Font Resize
Speaking to the Utah County Republican Women in Provo on Monday, Sen. Bob Bennett said entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, not earmarks, are bankrupting the country.
Of course, it was just last month that the Utah Republican was chastised for setting aside $5 million in military readiness funds to produce video scrapbooks for National Guard troops. The money is slated for the Salt Lake City-based company Storyrock, which argues such records of service build morale and boost re-enlistment, thereby saving the country money.
If Bennett was feeling at all defensive last Monday, he shouldn't have been. Any audience that includes the descriptors "Utah County" and "women" probably includes several scrapbookers, and if scrapbookers know anything, it's how to hide money for our pet projects in the household budget.
Bennett's mistake was not thinking big enough. His $5 million earmark represents only 0.003 percent of the $154 billion defense operations fund. I know scrappers who pad their grocery budget by 25 percent and get away with it.
And why stop at defense? There are plenty of other areas of the federal budget where, with a little guidance, a creative senator could squirrel away money to support our ailing industry and boost the economy.
Health care reform » It's been widely reported that hospitals can save a bundle on malpractice lawsuits if doctors would simply apologize for their mistakes. Since 2002,
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, at least 3 percent of hospital admissions result in some kind of harm as the result of medical care. Based on admission stats from the American Hospital Association, that comes to about 1.1 million "adverse events" each year or, about $4.5 million worth of cards. A small earmark that could pay big dividends.
No Child Left Behind » At last count, there were about 95,600 elementary and secondary public schools in the country. What if the government paid for each to have a personal die-cutting machine? Think of the creativity it would foster in our youth, not to mention the time it would save parents working on last-minute school projects.
Provo Craft's Cricut Expression plus accessories is available for $349 on the Home Shopping Network. That's about $33.4 million. Sure, some classrooms can't afford textbooks or other readiness supplies. But, if the military can suck it up, so can schools.
Economic stimulus » Before you scoff at the idea of using federal money to bankroll a hobby, consider that, according to an obscure yet handy study published by the sociology department at Tennessee Technological University, adults who have a hobby are 6 percent more likely to rate their lives more favorably. Happy people are more likely to spend money, and 70 percent of our economy is based on consumer spending.
Plus, there is precedent. Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA) funded bridges, roads, airports -- and anywhere from 300 to 600 golf courses.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act prohibits funds from being appropriated for "any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course or swimming pool." But it doesn't say anything about scrapbooking, which, if you believe craft industry researchers, is more popular than golf.
And let's face it, scrapbooking could use the boost. Spending on crafts dropped 23 percent during the past two years, according to the latest survey sponsored by the Craft and Hobby Association. Even so, crafters still pumped $56.8 billion into the U.S. economy during the same period. Given that such studies rely on self-reporting, and given crafters' penchant for hiding the true cost of our obsession, I'd say those numbers are way low.
According to Recovery.gov, $628.3 billion of the $787 billion in stimulus has yet to be appropriated, more than enough to send each U.S. scrapbooker a check for $100. Of course, with the economy the way it is, we might just spend it on groceries.
E-mail Linda Fantin at scrapbooking@sltrib.com.
