Economics and Investing:

F.G. sent this: Restaurants on the Ropes

Thanks to for this link: Airlines adjust as demand slides. “Nevertheless, IATA expects passenger yields to fall by 7% this year and cargo yields to decline 11%” The manufactures also expect fewer orders for planes.

Also from F.G. comes this Wall Street Journal piece: Retailers Flee a Dying Detroit

KAF flagged this: U.S. likely to lose AAA rating: Prechter

Items from The Economatrix:

German Newspaper Article Thinks [Ponte Chiaso] Bonds May Be Real.

Timeline of Events and Updates as they Happen

Weisenthal Talks the $134.5 Billion Bond Seizure on Glenn Beck Treasury: Can’t comment because of on-going investigation.

Asian Stocks Drop on NY Manufacturing, Commodity Prices

Oil Below $70 on Dollar Gain, Equity Market Drop

Wall Street Sees Worst Day in a Month

California Puts 90-Day Hold on Foreclosures

Long Beach May Inbound Cargo Down 22%, Outbound Off 26%

Projection: It Will Be Years Before Jobs Return To Much of the US

Bond Volatility and Interest Rate Swaps “This China story was intended to mask the real events, to blame them in part for the US bond instability, and to divert attention away from a potentially important threat. Not only has the housing market stalled, with new mortgages and refinanced loans hitting a brick wall. The other major threat is to the Interest Rate Swap, those powerful credit derivative contracts that tie together the bond world in complex knitting. The instability of US Treasurys on the long maturity (10-year & 30-year) and on the short maturity (so far just the two-year) will surely unleash great firestorms of disruption, heavy losses, and raging fires for the big banks. It is next! It will be the greater second chapter to the Credit Default Swap opening salvo. Twice as many IRSwaps exist than CDSwaps, a story that bankers refuse to discuss.”

GM’s Deal Erased Many Average American’s Savings

US Credit Card Defaults Rise to Record Level in May

Hedge Funds in Cayman Islands Withdraw from UK Banks

Odds ‘n Sods:

Heather H. sent this: A ‘time bomb’ for world wheat crop

   o o o

Gordon sent a link to a video clip on the enormous Cold War bunker beneath the Greenbriar Hotel.

   o o o

Shelf Reliance (one of our advertisers) is giving away a Harvest 72″ food rotation system in a free drawing. Visit the Shelf Reliance blog to enter. The Harvest 72″ is valued at $459 and can hold up to 600
cans, making it perfect for a healthy food storage supply. The winner will be announced on Friday, June 26th.

   o o o

Greg C. sent us the link to this Wall Street Journal piece: Imagine Breaking Up The United States

   o o o

Three gun rights articles, first from Paula: Gun Rights Groups Plan State-By-State Revolt, several readers sent this:

Twenty-three AGs tell Holder no dice on semi-auto ban renewal and Patrick M. sent this: Montana Gun Law Challenges Federal Powers

Notes from JWR:

I’ve heard just three complaints about bookbinding errors, in copies of my novel “Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse” . In all three cases, there were dozens of repeated pages, where the corresponding correct pages were missing. Yikes! (In the book publishing world, this is called a “folio sequencing error”.) I suppose that this small number of reported errors is not bad for a book with more than 30,000 copies in print, but it is still troubling. If you have purchased a copy of “Patriots” with a binding error, then please call, e-mail or write the publisher and let them know which pages were repeated, and they’ll provide a free replacement copy:

Phone: 1-800-377-2542
E-mail: ulysses@ulyssespress.com
Snail Mail: Ulysses Press, P.O. Box 3440, Berkeley, California 94703

—

Today we present another entry for Round 23 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest.

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from OnPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day OnPoint courses normally cost between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried foods, courtesy of Ready Made Resources.

Second Prize: A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $350.

Third Prize: A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing.

Round 23 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

It Will Be Skills, Not Gear That Will Count in TEOTWAWKI, by Chris M.

