Jacksonville's Official Federal Stimulus List

[stjr]

The most obvious items absent relate to education.  Nothing for our public schools, FCCJ, or UNF.  I thought Obama said education was a stimulus priority.  Are they submitting separate lists?

I didn't see any water projects providing for distribution of retreated water (not to be confused with drinking water as already provided for).  There was one for a reclamation plant but that doesn't appear to address distribution which I am under the impression is the major stumbling block to water conservation in Jax.

How about renovating public buildings to conserve energy?  That was another stimulus goal supposedly.

Of course, mass transit appears to be completely bypassed as well.  And funding for an intelligent traffic system?

And no money for park improvements that we keep hearing need funding.

How about to hire more librarians to re-extend limited library hours?  Money to hire people to work with kids in after school and summer programs?

I can think of lots of things to put people to work right away and the courthouse is not one of them.  It's outrageous this is the second largest item on the list!

[hillary supporter]

The people who are angered more by corporate welfare are people who don't realize that it's corporations that create jobs. Not only that, but they create life saving drugs, TV's, computers, and ship these goods to the store for the people with the welfare checks to buy.

Corporations dont create those priceless products that jt mentioned, people that work for corporations do. That being said, life in our modern corporate world is essential and great. But i would make the point that a corporation is not a living person, but a legal entity , with but a single purpose to make as much capital as possible by investing as little as possible. As naum chomsky states, if a corporation was a real human, he/she would be declared insane as a sociopath. Accordingly, regulation is essential to maintain a proper behavior in the real world, as in our past with trust busting (rockefeller monopoly) ect.  The actions by no less that sec. henry paulson, in the past year, he being the strongest advocate of free market practice, vindicates such regulation.

[FayeforCure]

There are many good arguments for nationalized health care... but there are also unintended consequenses.  Ask the 75 year old British man who cannot get a new heart valve because he is too old.  How about a government database containing all of your health records?  Some here are against video cameras downtown because it is an invasion of privacy... would you be content with the Feds keeping your medical records?

Actually, I worry about private insurance keeping my medical records and using its info. to deny me coverage.
Luckily I have NO medical record, because I am one of the 48 million uninsured AMERICANS. I was in a catch 22,..... didn't want to ever see a doctor for fear of even creating a medical record. Now, because I haven't seen a doctor in over a decade, and have "no medical record" I can qualify for a low rate for catastrophic insurance only, which will go into effect in May.

Even so, there is a good chance that what I'm getting will turn out to be "junk" insurance, meaning that if I end up being diagnosed with anything that I need medical care for,.......they might start digging and find I had an ear infection when I was say 7 years old. They then might tell me they are going to rescind my health insurance to keep themselves from paying for the medical condition that I might encounter in the future. They might claim that earache suddenly is a pre-existing condition that disqualifies me from their insurance, RETRO-ACTIVELY!

That practice of rescission is probably something you've never heard about, because you've probably never researched the healthcare issue like I have as a healthcare activist.

Do you understand that by denying you care, for-profit insurance companies can increase their profits? Do you see the conflict of interest in this?

And Puleeeez, drop the "old British man who cannot get a heart valve" talking point already. It's the tried and failed politics of fear-mongering based on a "made-up" anecdotal story. If it happened at all, and I bet you don't know the name of that man or have any other sort of proof that it is a real story, it may be the exception rather than the rule.

I can give you the example of my dad, who lives in Europe, and has stage IV kidney cancer. Based on your talking points you'd probably say that at 78, he would not get the latest expensive FDA approved medication "because he was too old."

You would be wrong,...... he has been receiving $7,000 per month state of the art medication for the past 1 1/2 years. Medication that was just approved by the FDA in 2006. He gets it free of charge, no co-pay, no-deductible.

And don't tell me, oh but they pay very high taxes over there,.........because for what we spend in the ER, the most expensive care that we DO have universal access to, we can go a long way to providing REAL universal healthcare that could keep people out of the ER. I will get you that study with dollar amounts if you want.

In closing I'd like to let all those who are into "tax-cuts" only as a stimulus know, that 25% of our economy is healthcare and education related, so to shore up those industries, as we are bailing out banks, makes good economic sense.

Today is the HUGE Education rally in Tallahassee.
More than 500,000 teachers nationwide stood to lose their jobs without the federal stimulus monies rescuing the states.

Please examine everything you are told and ask for reliable proof, before using the talking points that are so easily repeated.

I know most of us do not have the time to do this ourselves, so check with REAL grassroots orgs, rather than industry paid astro-turf orgs.

There is a real battle going on out there with mis-information maskerading as "truth," so beware. Let me just add, that is also the reason that a "free-market" system often isn't really, and cannot really be a "free-market" system. The caveat is that for a "free-market" system to really be "competitive," we need to have perfect information as consumers to base our decisions on. Not only, is there no reliable source of perfect information ( a lot of dis-information, or ad driven info goes around), but there also is a prohibitive high expense in obtaining "perfect info," both in terms of time for the individual as well as expense.

I know all this will turn some of you preconceived concepts upside down, but mull it over and let me know if you have any questions about any of what I wrote. The beauty of debate is being open to new info., if it makes sense.

Hope that helps.

Faye

[mtraininjax]

Stimulus is all about spending on construction, and construction projects put people to work. We need these projects for our infrastructure and now is a better time to do it, before a bridge or road collapses. Simple view, but effective.