Why not fund soup kitchens instead!

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which goal is to stop the U.S. economy from worsening passed the House in late January but now faces severe cuts in the Senate that could render the purpose of the bill ineffective.

Before lending their support to the bill, some key Senators from both parties have proposed cutting $40 billion set aside in the House version of the bill for aid to state and local governments.

Funding without a doubt that Florida could utilize to deal with its $2.3 billion budget shortfall and Franklin County to address its mounting fiscal concerns. Not to mention funding the City of Apalachicola could use to put toward much needed infrastructure improvements, such as expanding sewer services to areas of the city without such services.

State and local governments want be the only ones to suffer due to Congress inability to work together to repair the failing economy. In addition, slated for cuts are funding proposed for education, which includes $85 billion for school construction and another $19 billion for teacher salaries and for intuitions of higher learning. With the United States falling behind other countries in education, one would think that funding such would be a priority.

However, the intent of the stimulus is to infuse the national economy with new cash in order to save jobs, and prevent the necessity for further cuts in local services or increases in local taxes. If the legislation currently under consideration by Congress fails to meet these objectives, then don’t pass it.

As an alternative, Congress could consider passing a bill that funds the construction of homeless shelters, complete with state of the art soup kitchens and additional prisons for the people that the shelters have to turn away.

At the rate things are going, I’m sure we are going to need them.