The topic I will cover is one I have not seen on SurvivalBlog. Everybody is caught up in the equipment side and not concentrating on the training. I have two examples several months back our dryer started squeaking & we had to stop using it. I am a trained air conditioning technician. At first I thought about going out and purchasing a new dryer and then I had a thought: I have fixed multi thousand dollar air conditioning units, how hard could it be? After two days it was back up drying clothes and for a lot less money than a new dryer would cost.

The other example was Saturday night a week ago I killed a feral hog and with some help from the friend that owns the land where I killed the pig, we quickly had it in the chest freezer. You ask, “how do these two examples apply to TEOTWAWKI preparedness?”

I am 50 years old; things I take for granted younger people do not understand or do not have the ability to do. Can you sharpen a knife? Can you tune a small engine? How about sharpen a chainsaw? I have been trained as an equipment mechanic and then trained as a HVAC tech. I have also taken first aid training, I am not an EMT but I know the basics. I have fixed several small appliances. My father was a carpenter. He taught me the basics of construction, such as how to build a wall and how to hang sheet rock. I had a small business that repaired rental properties in Texas.

Do you hunt? And are you planning on hunting to supplement your meat supply if not how do you expect to put meat in the freezer after TSHTF? By hunting you learn where to look for game. Small game hunting can teach you where to find rabbits and squirrels are at certain times of the year. Also when you make your first kill you will have a hands-on butchering class. You can not make a mistake that can not be repaired before it gets to the table. I remember the first feral pig a friend killed I was at my parents’ house when a friend called and ask if I had butchered a hog? I said no but I have sure put enough deer in the ice chest that a pig could not be that hard.
I have also gar
dened quite a bit. When I was a child some of the first memories are of working in the garden. We did not raise all of our food but we raised a significant portion. We had a cow and chickens. I helped my mother can vegetables from the garden. I have caned tomatoes I have raised in my back yard. I can make my own soap. I also know where to get the lye with out going to the store. (Wood ashes).

What do you read? Back Home, Backwoods Home, and Mother Earth News magazines–although Mother Earth News is not as good as she once was. I keep all the Back Home and Backwoods Home that I pick up. I also found several books that will be passed on once I go to my final reward. I have books on a variety of topics from engine repair to gardening and other topics.

Do you reload the ammo you practice with? You can store more powder, primers and bullets in a given space than loaded ammo. Then when you shoot some you can reload to re-supply. Shotgun ammo is very economical when you reload. I would not suggest that you use reloaded ammo to defend yourself. Use store bought. I talked about the pig I killed a couple weeks back I used a Savage model 40 in 22 Hornet. The cartridge I used was reloaded and in fact was a case that had been reloaded several times. I have reloaded a variety of calibers and presently I can keep my guns shooting for awhile. I also cast lead bullets for a number of my guns and I am planning on getting a few more molds for different calibers. Also think about this I have in my gun safe a. 22 Hornet, .223 Remington and a .22-250. They all take 223 caliber bullets. I have bought a lot of .223 caliber bullets, mostly 55 grain weight. I can use the same bullet in all three. I also I am going to purchase a shot maker and will be able to produce shot for my own use and barter. I am stocking up on primers and bullets.

What do you watch on television? I watch Discovery and the Science channel. People talk about gas powdered tractors gasoline has a shorter shelf life than say diesel or propane for that matter. I have not seen propane discussed much on the blog for a motor fuel. Propane has a “forever” shelf life. Also, you can still find Ford Model 8 or 9N tractors that were powered by propane. As long as the propane did not leak out it was good and the tractors could sit idle for a long time and did not have to have the carburetor cleaned.

The reason I mentioned television shows is this one program I watched 2 to 3 years ago had a teams on an oceanic island. The team had to do some projects, one of which was they had a diesel powered go-cart. Both teams were given some sesames seeds and a machine that could make oil out of the seeds. The first team to start their go-cart and get it to run a course distance won the event. This got me to thinking that all trucks, generators, tractors should be diesel powered. You can make your own fuel!! The inventor of the Diesel engine was Dr. Rudolf Diesel, a German who envisioned a system where German farmers were not dependant on fuel sources that came from outside Germany! Remember the pig I killed? If it had been a survival situation.  I would have rendered the fat to oil and could have used it in my truck and drove 20 or so miles or used it in a generator or plowed the garden with a tractor.

