It looks as if stimulus funds from Obama’s $787 billion dollar Recovery and Reinvestment act may be going to one of the liberal’s favorite causes: porn. Stimulus funds porn to the tune of $80 million dollars, money that was granted to the National Endowment for the Arts.
Nob Hill, San Francisco
The National Endowment for the Arts was given $80 million dollars to give to “starving artists” all over the country. Some of their choices leave a lot to be desired. Taxpayer stimulus funds are going to bankroll Saturday night pervert revues, a kinky pornographic horror film in San Francisco, and simulated sex-dances, not starring Erin Andrews. From FoxNews:
“When you spend so much money in a short amount of time … you’re going to have nonsense like this, and that’s why the stimulus should never have been done in the first place,” said David Williams, vice president for policy at Citizens Against Government Waste.
I promise, no ridiculous joke about this “actually being” a stimulus package; all in all its been pretty good for conservatives since Obama was elected. We have our tax dollars currently funding porn, and if Obamacare is passed, our tax dollars will fund abortions. Not bad.
Stimulus funds porn sounds like the title of, well, a bad porn; but its reality under this Administration. While the President is out sipping beer at photo ops, Pelosi constituents are watching kinky horror movies courtesy of you and me.
Obama promised us that the Stimulus funds would create jobs and get the economy moving again. The only thing it seems to be moving is one week jobs in Oregon and perverts in San Francisco; just another outrageous story of government waste with liberals taking advantage of it. Stimulus funds porn, thank you Mr. President.
Obama Stimulus Speech
July 30th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
I wish a reporter at obama’s next press conference would have the balls to ask him if he was aware of this, and if not, what is his opinion of this money with relation to stimulating the damn economy? I said this man is going to destroy this country before he’s through and I guarantee he will. Every week there will be another blunder and he is going to go down as the worst president in American history, not accomplishing anything positive and destroying anything he touches or attempts to do!
Just a little side note, obama as we know is blaming everything on Republicans for this fiscal crisis, but was anyone aware that in 2005 one of his first acts as a Senator was to stand in the way of the Republicans trying to prevent this crisis? Republicans attempted reforms to reign in Fanny Mae & Freddy Mac in 2005 and obama signed onto Chris Dodd’s fillibuster to stop it. He will point his finger and say, “The Republicans have some nerve trying to be fiscally responsible after they put us here in the first place”, but he will not tell you he agreed to fillibuster the Republicans when he was a Senator and they tried to prevent this from happening.
July 31st, 2009 at 4:52 am
This is exactly what happens when people in congress don’t read the bills they send out.
July 31st, 2009 at 4:56 am
Eh, who cares. It’s actually probably one of the most profitable possible uses of stimulus cash.
The problem is the stimulus package in the first place, not this. I don’t see any actual figures in the post, but my guess is that the amount of money going to this is minuscule.
July 31st, 2009 at 6:05 am
A lot of people care Rhayader, and it really doesn’t matter how much money is spent on Porn or abortions.
If taxpayer moneys is spent on one abortion it’s too many. If taxpayer money is spent on one smutty magazine or piece of “art” it’s too much.
It’s just the principle of the matter, not the amount.
July 31st, 2009 at 6:05 am
Duh. It’s called stimulus money. Am I missing something here?
July 31st, 2009 at 6:41 am
Are you seriously comparing porn to abortions?
Not even close to the same thing. Chill out a little bit and let adults be adults for Bob’s sake.
July 31st, 2009 at 6:53 am
Rhayader, if you want to say 80 million dollars isn’t alot of money compared to $787 billion I agree but that doesn’t change the fact that it is STIMULUS MONEY and it is being misused. If you add that to the $700 million for the Mustang Act, and additional projects that do not stimulate the economy you end up with alot more wasteful spending than $80 million. It all adds up. Approximately $67.4 billion of the $787 billion dollars has already been spent and did nothing for the economy. Only 5% of the money is going for the infrastructure. See Karl Rove explain it at http://www.foxnews.com/hannity/index.html On the left side of the screen you will see a small picture of Karl Rove under the heading President Obama’s Economy “Over-Promised and Under-Delivered”.
