Clyburn says SC to get $8 billion

No sooner had I posted that last post than another e-mail came in from Jim Clyburn's office, and I think y'all might find this one more interesting:

South Carolina will receive nearly $8 billion in federal investments to get people back to work and help turn the economic crisis around.  Below is a list of specific program funding included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which passed the House this afternoon.  NOTE: The $8 billion figure doesn't include some tax breaks or FMAP funding. 
 
Here is a link to an interactive map http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/02/compromise_map.html

Hope E. Derrick
Communications Director
Office of Congressman James E. Clyburn

34 thoughts on “Clyburn says SC to get $8 billion

  1. Lee Muller

    That’s the last thing this state needs – to have twice as much money as necessary to run the state just drop from the sky, for our children to repay to wealthy foreign bankers.
    Thank you, Mr. Clyburn. You used to remind me of Buckwheat, but now your new name is Porky, you little rascal.

  2. Lee Muller

    Obama called out on another lie
    Feb 11, 2009 … WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama says Caterpillar’s chief executive has told him the company will rehire some laid-off workers if …
    talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe-election-politics/651369-caterpillar-will-rehire-if-stimulus-passes.html – 51k – Cached – Similar pages
    Liar!
    Caterpillar CEO Contradicts President on …
    blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/doh-caterpillar.html

  3. Birch Barlow

    Wow, that’s a lot of press releases… more coming…
    Rich puts out a press release… Why Are These Bills Only Written On White Paper?
    Brad puts out a press release… Dear Democrats And Republicans, Please Kiss And Make Up Before Valentine’s Day Or I Might Cry
    Lee puts out a press release (about a quarter page in length)… My Complete List Of People I Don’t Consider To Be Socialist
    p.m. puts out a press release… $787 Billion Still Not Enough To Bailout Gamecock Athletics Program
    I only kid.

  4. Lee Muller

    Since USC is seeking this “stimulus” money, shouldn’t the president, his administration and the coaches take a big pay cut, to demonstrate their patriotism and allegiance to Obama? No coach should make more than the president of Bank of America or Morgan-Stanley.

  5. Weldon VII

    Now, Birch, for $787 billion, Carolina could buy Clemson, call it the USC-Clemson campus, and solve its football problems that way.
    One thing’s for sure. That’s the only way Carolina could ever own Clemson. 🙂

  6. Rich

    Shut up, Lee. You lost the election and the Republicans are about ready to get spanked for the next four years.

  7. Lee Muller

    Rich, we know all about your greedy Spoils System Mentality.
    I didn’t lose the election, because I wasn’t running and had no candidate in the race.
    America loses the election every time a thief like Obama or Clyburn takes office.
    Since all this money of our children is going to build new schools that are not even on the drawing boards, will the local taxpayers get a refund of their property and sales taxes that are going to pay wealthy bondholders? Of course not.

  8. Brad Warthen

    I didn’t even know Lee was IN an election, much less that he lost one…
    Or was that just a bit of partisanspeak, whereby partisans say that since you disagree with me, you are one of THOSE people, and more of MY people won the most recent election, so YOU lost because I have assigned you to that other “team.”
    Anyway, it’s hard to imagine Lee being really at home in either of the major parties. So there — Lee can’t say I never said anything nice about him.

  9. Lee Muller

    Thanks for your backhanded compliment, Brad.
    I am one of the working people who has better things to do than spend more than a few years in office. Like most people, I prefer to not associate with most of the sleazy characters who make a career of politics.
    I know you distrust that sort of true citizenship, with people taking turns actually serving for a short time in a job they don’t like, because they feel a duty.
    You and your cohorts constantly berate anyone who dares to run for office without starting a the bottom and spending their entire life becoming a more and more corrupt party stooge. Then you complain about partisanship.

  10. Randy E

    Clyburn inserted a provision so the money by-passes Sanford and goes directly districts to rebuild crumbling schools. Damn that big government stepping into the middle of a state’s right to ignore poor schools!!
    The construction in Bamberg will likely result in hiring locals who are unemployed. DAMN that Clyburn for allowing Washington to meddle in SC business.
    DAMN that Obama for sending billions on nation building!!! Now that the GOP doubled our national debt in 8 years, it’s time for fiscal responsibility!!!