The upshot of the foregoing is that what you have in your hands is not as important as what you have between your ears. Learn all you can. Take classes at your local community college. Read all the preparedness’ magazine’s and books you can. Concentrate on survival skills. Learn to start fires without matches and to build a temporary shelters. Learn to maintain your car or truck, local community colleges are great places to learn vehicle repair and you can save money in the short run. Imagine if something broke and you needed it to survive. Could you fix it? Stockpile spare parts for the most important items. Ford 8 of 9n tractors are great and look simple. But if the clutch went out, could you replace it? I have done that and it’s not as easy as you might think. Repair manuals are not an option, in my thinking. They are a must.

Two Letters Re: Getting Started With Dairy Goats

Sir,
To add to the Memsahib’s excellent, succinct article on raising goats:

Those interested in self-sufficiency could hardly choose a better livestock animal. Might I suggest Nigerian Dwarf goats? There are several reasons why these fine animals make an excellent livestock choice for those interested in self-sufficiency:

1. Nigerian Dwarfs are fairly small and easy to handle. Their food needs are also minimal: they can graze on minimal pasture and will of course forage through wooded areas. Like most breeds, they do equally well on grassy pasture or in thick woodland, flat-land or hills. But unlike some of the larger breeds, those with only a few acres can easily raise a handful of Nigerian Dwarfs’ with only minimal supplemental feed purchases. They will do well on minimal amounts of goat ‘pellets’ and/or alfalfa, with a good mineral supplement which they’ll pick at as they need to. They’ll also pick at good hay out a horse’s hay net. They hay will do double-duty as bedding, or you can use shavings, or a mix of both.

2. They have the sweetest, creamiest milk of any breed – almost like half-and-half. This milk is excellent to drink, and also makes great cheese. Those who are not particularly keen on goat’s milk tend to warm right up to Nigerian Dwarf milk without complaint.

3. Though small, Nigerian Dwarfs are incredibly efficient at turning forage into milk. A well-bred Nigerian Dwarf can produce upwards of 2 quarts of milk daily – not bad for a 40 pound animal.

4. Nigerian Dwarfs are very smart and affectionate – a Nigerian Dwarf goat is like a half-dog, half-goat livestock animal who will be as much fun to interact with as to it will be to farm with.

5. Those who farm, or are looking to convert woodland or pasture into field, will find Nigerian Dwarfs an excellent tool for use in deforestation, and later in field rotation.

When purchasing Nigerian Dwarfs, or any breed of goat, I strongly recommend your readers consult with a reputable breeder. When it comes to dairy goats, breeding makes a big difference. A little extra up-front investment will go a long way in the long haul – so don’t be penny-wise but pound-foolish. Do your homework and acquire good, healthy stock that will keep you in delicious milk, cheese, ice cream and yogurt for years to come. A good breeder can also offer instruction on health maintenance and vaccination.

I would also recommend that your readers practice disbudding (de-horning) of their goats. This will prevent costly injury, particularly as you add new goats (with new genes) to your herd. However, this does take away a natural defense mechanism. So if one lives in an area with predators, particularly coyotes, care will have to be taken in the building of their evening housing. A well-trained dog can also solve this problem. Another option for coyotes is a donkey, which will excel in keeping coyotes away.

