“I think it’s important for all of us to have complete access and transparency with the highest amount of accountability because these are precious tax dollars,” Baldacci said in an interview.

Apparently, the rest of our tax dollars are available for Baldacci to squander as he sees fit.

As someone who is disabled, a payment of $250 is not going to improve my life any. If it was $250 more a month, that would be different!

its extra dont whine Fledgeling

70 MILLION FOR FOOD STAMPS?...I would love to see how this figure actually breaks down when DHS get a hold of it.

Let's wait six months and the Baldacci administration will probably have no accountability for where the money went...but I hope I'm wrong with this prediction.

These dollars will be wasted after it funnels thru the state agencies....It will interesting how much the hospitals really get in this deal..It could be another lie by gov as he promised in his last campaign to pay the debt and never did it.. The hospitals were duped and will be duped again...transparency and accountability has not been part of the Baldacci Administration so i don't expect that to change...The state still needs to cut spending or we will be back in the soup in 1 year...

I tend to agree with you, Govt2Big, as our tax dollars keep going into Augusta at an increasing rate but yet our budgets for schools and towns keep getting cut. Where does that money go? As far as the project for I-295...I though that was over with? Completed before the deadline is what I remember reading in the newspaper....are we now going to line the highway with gold? Job creation is what is needed the most. That way people collecting unemployment can go back to work and people on welfare (if they are able to) can also get a job to have a better quality of life. With the way life is right now....I would be happy if they gave me $100. That would help alot. People should learn to be grateful for what they have as others don't have anything through no fault of their own. We the People should make sure through our legislators that the money is spent where it is needed..not where Government wants it. Kevin Raye of Perry is a smart person to make sure that happens. Now we just wait and see.....

Most of the "stimulus" money is going to shore up welfare and related social service programs and to pay off on broken promises made by our democratic leadership in Augusta. Roads all over the state are in complete disrepair, and Baldacci wants to spend $35 million on a stretch of road that is, by all accounts, in way better shape than those being ignored. Our grandchildren will be paying on this crappola, so hopefully they appreciate all the good we accomplished in 2009!

This is great...I have watched and listened to Bush bashing in here for years. We're seeing how little power the president really has. The democratic Congress that we have had for years has done a bang up job. . Now the Dems have it all and i'm sitting back watching and laughing my a$$ off. When you sit down to your Oddles of Noodles toniight tip your hat to Nancy ans Harry for me. If the demoracts needed a model how how well their political idealalogy works they should have taken a look at Maine. The past 15 years of Maines Liberal policies should be an eye opener to the rest of the world on WHAT NOT TO DO.

Where are the new jobs? Jobs not temporary work.Drill for oil and secure the borders!

The professional welfare collectors must be jumping for joy just about now.

BALDY is on his perch waiting to pounce upon any money he sees....

I'd like to receive another $1,500 in funds. I'm not disabled, retarded or qualify for any of the states programs but by god if I don't get $1,500 or a better job I will have to march down to Augusta myself.

I tell you what the new jobs are gonna be LEFTME... call center jobs (a whole 2 part-time jobs opening up) for state offices

rest of the money is gonna fund DirigoHealthCare2000+1

Where do these billions of stimulus dollars come from? This will just make things worse in the long run.

BALDY will probably (like I said) send all the money to the dirigohealth program,....

can anyone say PorkBarrel spending?

anyone?

Bueller?

Bueller?

Oh wait the stock market is still crashing - sigh big help Obammhud

Does anyone know if we the tax payers are getting any sort of stimulus check like we did last year?

RussHermon, read it again 116 million for food stamps, ridiculous... I thought Obama said this bill was going to create jobs; not make finding a job unnecessary.

Get ready for a population explosion as more and more dead-beats move to Maine to take advantage of our ridiculous welfare system. Maybe I need to go out on SSDI claiming a social anxiety disorder, if you can't beat em join em. If anyone is going to take advantage of the system and live off my tax dollars; it may as well be me.

theczarofpenquis...........you are so lucky that I do not know who you are i.e. "I'm not disabled, retarded...." I would make sure you were permantly disabled after I was done with you ................everbody knows you are thekingofmaine.................LOSER!!!!!!!

I will mark myself as inappropriate to spare others the trouble.....but, i can't stand that guy...............................

unlockautism....ignore the old man in the balcony making inappropriate comments....anyhow, what is crazey is the news from the Big Auto Makers....how much did they get from Bushy's initial bailout billions?? and now two of them (GM & Chrysler) want billions more and their long term goals are to decrease Jobs!! They want another handout and plan to eliminate thousands of jobs...totally not right....I am thinking that I heard a report about the auto worker's unions and re-negotiations regarding salaries to help out their employers....these companies cannot continue to suck money out of our pockets and then not be held accountable......stop the nonsense....

