Seeking Government Pork, especially in Fla.

Factual Questions
1

Hello all. Been some time since I have been back to the SDMB. However, I seek information and what better place to come than here where great (and not so great) minds meet?

I need information on government pork; you know, money spent on programs not really necessary, like $600,000 for the Charleston Bump in Charleston, SC (whatever that is). I’ve already prowled the CAGW website and checked some other areas and came up with something like 23 BILLION spent on programs that, in my opinion, are not necessary for the common good. (Like $150 million subsidy to major league baseball – as if they don’t make enough money with ticket prices, $5 hot-dogs and $7 beers.)

See, there is a small mental health center in my city that is being gutted by budget cuts from the parent company (New Horizons) while the main center, 25 miles away, is expanding into a huge place. Well, my city needs this center, so I have an appointment with a reporter to discuss it and 20+ legislators to contact but I want ammo to hit them with.

While we’re spending about $87 billion on the war, cutbacks are understandable, but shoveling out money for feel good or unnecessary projects is not.

Like did you know that there are scores more grants available for the American Indian than for any other minority in the US? Not just educational grants either. That the government dishes out $500 million for an agency for Salmon recovery project THAT HAS NEVER BEEN DONE?

My city does not contribute to the local homeless shelter but has millions set aside to buy up river islands and ‘ecologically sensitive’ river shore lands (which, by the way are considered prime real estate by the wealthy). The Mental Health center serves many, provides therapy, medication and takes payment on a sliding scale or through disability or Medicaid.

So anything you can locate I’d appreciate. You can e-mail me links at RikRacer12345@aol.com or post 'em here.

Like you can get money, up to $700,000 if your job has been impacted by Imports. In Boulder, Colorado, they are relocating Prairie Dogs, 1200 of them, at $100 each. Total cost so far is $120,000. Corporate welfare is still costing us billions, even though companies like Pepsi have enough money to develop overseas markets on their own.

I want ammo to hit the legislators with when my letters go out to them.

This effects you also because this wasted money could be used to help out your jobs and give you a livable wage or cost effective insurance. (A little note here: major insurance companies actually benefit from natural disasters. After the disaster, so many people buy insurance that they recover their losses in a year and make a healthy profit. Plus, lately, home owners insurance has doubled. Your $70,000 home now has to be insured for $140,000, increasing your premiums.)

Thanks all. I look foreward to your input.

Did you know that the government actually pays major landowners NOT to farm on Contaminated land? Not that they could anyhow, for the produce would be contaminated and against the law to sell.

2

Hey! We’re paying for the prarie dog deportation out of our own pockets, thank you very much! No government pork here.

Seriously, it seems you are talking about a private company here deciding to put its money elsewhere. I seriously doubt that the feds would do anything about it. You would be better off trying to get a replacement mental health center funded by the government. Appeal to your local public health agencies.

Complaining about what Native Americans receive will not help your cause.

3

Actually, the comment about the Native Americans was an observation based on the masses of grants I researched some years back when there were major listings for Blacks and Hispanics. It caught my attention because most of those other minority grants are gone while the amount for Native Americans appear to have doubled. This coming on top of several tribes creating casinos on their lands and selling tax free smokes.

New Horizons obtains funding from several government resources as well as private ones and it makes me grit my teeth when I find all sorts of feel good funding by the government for projects not designed for any form of health. I mean, many of the psychiatric medications alone cost a fortune and many disabled are beyond the monthly income of $500 where Medicaid cuts off prescription benefits. New Horizons had a co-pay for the disabled of $10 per session, which, when they out sourced their billing, jumped to $35. Now, the average mentally disabled person cannot work and gets a monthly income of anywhere between $500 to $900 a month. Some get about $200 worth of food stamps. Average rents down here are $400 a month, basic digital cable is about $70, power runs at least $95, gas is at least $1.56 a gallon and food prices are high.

Therapy and medication keeps them going and enables many of them to start back to work. The city contributes little if any to the mental health care, though we have a private mental hospital that charges quite a bit. We also have many private therapists that charge from $110 to $210 an hour, and don’t take Medicare.

I know a lot of the mentally ill and many live in conditions similar to a third world nation. I made a ‘secret’ arrangement with a grocery store to get their left over bread and give it to the salvation army and it’s gone almost as fast as I deliver it. (By secret I mean the manager gives it to me against company policy because most grocery stores now destroy left over, palatable foods. If he gets caught, he can get into trouble.) We have a government commodities hand out here once a month but you get like $10 worth of food and that gets cut each time there is an over seas disaster where the US rushes in aid and food.

In the 70s, Carter, I think, drastically cut the mental health budget and dumped hundreds of thousands of patients on the streets which started the homeless situation and we’ve been fighting ever since to correct the situation.

I’m mentally disabled. I’m a bipolar depressive, with an anxiety affective syndrome, agoraphobia and obsessive compulsive behavior and I went through 7 therapists before I got one that was helping me get back together. Now, by cutting the local clinic, I’m loosing him. My city is very wealthy, but spends most of its money creating pleasant things for the rich and is currently in a housing boom where they are building hundreds of high end homes in exclusive communities. When I became disabled after over 20 years of hard work, in order to get treatment and disability, I had to loose just about everything.

The clinic was a great thing and now it’s being cut.

This might not be a big thing to many of you, but it is to people like me and it could happen in your home towns.