That So-Called Coronavirus Stimulus Bill is Filled With Pork Projects

Last Wednesday, March 25, 2020, members of the U.S. Senate cast a unanimous vote to greenlight a $2 trillion relief bill to allegedly “relieve” the economic hardship of the American public due to fallout from the Wuhan Virus. It was eventually signed into law on Friday, March 27, 2020.

Brandon Waltens of Texas Scorecard, accurately notes that “American taxpayers, however, are rightly up in arms over the waste in the bill, which totals up to $340 billion in new government spending for items seemingly unrelated to the virus.”

$300 million was handed out to the Social Security Administration.

As Waltens points out, though, the money “would not be going directly to senior citizens.”

Instead, the funds are being allocated towards the SSA keeping “up with key workloads, make up for lost productivity, and otherwise improve the ability of the agency to serve the public.”

In essence, this money is directed towards more bureaucratic overhead.

Another 1.018 billion was sent to AmTrak.

Lawmakers made the case that government railroad funds are needed “for operating assistance to cover revenue losses related to coronavirus. In addition, funding is provided to help states pay for their share of the cost of state-supported routes.”

But here’s the joke, Amtrak has never generated a profit since it was created in 1971. It has repeatedly counted on billions of dollars in government subsidies to keep the trains operating. The U.S. government is essentially continuing the subsidization of failure.

$353 million was also spent on the United States Agency for International Development.

In a bill that was purportedly written to help the American people, hundreds of millions of dollars end up being sent to foreign countries. $258 million is specifically assigned for “international disaster assistance” with the purpose of continuing “to address humanitarian and health needs in coronavirus-affected areas abroad.”

There was plenty of other spending filth in this bill, but one particular point that stood out was the $350 million allocated towards refugee resettlement.

As much as I loathe the welfare state, one would expect that in a time of crisis the government would at least craft policies that are actually aimed at Americans.

Well, we live in the era of globalism where immigrants are considered “more American” than Americans themselves. Waltens illustrated that the $350 million is “designated for noncitizen refugees, migrants, and immigrants, while millions of Americans file for unemployment.” Not to mention, the U.S. is already swamped by decades of mass migration.

This only scratches the surface of this spending atrocity of a bill.

D.C. clearly doesn’t care about fiscal restraint or crafting policies that benefit Americans.