If you listen to the reports reference GM and Chrysler you will notice that Chrysler has reached agreement with the UAW to accept concessions whereas the UAW has not reached any agreement with GM. The auto workers will have no to thank but the UAW when they loose their jobs. Looking at how much money the state is getting for welfare programs and the poor you can now see why the RINOs from Maine (Snowe/Collins) voted for this stimulus package. I still don't see where the 4 million jobs are going to come from. Not everyone is a construction worker.

Will anyone in Caribou Maine see any of this money? That is besides the Collins family tree?

Gee, $130 million, that's hardly anything to stimulate this State. We spend $88 million on ONE bridge, $65 million for ONE school project, and what did that court house in Bangor set us back????? Liberals make everything sound so great...........Let's go back and tell Washington we need more. Let's bankrupt the Govn't then we will all be on the same page.

unlockautism, Don't let that pathetic little boy get to you. We all know he is a sad, lonely little boy. He doesn't get any sympathy from me at all. I am going to look at my daughter's yearbook to see if I can figure out who he is.. BDN really needs to find a way to permantly ban that fool.

I really can't believe some people think this is a good thing. The state needs to reject any and all illegal and immoral federal bailout money. The bailout/handout is a farse and it will not work...it can't work. Printing and borrowing money will not solve our problems. If the state accepts any of this money there will be strings attached as with any federal or government funds and more of our states rights will be eroded, unconstitutionally i might add, and the feds will continue to gain power. Please educate yourselves about central economic planning, fractional reserve banking, the illegal federal reserve, and the constitution.

We are just Stealing From The Kids !

Robert Shaffer of Guilford, Maine said it Best, now Pay Attention Here !

(Bangor Daily News 2/14/09)

"After nearly two full terms as treasury secretary to FDR during the Great Depression,

Henry Morgenthau admitted: “We have tried spending money; we are spending more than

we have ever spent before and it does not work. I want to see this country prosperous.

I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat.

We have never made good on our promises.”

After eight years of this administration, we have just as much unemployment as when we started,

and an enormous debt to boot. Obama’s “New Deal” will not work any better than the old one did.

Every dollar lawmakers pump into the economy must first be Taxed or Borrowed — and so

pumped Out of the economy. Moving money from one pocket to another does not stimulate anything.

Any borrowed money not spent specifically on capital improvements will have No effect on

future prosperity other than Inflation. And only 8 percent of this spending occurs in budget year 2009,

and only 41 percent occurs in the first two years.

The time to stimulate the economy is when it is on its back, not years down the road.

This is Not a stimulus bill. It is a Generational Theft Act ! "

.

So all the deadbeat junkies get a $250.00 check but all the actual working people get to see a $400.00 tax break spread over 12 months. This is fair how?

Prepare for the inflation tsunami.

Would someone be kind enough to pay my fuel and food bill this month? reason being I have to save a little more money so I can assist the welfare recipients again so they don't go without!! Go To Work like we do and earn money, pay taxes and buy only what you can afford That's how we were raised and I'm damn proud of it!

Right on TImmie.

The state of maine sounds like a good place to live if you dont have a job.

Of the coporations, by the corporations, for the corporations-let the rest of them eat cake.

where do I sign up for benefits. also need a baby bottle and a wallly pop :D

Timmie, you are 100% correct. I just wonder if all these Obamaites will blindly go down on the bankruptcy ship with their leaders. This bill does not create more than a handful of meaningful jobs and the rest is just pork payback for all the liberals that helped elected the Obamassiah. If the gov't wanted to create jobs with the $800 billion dollars then they could have given 800 companies $1 billion dollars each. How many jobs do you think this would have created, but alas as you will find out, that was not the intent of this bill? How long will the American people continue to be mushrooms and continue to let the gov't be the great popper that just continually without any care poops on all us mushrooms? Just imagine if a Maine company were given $1 billion dollars, how many jobs would this have created. But once again, we have allowed our representatives to flush billions of dollars down the toilet that will lead to nowhere. We had better wake up and hold our representatives feet to the fire or we ALL will be walking around with "WILL WORK FOR FOOD" signs around our neck.

Maybe the "ibs" are busy with other things. I just have had time to read it at 5:30 PM. Perhaps they also like a bit more balance than all the complete negativity here. But whatever...

StewieGriffin: I do not believe their will be any actual check sent to most people; except those on just Social Security ($250, I think.)

Rather, a reduction in taxes in your employment check - $400 for individual, $800 for a family.

I am not making any evaluations or opinions about that here. Just answering your question.

This country is in a mess......economically.....and Obama inherited it. There are so many competing ideas for what is to be done; where the money should be spent; there is little agreement. It is going to take a long time to get out of this hole.

O'BamaFare. The system sucking welfare scum will have a field day spending that $70,000,000 worth of food stamps on steak and lobster..

Anyone see the poll? 82% think they won't benefit from the money.. 18% think they will benefit.... bet those 18% work in Augusta. I may get $250 because I get a veterans disability check. I could sure use it. Or at least Bangor Hydro could use it. By the way I don't think I am on welfare.. I don't get any food stamps... or fuel assistance... or anything other than the veterans pension... which I figure I earned.