  11. Lee Muller

    The Democrats ran up more debt in 2007 and 2008 when they were in control, than in the previous 8 years. They will double that debt in 2009.
    Democrats caused this recession with their wild spending on social welfare, their deregulation of banking, and their Affirmative Action mortgages for bad credit blacks and illegal aliens who could not repay the loans.

  12. Lee Muller

    The pork that Jim Clyburn brags about will do nothing to help his supporters, because the root causes of their unemployment and low earning power will not be addressed by any of the spending:
    * Drug and alcohol abuse are keeping many of them out of work.
    Add to that their other major disqualifications for employment:
    * Illiterate – 50% of them do not read or do math at an 8th grade level.
    * Drop outs. Some areas have as many as 50% of adults without a high school diploma.
    * Felony convictions. Up to 33% of males in some counties and cities.
    * Unmarried with children, making it difficult to work any job.
    * Lack of role models who do stay sober, act responsibly, go to work, save money, and get married before having children.

  13. Ralph Hightower

    Lee has a job?
    I thought that he just trolled Brad’s blog looking for any and every opportunity to post.

  14. Ralph Hightower

    Actually, incumbency is a very difficult thing to defeat; therefore Clyburn, Wilson, Graham, Demint, Barret and others have their job set for life.

  15. Lee Muller

    Term limits work for presidents, governors and boards of directors. We need a 10-year maximum of time in office for a lifetime.
    One term for Senators, 3 for Representatives.

  16. Lee Muller

    The entire deficits, 2001 through 2006, were on new social welfare programs.
    The 2001 tax cuts stimulated enough economic growth to generate sufficient tax revenues to pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and still balance the budget.
    But Democrats tried to run $600 billion deficits every year, and moderate Republicans compromised with them to run deficits of $350 billion a year.
    Then Pelosi and the Democrats gained control in 2006, and increased the debt more in the next 2 years than in the previous 6 combined.

  17. Bart

    Construction projects for new schools or renovations to old schools is a good idea but if for one moment you actually believe it will do anything to have a real impact on the local unemployment situation, think again.
    For those who do not know, the process of assembling a group of subcontractors and direct employees of a general contractor does not benefit anyone who is not already employed by a sub or general. The subs who will be used already have an employee base and most likely, Bamburg will supply very few of the subs who will be working on the new schools.
    I have been involved with this too many times before and the jobs in the construction industry that offer chances at decent jobs are those associated with home construction. That is where the local community scores, not with building schools.
    The most likely scenario will be that a construction manager will end up with the overall responsibility for the project. They will send out bid invitations with several alternatates allowing the general contractors to bid on certain segments of the contract or on the entire scope of work. There may be packages for site work, steel, concrete, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, etc. but most of the time, it ends up with one general contractor.
    The contractor on bid day receives bids from subs and suppliers from everywhere imaginable. Bidders come from several different states. Most of those involved in the school construction segment of the industry follow the projects wherever they go. They have, as I said, a core group of employees who travel with them unless they just happen to be local. The contractor usually works with suppliers of certain materials they have a long term relationship with. Other suppliers like the ones furnishing classroom materials and furniture are specialty suppliers and there are only a few across the state.
    Unless it is written into the bid requirements, anyone from anywhere can bid on a public project. Bidders for public funded projects in SC are required to follow the procurement laws of the state and the state generally does not have provisions allowing restriction of who can bid if they meet the qualifications of the state and bid documents.
    We also have another problem that manifests itself in the form of illegals working in the construction industry. It is widespread and almost impossible to control. Documentation forgeries have become so sophisticated that it is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish the real from the fake. Contractors who take advantage of the situation continue to accept bids from illegals and their bids are generally much less than others. When a contractor is bidding a project and receives the bids on bid day, a difference in price of a few thousand dollars can make the difference in winning a bid or not.
    Ultimately, the most financial impact communities receive from a school construction project unless it is in Columbia or one of the larger cities in SC, will be from local sales of good, gas, and motel accomodations. The local hardware store may see some activity when certain items are needed quickly.
    We need to upgrade and build better schools but in the end, the myth that building a school in your community will result in some sort of a major financial windfall and produce a large number of local jobs is just that, a myth.
    In Charlotte, NC, underway and planned is approximately $250 million dollars of school and school related construction projects. This includes public schools and UNCC. Of that total, $198 million is controlled by 2 contractors or construction managers. Kannapolis has the NC Research Campus with a $1.5 billion planned expansion over the next 7 years. Chances are that only two, maybe three contractors or construction managers will be hired and for the most part, they will use subs and suppliers they have worked with on other projects. We have the same situation in SC.
    Remember one thing. When all is said and done, politics will still rule the day when it comes to handing out projects and the insiders will have the advantage. And for the extremists who believe all of these contractors are Republicans, think again. For the most part, they support the Democrats with their money and votes. They understand who is in charge at the level where money decisions are made.

