- $1.5 billion for Medicaid
- $800 million for education for operating expenses and projects
- $740 million for roads and bridge projects
- $340 million for local communities
- $400 million for ongoing state projects
"It is one-time money. It will come and it will go in two years or less. It is very important to invest it wisely in one-time expenditures," Daniels says of the windfall. So half the money will go to the same people who already get free health care courtesy of the taxpayers. A little more than a quarter will take care of pay for the teachers' unions. The road contractors will make off with about a quarter of the money; they are so generous with those campaign contributions. And the remaining one quarter will be sprinkled around for various pork barrel projects. What's in it for you? I'm not faulting Gov. Daniels for this spending plan; I am, however, faulting the wisdom of our federal government in spending another trillion dollars it doesn't have to spend on top of the trillions of dollars the government has already spent over the past year for the sake of economic stimulus.
9 comments:
The $3 billion is tax money taken away from us. The best use would be a one-time tax credit for Hoosiers.
Spending more money on roads and universities will lead to deeper financial ruin, like the kind we're seeing from having spent billions on downtown development - hotels, sports facilities, Circle Center Mall.
Downtown is deadern a doornail - look at the old MSA site. Building big things does not create jobs in the long run, if building the Colts a new stadium really did create jobs - we should build them another one, and another, and another.
What's in it for us? I don't have Medicare or kids (I do use the roads) but I would prefer to live in a place where the sick and elderly are cared for, our roads are maintained and the children are educated then a place where they are not. But that's just me.
I would also like a tax credit, but I'd rather see Indiana spend some money on basic things that it desperately needs. I'm not convinced every dollar will be spent wisely, but any money spent on any social program or public works project should have a positive effect, especially now.
Of course you don't have Medicare. That's the government plan for senior citizens. Medicaid is a Cadillac plan for those low-income persons who qualify for it (lots of single parent moms living in public housing). Many self-employed people have to go without medical care because the insurance costs for the self-employed are prohibitively expensive and they can't afford the bills providers charge them because they aren't covered by a health insurance plan. The problem with public education is not a lack of spending. We spend extraordinary amounts per pupil on education already and yet the quality of that education continues to decline. If spending made a difference, the Chicago Public School system would be the best in the county. Instead, it's one of the worst. I like a good transporation system too, but there's no spending offered to build a world class public transporation system. Just more spending to consume more farmland and create more congested highways.
AI. I find your characteriztion of Medicaid to be insulting. Since Mitch has spent a year telling us what good shape the economy in Indiana is, I think we should refuse the money and send it to states that are having difficulty.
Well, Art (I'm too much of a coward to tell you who I really am), you obviously don't pay for your own health insurance like some of us. Yeah, let's just send it to other states since we're already getting much less back from Washington than what we send to it each year. That makes a lot of sense.
Just like the $4.5 Million for local crime prevention that went into the hands outstretched from the shakedown artists, look for argument in terms of megabucks on state distribution. Speaking of artists, don't let the Arts crowd get wind of this or the outpouring from the gushing CIB might be in jeapordy. Just what we need: more wiggling Ann dancing signs and tire retread sculptures while foreclosures run rampant and jobs are scarce.
I thought the toll road contract was to more than offset the infrastructure of Indiana road repairs.
allocating more money for healthcare only drives up the cost of healthcare - as the institutions see there are more dollars available, they will do there level best to suck up every last nickel of that they can by raising the fees across the board. Then the working class who pays their way ultimately pay more. And the poor still get theirs paid for. Nothing gained, except the medical execs get richer.
AI, once again you are wrong...I pay my own health insurance on a quarterly basis and it is over $500 a month and it is a pretty basic policy......
Doesn't the gas tax cover roads?
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