Has anyone else noticed that Collins has aged about 10 years in the last month?!

She needs lipstick,You put enough paint on an old barn son and she might look somewhat better.

Jesus was sold out for a few pieces of silver. It took almost one billion dollars to buy our senators. I guess that's what 2000 plus years of inflation will do.

I agree that were just gonna throw more $ at lazy welfare bums put more food on their tables,where are the decent paying jobs?Baldacci's gonna screw us yet again,at least its our grandchildren and greatgrandchildren that will pay the tab for this bull$hit,not us,thank god.

I'm glad i work 40+ hours weekly so pillheads can get their meth fix and trampstamps to trade for more pills....

gah

i actually had more to say, but im too disgusted by this whole bs plan that just passed.......

A lot of miserable sounding people here....oh well, hopefully better days are coming for you. You need to get out and work for your party....instead of just complain. Sounds like some of the Republican Governors are saying they will not accept their share of the stimulus for their states. Let's see if they really stick to that and how far it gets them!!

PORK

BARREL

"President Barack Obama on Wednesday pledged up to $275 billion to help stem a wave of home foreclosures that sparked the US financial meltdown..." I read these sentences, and I want to go off on tangents explaining them and how they're wrong and all that, but let me stick with the elements here. "The plan not only helps responsible homeowners on the vernal of defaulting, but prevents neighborhoods and communities from being pulled over the edge, too, according to a summary of the plan that Obama is delivering" now. Now, here's what Reuters says: "It aims to help four million to five million responsible homeowners to refinance and another three million to four million by lowering the risk of imminent default with a $75 billion Homeowner Stability Initiative that will help reduce their monthly payments."

Now, let's just wait 'til he is finished. We're rolling tape on this, and we'll have the definitive word when he's finished with his presentation out there. I want to focus on the $75 billion. Reuters says it's nine million families. Let's round it off and make it ten. The New York Times says we're talking about ten million who are not going to get help, three to four million who are. So we've got a disparity here of 13 to 14 versus nine or ten. But regardless, let's use the nine million number. What do you think the total mortgage, what do you think the payoff for these people's mortgage would be, max number? These people didn't go out and buy $2 million houses. They're buying houses that are, what, $500,000, $400,000, $700,000, three and four hundred thousand, people who could never afford it. You figure they're in that range, okay? So let's use $300,000.

Ninety-nine percent of the bailout families need about $300,000 to completely pay off a mortgage. I did a little research on this. Some friends of mine, they would need only $160,000 to be out of their mortgage and the equity loan we got for remodeling the house, and they're not in Group One. These are people in Group Two. Seventy-five billion dollars and nine million people are gonna... Let's up it to 500. Brian, do the math. And every time I do this, we get it wrong. I don't care who I ask to do the math, it always ends up wrong, and I get scientists and mathematic people sending me e-mails with the correction. I need nine million times 300,000. I'm sure some of you wizards out there are doing this in your head, and you have come up with the number. What I do know is, it ain't going to be $75 billion. Whatever this bailout is going to cost, it is not going to be $75 billion.

This is what I was talking about yesterday when I said that the states and the federal government have boatloads of money. It's just being spent in wasteful, stupid ways that nobody ever questions. You just say, "Okay, we're going to bail out, what, nine million people? Well, that's wonderful. We don't want people to suffer, Mr. Limbaugh. We want people to have a fair shot, just like you have. It's been unfair, Mr. Limbaugh, that you've been able to acquire so much, and so many people have so little. So what we're going to do, is the only fair thing to do." All right, fine. Nine million mortgages, $300,000. I still don't have the number! It's called a calculator. Twenty-seven plus 11 zeros. I'm going to do this myself. I've got three people working on this. (interruption) It's 2.7 trillion? (sigh) Well, this just makes it even more ridiculous if that's like the right number

A summary of the housing bailout that Iseenow refers to can be found at the link below. As the excerpt indicates, the hard-working taxpayers who bought houses they could afford will be responsible for bailing out the people who chose to live beyond their means.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/HomeFinancing/will-the-housing-bailout-help-you.aspx

"The Obama program concentrates on affordable monthly payments, with TAXPAYERS and lenders sharing the costs of reducing interest rates and principal to an amount that borrowers can actually repay. The lender would first be responsible for bringing down interest rates so that a borrower's monthly mortgage payment was no more than 38% of pretax income. The Obama program would match further reductions in interest payments dollar for dollar with the lender to bring that percentage down to 31%. Lenders will also be able to bring down monthly payments by reducing the principal owed on the mortgage, with TAXPAYERS sharing that cost, too."

You're so right, JoeSixPack. What kind of message does this send to those of us who didn't buy more house than we could afford, who have never been late with a mortgage payment?

http://www.resistnet.com/