July 31st, 2009 at 7:23 am
@Ron: $80 million is the total amount given to the National Endowment for the Arts. Like I said above, no figures are provided to tell us what percentage of that $80 million actually went to fund “Saturday night pervert revues”.
My guess is it’s incredibly small. It certainly isn’t $80 million going to funding Porn production.
July 31st, 2009 at 7:40 am
Ok, but either amount, the $80 million total for National Endowment for the Arts or the portion going to porn is a waste, no matter how you cut it. The $787 billion was supposed to be to STIMULATE THE ECONOMY…and it is going to special intrest groups in mostly democrat districts, with the original purpose of the money being forgotten. That’s why this mess isn’t improving and will not begin to improve until January 20, 2013. There are many projects receiving stimulus money that are not going to stimulate the economy. Add them up and you have billions of dollars in wasteful spending. Like I said, only 5% of the stimulus money is going to infrastructure. That is where 80% of the money should go. Alot more long-term jobs would be created repaving a major expressway or bridge as opposed to building a quarter mile nature walk that will only create 5 jobs for a month.
July 31st, 2009 at 7:49 am
Well like I said in my first post, I think the Stimulus in general was a terrible idea that should never have gotten off the ground. That general truth is more meaningful than any specific instance of wasteful or inappropriate spending.
I was just saying that this is an infinitesimally small drop in the bucket. The opinion Shannon expresses in the post is not so much a question of spending money, but of upholding some arbitrary idea of obescenity/social propriety. She’s positioning it as part of a larger culture war, not as a significant economic drain.
Also, not that this justifies the stimulus package, but like I said above there are few businesses as robust and profitable as good old fashioned adult entertainment.
July 31st, 2009 at 7:59 am
Drudge is reporting that the recession is twice as bad as economist thought. Ouch.
July 31st, 2009 at 8:02 am
The stimulus was a bad idea, but now we have been stuck with this appropriation so naturally people are going to want to see what the government is doing with their money. That’s just the reality of the situation.
I believe Shannon has a point though, as the stimulus money is related to the culture war, and majority democrats are the ones spending it, therefore one must ask oneself, “on what?” The stimulus money ultimately does lead to a larger culture war.
The porn business is one of the most profitable business in history, no doubt about it, so why throw it even a dime when it isn’t hurting and self-sufficient to begin with?
July 31st, 2009 at 8:19 am
Well if that’s the case, I certainly hope that no spending will go toward building prisons, lending to military contractors, drug testing employees, excluding immigrants, etc etc etc. If we’re gonna make this about the culture war, then let’s go ahead and do it.
Also, I just hit the link Shannon provides above. What we’re talking about here is $50k being given to the Frameline Film House. Fifty thousand. Used not to directly fund production of anything, but to help the theater pay employees and remain in operation — you know, like everything else given to the NEA. Should we be dictating what products and services businesses are allowed to provide if we give them stimulus money? If so, why not just buy up the business and have the government run it?
This is a non-story.
July 31st, 2009 at 9:02 am
No, no money should go to anything based upon culture warfare. I am only saying that the money should strictly go where the economy will benefit the most and the NEA isn’t one of those places. Like I said, the infrastructure is the best place to spend the money. Illegal immigrants should not receive stimulus money either.
Any money spent unwisely, even $50k is not what the money was intended to be spent on. Being petty and knit-picking the issue is a waste of time, just use the money to stimulate the economy, get the most “bang for the buck”, and don’t put it towards wasteful spending, nothing more needed to be said.
July 31st, 2009 at 9:10 am
Would infrastructure spending really be all that much better? Why is that specific area of spending more likely to stimulate the economy — the stated goal of this stupid thing — than other businesses?
I would consider worrying about $50k to be a perfect example of “being petty and knit-picking the issue”.