Much has been made of the difficulty of keeping goats fenced in. While they are natural escape artists, it’s really not that difficult to keep them inside the perimeter. For Nigerian Dwarfs, I recommend 5′ wire fencing with metal posts every 5-to-6 feet. This flexible fencing will prevent the goats from climbing and, if properly stretched and staked down, will not yield to their natural tendency to lean into fences. Make sure there are no climbable objects or surfaces near the fence, as a goat’s ability to climb will surprise you. For foraging through woodland and/or deforestation, Nigerian Dwarfs (like all goats) can be tethered. The best way to tether a goat is to use a large cinder block. Attach a chain around the cinder block (ropes will chafe). Then attach a 10-15′ plastic-coated cable (commonly available dog tethers work fine) and attach it to the goat’s collar. The goat will be able to move the block around if they need/want to, but won’t get far and won’t get away. Don’t leave your goat tethered for more than about 6 hours, and make sure water is available. They’ll be happy and graze until they look like they swallowed a beach ball – but don’t worry – they are ruminants and will digest all that fresh cellulose! They will also turn it into milk.

Speaking of milk – unlike cows, goats do not particularly like to be milked – at least not at first.. You’ll have to build a stanchion (milking stand), but there are plenty of good plans available on-line. It may take a few days or even week (or two) of twice daily milking to ‘break-in’ your goat to milking, but she’ll get the hang of it (and so will you). Take care of utters and ensure they are clean both before and after milking. Kids can be weaned at 8 weeks. Take care to separate bucks very early – 10 weeks.

Pardon me being so direct, but if you end up with a buck, you’ll soon understand the origin of the expression “randy as a billy goat”. Let’s just say bucks will do things that will surprise you. They will also make your milk taste funny. So keep them separate from the does if you plan on keeping them intact. Or, they should be castrated early using one of several humane methods – I will leave it to your readers to do their homework on this subject. The resulting wether (a castrated male goat) will be an excellent companion animal if you have a small herd – for example, if you have 2 does and one is with kid, the wether will keep the other doe company as goats hate being alone. Some also raise wethers for meat.

Finally, remember that goats are intelligent and playful animals. They will appreciate any type of toys you may build them – basically anything they can climb on, even if it’s just a series of sturdy wood platforms. As with any animal, healthy, happy, natural livestock means healthy, delicious, natural food. – HPD

Hi James,
Thanks for the blog. I read it every day. This is in response to Memsahib’s goat article. There are several web sites with information regarding making goat milk butter, while not as simple as cow milk, it is possible and in a survival situation, butter may be dear regardless of time and trouble to obtain. For example, see this article from The Mother Earth News, circa 1978.

Thanks again for all you do, It is important and the legacy your leaving will be remembered long after you and I are gone. Keep your head down and keep moving. – Tom H.

Economics and Investing:

Don W. sent this: US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive. Bulldozing whole neighborhoods? This sounds like a land developer’s dream come true. Talk about “stimulating demand” for new housing… Maybe we ought to crush half the cars in the country while we are at it, just to make sure that the Detroit auto makers will get plenty of business.

Oh, but wait! SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large Michael Z. Williamson sent this: House ‘cash for clunkers’ plan to boost car sales. Mike’s comment: ” They really are insane. The sheer conceit that makes them believe they can manipulate the economy, and that a trillion here and a trillion there doesn’t matter…”

HPD forwarded this commentary from Mish Shedlock: California Foreclosure Moratoriums an Exercise of Stupidity

Manny B. sent us this: Grocery Stores Begin to Accept Silver! [JWR Adds: This may be a rarity now, but once inflation kicks in, thousands of small merchants will start taking payment in silver coinage. But far fewer will have the savvy to test scrap gold.]

Items from The Economatrix:

G-8 Chiefs Get Ready For Economic Recovery (Right after the Great Pig Air show)

Six Flags Parent Company Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Peak Soil: This Land Grab Is Just Beginning

US Homebuilder Confidence Unexpectedly Fell In June

Schiff: Property Rights Take A Hit

Proud To Be An American? You Should Be Ashamed! (Scroll down for: They Really Are That Dumb Department)

Paper: Inflation Fears Return

Ailing Factory Towns Face Tougher Roads To Recovery

A Look at the Hardest Hit Counties

Weapons Makers Look Overseas as Pentagon Cuts Back

Summer Slowdown Setting In on Wall Street

Homeowner Associations Start Foreclosures to Collect Dues

Odds ‘n Sods:

