stimulate me.

Ok, I’ll admit it. I lack a vast knowledge of just about any level of economics, much less national. So, I’ve been trying to keep up with the articles, watching the news, I even tried to stomach most of Obama’s Presidential Address last night (on every freaking channel). I’ve read the differences between the House and Senate Bills, and feel vaguely informed about the issue.

I might be fiscally conservative, but some part of me wants to give a smidgen of the benefit of the doubt because they are older, wiser, and more informed (liberal or not). At this point, I do believe that something needs to be done as far as ‘bailing’ Americans out of this crap shack we’ve built. But, I agree with many Republicans that a bailout of this magnitude is asking too much of subsequent generations, and by ‘too much’ I mean a multitrillion dollar debt.

So, those of you who are older, wiser, more informed, or all of the above, please explain why some of the following are so important, because there are a few bullet points or sheer numbers that I can’t wrap my little mind around…

-$400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD's. (Umm, why not inject some of this funding into sex education? That might teach people to think before they pork.)

-$150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities.

-$248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters. (Really?)

-$125 million for the Washington sewer system.

-$650 million for the digital television converter box coupon program. (TV isn’t an unalienable right guaranteed to American citizens. Either you can afford it, or you can’t!)

-$75 million for "smoking cessation activities.”

-$25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction. (Really, I’m not being flip, by tribal do they mean like Native Americans? I’m not kidding.)

-$100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint.

-$2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy defunded last year because it said the project was inefficient. (What is this?)

Look, I just saved $3.7 billion dollars!