what the bill calls "disconnected youths," defined as "not readily employable by reason of lacking a sufficient number of basic skills."
In other words, people will be paid with tax dollars to repair other people's recreational boats (yachts?) and people who lack basic skills and are thus not "readily employable" will be paid with taxpayer dollars.
Do these unemployables include people who have abused drugs, or have lifetime criminal records that derailed education and the development of basic skills? Will employers of such people -- say landscapers, garbage haulers, restaurants, flyer distributors -- now get government money to help meet their payrolls? Will this be one more scam on the US taxpayer?