Recycled Homes, One Box at a Time

   o o o

Reader “D. from Sweden” mentioned that Sweden’s biggest radio station, public service channel P3, is having an apocalypse theme and is broadcasting an interview with a gent from the Swedish Survivalist Forum. It airs Tuesday, June 16th, at 18.03 local time, which is 12.03 EST. Readers can read about it here.

   o o o

Reader Kat C. recommended two books on food storage: Preserving Food Without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation and Putting Food By.

   o o o

The latest from Nanny State Brittannia: Banning “stabbing” kitchen knives.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“The proliferation of state concealed carry laws has evidently reduced the rate of violent street crime to a considerable extent. When the goblins do not know who is armed and who is not, their professional enthusiasm declines. Now that Britain has made sure (insofar as any law can so insure) that everybody is disarmed, the streets are given back to the bad kid with the baseball bat. We hope they are satisfied.” – Jeff Cooper, Cooper’s Commentaries

A Derivatives Market Meltdown: “We Apologize for the Inconvenience”

The collapse of the Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) market underscored the enormous overhang of the larger over-the-counter derivatives contracts market. This is far from over, folks! For example, we have not yet to seen a full-blown Credit Default Swap (CDS) market implosion. I have been warning blog readers about CDS instruments since 2005. And even though our politics are diametrically opposed, I was not surprised to see George Soros recently chime in on the subject. Derivative instruments are essentially unregulated and they measure in the hundreds of trillions of dollars. The counterparty risk is enormous, yet the derivatives market is quite opaque and little understood, even by most of the people that work in the financial sector.

To illustrate both the potential magnitude of a derivatives disaster, and the incredibly blissful ignorance of most investors, I offer the following analogy:

You are a business traveler. It is 9 a.m. on a Monday morning and you are seated at a crowded gate at the Newark, New Jersey airport, waiting for boarding of the 9:25 Delta Airlines flight to Atlanta. You are feeling nervous, because the 20-something man that is sitting next to you is suffering from a bad hangover. You’ve correctly surmised that over the weekend he got fleeced at the gaming tables in Atlantic City after the casino offered him too many “comp” cocktails. He looks only semi-conscious and you are afraid that he is going to puke on your nice suit. A ticket agent announces on the loudspeaker: “Ladies and gentlemen, I have some bad news.” She pauses and you think to yourself: “Oh great, two or three of us are going to get bumped.” The agent goes on: ” It was just announced by the chairman of Delta Airlines that the company has declared bankruptcy. All Delta flights have been cancelled for the foreseeable future. Because Delta is now insolvent, no replacement tickets, vouchers, or refunds will be issued. We apologize for the inconvenience. Have a nice day, and thanks for flying Delta Airlines.” There are shouts and anguished cries from the other passengers. You sit for a minute in stunned silence. Your mind is racing. You remember reading that Delta has over 1,630 scheduled flights a day, moving roughly 277,000 passengers per day from city to city. The drunken gambler shouts “Hey!” and he leans close to your face. With his breath smelling like a dog kennel and his eyes glassy, he asks: “I don’t get it, man. What do they mean, “insolvent”? You take a few minutes to explain the situation in simple terms to him. But the gambler just gives you a blank stare. “What do you mean,?” he repeats. Now you are angry, and you shout at him: “Aren’t I getting through to you? I’m talking about two hundred and seventy seven thousand bumped passengers!” Finally, the dazed drunk has a flash of realization across his face. “Oh. I get it. This is bad news. It’ll be hours before they’ll call for seating on my row!”

Getting Started With Dairy Goats, by The Memsahib

Getting any dairy animals is a very big commitment. However, I believe that they are a valuable part of your livestock preparedness. Even more importantly I believe goats are the best dairy animals for the survivalist.

