Sarah Abramsky writes in”America on $195 A Week”:

“In 2004, a year in which Wal-Mart reported $9.1 billion in profits, the retailer’s California employees collected $86 million in public assistance, according to researchers at the University of California-Berkeley. Other studies have revealed widespread use of publicly funded health care by Wal-Mart employees in numerous states. In 2004, Democratic staffers of the House education and workforce committee calculated that each 200-employee Wal-Mart store costs taxpayers an average of more than $400,000 a year, based on entitlements ranging from energy-assistance grants to Medicaid to food stamps to WIC—the federal program that provides food to low-income women with children.”

And I thought it was welfare queens that were the problem.

Bob Hohler reports in the Boston Globe that as a result of the ongoing “athletic arms race, “that the highest salaries at many higher educational institutes do not go to presidents and top professors, but those running athletic programs.

In their defense coaches point to the revenue that their programs generate to universities, but as one commenter notes,

“the math used in this article is misleading to the point of being dishonest. Yes, UCONN and BC sports “generate” a lot of cash. But, that is “gross revenue”, to get at the real “income” [or loss] you have to subtract the cost of building those coliseums and palaces that big time programs “require”, the salaries of not only the big time coach, but all the assistants, tutors, PR people, trainers, airfares, hotel bills, etc.”

Recognizing that the country is in serious condition, three Senators - Snow, Collins and Spector  - worked to eliminate $110 billion of unnecessary spending from the stimulus bill. More could have been done to craft a bill that would create jobs. But rather than stand with these Senators and offer solutions, the fellow members of their party are going to get tough on them;

“Republican senators are on notice,” Scott Wheeler, the executive director of The National Republican Trust PAC said. “If they support the stimulus package, we will make sure every voter in their state knows how they tried to further bankrupt voters in an already bad economy.”

Limiting spending is always a good idea, but playing pure, childish politics during a crisis is another. And where was this fellow and all his friends for the last eight years, or even the last six months  when “their” President was leading the candy land giveaway.

As for the rest of the Republican party, they know the difference between right and wrong. They are continuing to fight the good fight for all Americans - through the time honored traditions of obstruction and fundraising!

“Sweden…had a problem like this. They took over the banks, nationalized them, got rid of the bad assets, resold the banks and, a couple years later, they were going again. So you’d think looking at it, Sweden looks like a good model. Here’s the problem; Sweden had like five banks. We’ve got thousands of banks. You know, the scale of the U.S. economy and the capital markets are so vast and the problems in terms of managing and overseeing anything of that scale, I think, would — our assessment was that it wouldn’t make sense. And we also have different traditions in this country,” - Barack Obama.

Source: Daily Dish