Obama's Stimulus Package Funds Pork -- Literally!!

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is doing its part to help "stimulate" the economy:

(The USDA) purchased 760,000 pounds of ham for $1.191 million, at a cost of approximately $1.50 per pound. In terms of the dairy purchase referenced, USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) purchased 837,936 pounds of mozzarella cheese and 4,039,200 pounds of processed cheese. The canned pork purchase was 8,424,000 pounds at a cost of $16,784,000, or approximately $1.99 per pound.

According to the Recovery.gov website (rounded up nicely by Matt Drudge), these purchases amounted to nearly $30 million of food stuffs.

The USDA reports that the food will be used for distribution to local organizations that assist the needy – including food banks, food pantries, and soup kitchens. A noble goal to be sure.

But, isn't the "stimulus" money supposed to be going to help kick-start the economy? How does provid(ing) food to those hardest hit by these tough times help the economy?

Oh it does, assures the USDA:

...the purchases also provide a modest economic benefit of benefiting Americans working at food retailers, manufacturers and transportation companies as well as the farmers and ranchers who produce our food supply.

Thirty million dollars for a modest benefit to the economy? I hate to see what the Obama administration would want to evince a significant benefit. Oh yeah, $800 billion!

And you wonder why it's not working....

Immigrants Welcome to Apply for Stimulus Jobs -- Just Not Legal Ones

The massive spending packages generated by the Obama administration hold the promise of countless new jobs.

For better or worse, some of those jobs will go to illegal immigrants. According to two studies, up to 15% of the jobs will likely go to illegals.

Thankfully for them, our intrepid and brave Democratic Senators are working hard to ensure that illegals have full access to these tax-payer funded jobs.

"A lot of good people are out of work, looking for jobs," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) said. "We've got to make sure those jobs go to people who are here legally."

However, even with unemployment reaching past 8% nationally, and even higher among the "unskilled" workers who would get stimulus jobs, the Dems put passing this "imperfect" bill ahead of helping to guarantee the jobs go to U.S. workers.

Democratic leaders opposed his amendment because it would have slowed passage of the overall spending bill by requiring a second vote in the House.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he... opposes attempts to force employers to use it.

e-Verify is the federal government's own program to help employers ensure that potential employees are legally allowed to work for them. The program would have required federal contractors and sub-contractors to use e-Verify starting in May; the Democrats, always looking out for the American worker, is content to let the program shut down before then.

Federal contractors may NOT use E-Verify to verify current employees until the rule becomes effective and they are awarded a contract that includes the FAR E-Verify Clause.

Jobs for illegal immigrants is good, apparently.

However, jobs for legal immigrants, not good.

If this article from the International Herald Tribune (the Global Edition of the New York Times) is correct, banks who receive bail-out funds must "withdraw job offers to foreign citizens." Presumably, the article is referencing legal immigrants, as major banks are less likely to offer jobs to illegals (remember, the federal government contractors can hire illegals, other private companies cannot).

OK, so the Dems aren't explicitly saying that federal contractors should hire illegals, they just aren't going to help the contractors determine who is allowed to work in the U.S.

So the moral here?
Federal tax dollars to illegal immigrants = GOOD
Federal tax dollars to legal immigrants = BAD

You make sense of it; I can't.