(CNSNews.com) – The economic stimulus bill that was approved by the House on Thursday and is under consideration by the Senate includes more pork than stimulus, the Family Research Center found.
 
The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R.1) gives away billions to the “green” lobby, abortion industry, unions, and special interests, according to the FRC, and in particular sets aside $3 billion for prevention and wellness programs, which included $335 million for STD education and prevention.
 
In the past money that was supposed to go towards preventing and educating about sexually transmitted diseases instead funded a transgender beauty pageant in San Francisco that advertised available HIV testing, an event called “Got Love? – Flight/Date/Score” which taught people how “to flirt with greater finesse,” and even erotic art shows, FRC found.
 
Because distribution of the money would be left up to the director or secretary, money ends up going towards “a number of things that have little to do with STD education and prevention and should not be using taxpayer dollars,” Tom McClusky, vice president of government affairs for the Family Research Council, told Cybercast News Service.
 
“If they want to pass legislation like that, that’s fine, but it should go through an actual hearing process, not rushed through like this is. This is considered emergency spending, and there’s no way anybody can consider that emergency spending,” McClusky said.
 
Also, the bill would make groups like ACORN, Association for Community Reform Now, eligible for $4.19 billion in “neighborhood stabilization activities.”
 
“(House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi’s bill opens up ACORN to be eligible for a number of grants that they’ve gotten in the past. It more than doubles the type of grants they’ve gotten in the past,” McClusky said.
 
The bill also gives $600 million to buy new “green” friendly cars for government workers, despite the fact that very few gas pumps have the right gas to run those vehicles. It also gives $10 million for bike and walking trails, $200 million for plug-in car stations, $400 million for climate change research, $800 million to clean up Superfund sites, $600 million for grants for diesel emission reduction, $650 million for “alternative energy technologies, energy efficiency enhancements and deferred maintenance at federal facilities,” and $1.5 billion for construction of “green schools.”
 
Also, $2.7 billion in National Institutes of Health grants would go toward embryonic stem cell experimentation and $75 million for smoking cessation. The bill provides billions for the reform of the health care system and working towards nationalized health care, with little or no debate, McClusky said.
 
Also, the Senate version of the stimulus bill would benefit Hollywood by giving $246 million in tax breaks over 11 years for investors in big budget movie projects that don’t otherwise qualify for incentives, according to the National Journal.
 
The bill also includes $50 billion to the National Endowment for the Arts, $83 billion for the earned income credit for people who don’t pay income tax, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, and $1 billion to the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) hiring program.
 
The measure also gives $2 billion for national parks, and according to the Washington Times, a top House Republican is calling for an investigation into whether the money is appropriate given the fact that the chief lobbyist for the National Parks Conservation Association is the son of House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, who is the chief author of the bill.
 
Also, $54 billion will go to federal programs deemed by the Office of Management and Budget or the Government Accountability Office as “ineffective” or unable to pass basic financial audits, the Wall Street Journal reported.
 
The bill gives $462 million for equipment, construction, and renovation of facilities at the Centers for Disease Control, $150 million for repairs to Smithsonian Institute facilities, $44 million to the Agricultural Research Service, $1.2 billion for the National Science Foundation, $227 million for oversight of spending, and $1 billion for the follow-up to the 2010 Census.
 
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