LAMBRO: Debilitating details

Public resistance to the Democrats’ big-spending economic-stimulus bill has risen sharply as Americans continue to learn, and dislike, what they see in it.

A recent national Rasmussen poll reported that just 37 percent favor the pending plan, 43 percent are opposed, and 20 percent aren’t sure. In the last two weeks, public opposition has grown by nearly 10 percent.

A Gallup Poll now found 37 percent wanted Congress to make “major changes” in the legislation before passing it, and 17 percent wanted the plan killed because they think it is too costly and won’t work.

The so-called economic-recovery plan, which tips the scale at nearly $1 trillion (when borrowing costs are included), is the single most expensive piece of legislation in American history. It is heavy on spending and light on much-needed income-tax cuts.

But what is really turning so many citizens against this legislation is the mountain of wasteful, special-interest spending it contains.

Both the House and Senate bills were loaded with an appalling amount of pork-filled, waste-ridden giveaways that will do little to nothing to create jobs or get this economy growing again. I have reported some of the bill’s squandering, but new expenditures are found almost daily. Some of the latest in the legislation under discussion Friday:

- $25 million to build or refurbish off-road ATV (all-terrain vehicle) trails.

- $34 million to remodel the U.S. Commerce Department’s building in Washington, D.C.

- $70 million to “support supercomputing activities” for climate research.

- $20 million “for the removal of small- to medium-sized fish-passage barriers.”

- $20 million in additional Interior Department funding.

- $350 million for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to buy new computers.

- $75 million to discourage smoking.

- $650 million for wildlife management.

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