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Open Source Study Included In US Stimulus Package
gclef writes "Buried deep in the details of the US stimulus package is an interesting provision that might go a long way toward helping Open Source software break into the medical area. It says that the Secretary of Health and Human Services should study the availability of open source health technology systems (PDF, page 488), compare their TCO against proprietary systems and report on what they find no later than Oct 1, 2010. Slashdotters may also be interested in the language that starts on page 553 of that PDF to see just what the final package says about broadband."
The stimulus plan was approved by the Senate on Friday and is expected to be signed by President Obama by Monday.
Most likely it is used to stimulate the decreasing of costs in regards to the health care.
No its not. It's just a big political grab bag for constituencies of the Democratic Party. They've been waiting for 30 years for their big federal lootfest, and now they are going to get it.
This is my sig.
One definition of pork is spending designed to stimulate the economy in a particular congress person's district. In that sense, as long the pork is evenly distributed throughout all the congressional districts then that's exactly what the US economy needs.
This is the purest bullshit I've read in a while. It should be painfully obvious to anyone with half a brain that the economy would be much better off if the government never took the money as taxes in the first place. The administrative costs alone involved in collecting and redistributing the money are astronomical. Since when does congress know better than everyone else? Here we have a group of professional whores funneling all the stolen cash they possibly can into their districts to insure re-election. The fact that they're selling it as "Stimulus" is galling.
Another definition of pork is spending that doesn't have long term economic benefits. For example, if you spend money on a road, at the end of the day you have a road to use whereas, if you spend money on exotic dancers, at the end of the day you don't have anything other than pleasant memories - and the theory goes that roads make the economy more efficient while pleasant memories don't.
Who the fuck are you, or congress for that matter, to decide how to spend my money? Sure, road building is great if it isn't an 8 lane highway to nowhere through the congressman's district. How can you say spending the cash anywhere else isn't just as valid, if not more so? If a million dollars pays the salaries of say, 25 exotic dancers, they're going to go out an buy cars and houses and food and clothing, etc.. Spend it to support something that doesn't really have a market - look at congressional funding of ethanol fuel for an example - and ultimately the money is wasted if the industry fails. And the industry WILL fail if there isn't a real market for the products.
The original stimulus bill tried hard to spend on projects that were likely to lead to long term economic efficiency (infrastructure and education). Some Republican pork (e.g. tax cuts to spend on exotic dancers) may have been included in order to get the necessary Republican votes but the original stimulus tried hard to avoid being pork.
Ah, you expose yourself as a purely partisan Obama-zombie. I'd suggest you think before you speak but using your brain doesn't seem like one of your strong points. I'm willing to give Obama the benefit of doubt with regard to the realities of what is possible, but he certainly hasn't earned a rubber stamp. Get the stars out of your eyes - this "stimulus" is basically a guarantee that the US will never get remotely close to getting out of debt - and it's your kid's money they're spending.
I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.