  18. Lee Muller

    Any project which is “shovel ready” to begin work, is a project that already had funding, and did not need federal money.

  19. Bart

    Bill C.,
    Sorry, forgot books are not your favorite thing to read. Thought people who like to understand the process might like to read about it. Anyway, if the subject was too lengthy to hold your attention, that is your problem, not mine. Ever think about taking Comprehension 101?

  20. Bart

    Brevity for Bill Cs sake.
    No need to worry about productive people getting those construction jobs if Reich and Rangel have their way.
    ‘….“I am concerned, as I’m sure many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to high-skilled people who are already professionals or to white male construction workers.”
    — Robert Reich, testimony to Congress on the proposed economic stimulus, January 7..”
    White male construction workers outside union areas are not in the majority anyway. Hmmm. Wonder why?

  21. Bill C.

    Bart, you don’t know me and you know the old saying about “assuming” something. I also noticed that you start every sentence in the middle of, or at least one or two words into, your thought process? “Ever think about taking” Hooked on Phonics?

  22. Lee Muller

    Clyburn’s attempt to bypass the legal process by declaring that legislatures can spend the federal pork money without going through their Constitutional process, needs to be blocked by legal challenge.
    Some of our legislators or the governor should sue to block all this spending until it it goes through the normal appropriations process, and is signed by the governor.
    If they won’t do it, we citizens will have to bring suit.

  23. Bart

    Bill,
    You are absolutely correct. I don’t know you and I sincerely apologize if I have offended your sensibilities, especially on the subject of sentence structure and long comments.
    The one thing I haven’t participated in on this blog is going after another for the length of their comments, spelling, or how they construct a sentence to make a point or convey a thought. But, there is always a first time.
    “Bart, do you really think “anything” is going to read…?”
    “Anything”? Were you looking for “anyone”?
    Hey, sometimes we all misspell or choose the wrong word, and post lengthy comments. I’m not here for perfection but to read comments from all sides and voice my thoughts and opinions when I choose. Even to the point of “assuming” others make the same choice.

  24. Doug Ross

    Bart,
    If Rush doesn’t say it, Bill doesn’t get it.
    I took the full 60-90 seconds to read your post and thought it covered the topic well. The problem is that it makes far too much sense for those who think the answer to every problem is taking money from X and giving it to Y.

  25. Bill C.

    Bart, yes “anything”… I have taught my dog and one houseplant how to read so “anything” is correct in my original comment.

  26. Bill C.

    Doug, who is this Rush you speak of? I hope it’s not that self-appointed, pompus, jerk-off Rush Limbaugh. At least when he was on drugs he had an excuse.
    As far as giving and taking money, did I mention that I’m against the stimulus package?

  27. Bart

    I surrender!! How can I continue to survive these barrages of sardonic wit and humor? Next time something is posted by Bill, I will definitely abstain from responding, now that he has the two sources of superior intellect in his house guiding him through his responses. I congratulate the dog and houseplant for their well chosen words.

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  29. Boom Trucks

    Saw a story yesterday about the recovery act funding in Oregon. It’s supposed to fund construction projects up there, but white males need not apply. I’m all for helping minorities but that’s kind of ridiculous. We are all in the same crappy position here. Why give one specific group a leg up? We all need the help in the construction trades. It’s just not right. How can this be legal?

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