You knew it had to happen eventually, and all it took was a signature by President Obama on that convaluted economic stimulus package to get it started. What am I referring to here? A modern version of the Boston Tea Party; if you remember your American history, then you know what I am referring to. And the trend is spreading nationwide; let Neil Cavuto of Fox News Channel fill you in.

I can honestly say that I have never seen a money grab such as the one between all 50 states.  What I am referring to is the federal stimulus money the government is handing out to the states for various reasons.  But nonetheless, the states and cities are getting their share.  Seattle, Washington is a good example of how lawmakers and city and/or state officials argue over how the funds they receive are to be spent.

For instance, earlier this week, Washington state legislators unveiled a plan on how to spend the state government’s $341 million share of the combined $492 million in federal highway aid that will go to local and state jurisdictions.  The list, which was long on smaller projects such as road repaving and replacement of traffic cameras, didn’t include any funding for the city of Seattle.  As you’d expect, the mayor of that city complained.

And the state of Washington isn’t alone in figuring out their shares of the federal stimulus money will be spent; New York, Michigan, Florida and Missouri have those issues to deal with themselves.  But by and large Washington state is probably at the moment the state that is infighting the most.  Washington state will receive $492 million of the available $26.8 billion that comes from the stimulus package.  Of that amount, $151 million goes to local jurisdictions – including $70 million going directly to  the Seattle vicinity under a provision that sends money to metropolitan areas.

But Seattle wanted more…much more.  They were looking to get $75 million more to help fund two projects that the city claims will help create 1,300 jobs – including  the rebuilding of a congested  road called Mercer Street into a major thoroughfare which leads to Seattle’s growing South Lake Union neighborhood.  Coincidentally or not, the area is home to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a University of Washington School of Medicine research facility and some other employers.

But no matter what money goes where, Washington governor Chris Gregoire said she is working  with the Legislature to put Seattle road projects on the list of funding from the state’s share of federal money but the lawmakers said the list isn’t going to change.  As all of you who listen to The Republican Temple already know, I am dead set against this stimulus package.  But it’s here and there’s no turning back…until 2010.  Having said that, my mindset is like this:  if you know you’re getting this stimulus money, do yourself a big favor.  Plan well in advance and get your ducks lined up in a row; in other words, get your money prioritized so there’s no bitching and moaning when the funds arrive.  I mean really – how hard can that possibly be?

I’m just curious.  How can these Wall Street financial institutions manage to - with the help of their lousy management and business models – get themselves into such deep financial straits?  Citigroup is the poster child of financial ineptitude but they may have some competition as AIG, who like Citigroup got some federal bailout money, may be in line to get some more money from the government.  In other words, they’re “too big to fail”.

What could very well happen is that AIG and the government will announce pretty soon their latest plan to shore up the company based out of New York.  According to the Financial Times and based on reports from unidentified sources, the government would exchange their 80% stake in AIG for even bigger pieces of 3 units that would be spun off from the company: AIG’s Asian operations, its international life insurance business and its U.S. personal lines business.

In return for the split up of the 3 businesses, the government would either relax the terms or even cancel a portion of the $60 billion loan whcih was at the center of the $150 billion rescue package.  This proposed transaction will without a doubt put yet another financial burden on the taxpayers, but President Obama will probably approve the transaction after negotiations conclude.  Folks, if I didn’t know any better, I would say that nationalization is in our rear-view mirror and slowly gaining on us.

One thing is for certain about the liberal media – they’re sleeping with the enemy. In this case, their messiah, President Obama. Let’s get the inside skinny as author Bernard Goldberg tells my boy Glen Beck what the media is up to lately.

The Saturday news update, courtesy of Fox News Channel.

The lobbyists up in Washington continue to do what they do best – buying influence in a myriad of ways – donations to politicians’ campaigns, secret meetings and in the rare instance – bribes.  Nonetheless, their presence is felt, yet they may possibly have a challenge on their hands as President Obama marches ahead in his quest to craft health care into his vision. 

What Obama has in mind is to squeeze Medicare and Medicaid spending in order to help create a 10-year, $634 billion – that’s billion with a B – fund best described as a down payment on his quest of providing health insurance to everyone.  He intends to use $316 billion in savings from these entitlement programs; some of the savings would come in the form of scaling back payments to private insurance plans that serve older Americans.

The Republicans are opposed to the plan, as they very well should be.  Folks, what Obama has in mind is very simple – this so-called “health care reform” is just another fancy name for health coverage that is all the rage in Canada and most of Europe.  And it is called “universal health care”.  And I, for one, do not want to pay for it.  Do you?