July 31st, 2009 at 9:19 am
Rhay; at best infrastructure spending provides jobs for 6 months to a year, then the projects are all compete and those folks are all out of jobs again. This is why this Keynesian stuff is all mythology. The only way to stimulate the economy is to give the folks more money in their pockets, this is done through tax cuts. You want to stimulate the economy, eliminate the capital gains tax, the recession would be over and the DOW would be back at 12 k.
July 31st, 2009 at 9:21 am
Yeah Ron was the one advocating infrastructure spending, I was just asking what was so great about it. I’m with you.
July 31st, 2009 at 10:04 am
Infrastructure spending does not stimulate the economy, due to the long lead times to create the projects. Even the “shovel ready” projects have long lead times after bidding. I work in the industry so I know a little about it.
The best stimulus would have been a 6 month income tax/FICA holiday and put the $2 Trillion deficit into the hands of the people who would either spend it or invest it. The only problem is that once Joe Six-pack and his wife got a load of the governments take, it would be the end of the income tax AND the beast called Big Government
July 31st, 2009 at 10:06 am
I say thank goodness Obama has saved the Porn industry. Porn stars contribute so much to all of America. Barry is working very hard spreading his stimulus package to us all. In the end though we will all full we have been rode hard and put away wet.
Bully for Obama. I say we just make him POTUS for life.
Idiots.
July 31st, 2009 at 11:19 am
I actually think we do need an infrastructure overhaul. However, these projects are not a short-term stimulus. This would be like Ike trying to have the interstate highway system built in a year. It can’t be done.
It is virtually impossible to get most projects off the ground in short order because of all the red tape involved and worse yet, if you go too fast, fraud gets into the system because there are insufficient checks.
July 31st, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Well I think we seriously need to regulate washington and the powers they have. Now we really should have a line-item-veto to eliminate all of the wasteful spending in Congress. I mean people in Congress don’t care they just want more pork in there districts to win reelection. Now I’m opposed to one part of it and that’s is the increase in presidential power. If I was in charge I would have a line-item-veto, a Fair Tax, balanced budget amendment, and make it so the government can only put the Fair Tax at 30%.
July 31st, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Well I think we seriously need to regulate washington and the powers they have.
Hah, we already tried to do that with a little document called the Constitution. Doesn’t appear to have worked, unfortunately.
July 31st, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Rhayader:
Well I think we need to increase regulation in washington. Yet you are right about one thing and that’s these people are blood sucking lawyers who will find a loop hole for everything. I mean when it comes to 2012 I’ll vote for the one who’s not a blood sucking lawyer, because that’s the only way were going to follow the Constitution,fix our economy, and balance the budget. All these people in Congress don’t know how to fix the simplest of problems, because there answer to not having money for bills is print more money. Well anyway we have to have a limit to how much we can tax people and a balanced budget amendment.
July 31st, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Yeah these guys have absolutely no interest in reining themselves in. There is actually a bill out there — the Enumerate Powers Act — that has been proposed (and failed) every single year since the mid 90’s. The basic gist of the bill is that any legislative action by Congress needs to be justified by showing constitutional authority for such a move.
But, of course, the bill gets virtually zero support. Our government has absolutely no interest in following the narrow scope defined in the Constitution. They want as much power and money as possible, pure and simple. Until we can force them to wake up and smell the law, I don’t see much changing.
Yeah 2012 I am probably gonna vote 3rd party — libertarian most likely. Unless the GOP gets Gary Johnson up on the podium, which is not a realistic possibility.
July 31st, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Sorry, there is zero chance Gary Johnson will get the nomination, Ron Paul even thinks that guy has no shot. The GOP sucks balls, but the alternative is so much much worse. I used to be like you Rhayader, screw the GOP because they screw us so much. Now I just pray that people like Al Franken don’t get elected.
Speaking of which, anyone see Franken get pissed at T Boon Pickens today? Apparently he’s still bitter at him for the Swift Boat crap. Dude, relax, you guys won, it’s over.