Constitution? We don't need no constitution....

This week Venezuela's president,Hugo Chavez, won a referendum to remove the term limits from Venezuela's constitution. If you are going to so blatantly disregard a constitution ,why have it in the first place? Venezuela is on track to becoming a socialist country and Chavez is set to be president for life. In the end Venezuela's people are the ones who will suffer. Socialism has never worked well so what makes Chavez think he can fix it ? Whenever we look back at the lives of people in socialism vs capitalism ,the people who live in a socialist state always have much lower quality of life. In my opinion Chavez is crazy and power-hungry. Hopefully someone will put him in his place before he goes to far.

Obama's stimulus package

I read through a breakdown of Obama's Tax plan and the overwhelming majority of the plan appears to be waste. Here is the breakdown:

Health Care: $150.1 billion

Education, Science and Technology: $132.6 billion

• $41 billion to local school districts through Title I ($13 billion), IDEA ($13 billion), a new School Modernization and Repair Program ($14 billion), and the Education Technology program ($1 billion);
  
• $39 billion to local school districts and public colleges and universities distributed through existing state and federal formulas;
  
• $15.6 billion to increase the Pell grant by $500;
  
• $15 billion to states as bonus grants as a reward for meeting key performance measures;
  
• $10 billion for science facilities, research, and instrumentation;
  
• $6 billion to expand broadband internet access so businesses in rural and other underserved areas can link up to the global economy;
  
• $6 billion for higher education modernization.

Energy and Environment: $104 billion

• $32 billion to transform the nation's energy transmission, distribution, and production systems by allowing for a smarter and better grid and focusing investment in renewable technology;
  
• $31 billion to modernize federal and other public infrastructure with investments that lead to long term energy cost savings;
  
• $19 billion for clean water, flood control, and environmental restoration investments;
  
• $16 billion to repair public housing and make key energy efficiency retrofits;
  
• $6 billion to weatherize modest-income homes

Unemployment Compensation: $63 billion

Transportation: $40 billion

• $30 billion for highway construction;
  
• $10 billion for transit and rail to reduce traffic congestion and gas consumption.

Misc: $29 billion

• $25 billion to states for other high priority needs such as public safety and other critical services, which may include education;
  
• $4 billion for state and local law enforcement funding.

Tax cuts : $275 Billion

Foreign Aid : $40 Billion

A better use for the $150 Billion to be used for health plans would be to shred the money up and compost it into soil. At that point we could plant crops into that soil. If the money-soil proves to have enough nutrients, we could use it to replace lost top soil.

The $132 Billion which will be spent on education is not as wasteful as the healthcare money , but certainly we need to cut down the education funding and increase the science funding. The Pell grant increase is wasteful.

The $104 Billion in energy spending is not being put to the right use. Restructuring our energy grids is not as important as funding clean energy programs/technology. The 22 Billion being spent to renovate houses is a barrel of pork.

The next part of the plan is $63 Billion in unemployment benefits. This is one of the reasons why I really didn't like Obama at first. Our nation is in a time of crisis, the focus should be to revitalize the economy not to print money and then incinerate it in a furnace. The money spent does little to help our economy in any significant way.

The $40 Billion being spent on transportation improvement is a good idea ,but is really not necessary in time of deep recession.

The 25 Billion being spent on "high priority needs " is unclear so I am unable to make a comment on it.

The next part of the plan is $275 Billion in tax cuts. This is a sensitive issue due to the issue of implementation. The tax cuts should be very specific such as cuts for people who buy homes. Tax cuts should only be used if the cut significantly improves home sales or other economic issues.

The biggest waste of the entire plan is $40 Billion in foreign aid. This money might as well be sent into space or burned. Actually that would be great. $40 Billion less money means less inflation. Why should we , when we are in a crisis be helping other nations? If we weren't in a crisis this might not be so outrageous.

Overall the plan is wasteful ,but with some reorganization the money spent could be put to the use of restarting our stagnating economy.