Here are my reasons to recommend goats over cows for a survival situation:

1. A dairy goat is about one fifth the cost of a dairy cow.

2. Five goats can be fed one the same amount it takes to feed one cow.

3. If your your one cow dies you are out of luck. But the odds of losing all your goats is small.

4. Goats browse rather than graze and can make use of a wider variety of forage.

5. Goats are easier to handle

6. Because of their smaller size, goats are less likely to cause injuries or damage fences. Getting stepped on by a goat is trivial. Getting stepped on by a cow is not.

The downside is that it will take more time to milk five goats than to milk one cow. You’ll have to get five animals in and out of the stanchion, Wash five udders, milk five does (female goats), strip five udders, etc. But I really believe that the benefits of having the insurance of multiple dairy animals far outweighs the extra effort.

The main drawback is that the cream does not separate readily in goats milk so that you will not be able to skim the cream off. And therefore you will not be able to make butter. On the other hand, goat milk is much easier to digest, and many people who cannot drink cow’s milk can drink goats milk. And of course you can use goat’s milk to make yogurt, cream cheese, hard cheese, and ice cream, as well as use it in recipes just like cows milk.

As I mentioned earlier dairy animals are a big commitment. This is because they are traditionally milked twice a day, at the same time every day. Perhaps your current schedule doesn’t allow for this? There are ways to get around this and still being prepared. You could for instance milk in the morning but let the kids nurse during the day. You could also have a small herd that you do not milk at all, but instead just let them raise offspring until your family needs the milk. Or maybe have a small herd but don’t even breed them until TEOTWAWKI. (Needless to say, they will not produce milk if they do not give birth.).

For greater detail on raising goats, I recommend the book: Storey’s Guide to Raising Dairy Goats: Breeds, Care, Dairyingby JD Belanger.

Letter Re: Bugs in the Pantry

Mr. Rawles,
I’m new to prepping. But for some time now, when I go to Costco, I pick up peanut butter, a bag of rice, or a bag of beans to toss in the closet. I really like storing wheat, because it seems to have a much longer shelf life, but it is a little harder to find than rice. I figure I’ve probably got about nine months to a year worth of food for myself now. I know that the bugs will get into it eventually, and I’ll throw a bunch out and start over. I’ve been examining rice in the super markets for years, and I can tell you that a lot of it has bugs in it before you even bring it home. The trick is to use it before they “blossom.”

What happens if there is a crisis and I go to my closet, and I find out the bugs have blossomed? I figure this sort of thing must happen in the Third World all the time, and I have a very hard time believing the locals just throw it out. Is it okay to just wash it and cook it? I’ve noticed that most of the bugs float to the top and can easily be removed. But what about the bug excrement?

I tried a little experiment yesterday, and boiled some wheat to make soup. It had been stored for at least ten years, maybe fifteen. It was just starting to show bugs, so I washed it about 5 times, and then boiled it, seasoned it with some mushrooms, dried broth, and a can of diced tomatoes and ate it. It tasted fine, and now about 28 hours later, I’m showing no ill effects.

I’m guessing that after the TSHTF, a lot of us are going to have the opportunity of eating a lot of food that bugs and maybe rats have sampled before us. Any advice? Also, do you know of any good places to buy bulk foods (say 25 lb.or 50 lb. bags) of less common staples, like lentils, barley, or beans other than pinto beans? – Jonathan Z.

JWR Replies: Things might not be too bad now, but once your pantry starts to develop a bug infestation, you’ll be will be in an escalating war that you will lose. Trust me, without better packaging, the bugs will win.

Read the SurvivalBlog archives about how to prepare rice, grains, and legumes for storage, using CO2 in food grade HDPE plastic buckets. Bugs (and their larvae) can’t breathe CO2. There are also details on this my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course–including a very simple CO2 displacement method using dry ice.

A wide variety of staple foods in bulk are available from Walton Feed, in Montpelier, Idaho. Order them in six-gallon Super Pails.

Economics and Investing:

Reader Ben M. mentioned: World Bank sees even worse slump. All the recent talk of a “nascent recovery” is balderdash.

China’s Commodity Buying Spree. Well, gosh , if given the choice between dollar-denominated paper assets and buying useful tangibles, which would you choose?

Jim B. sent us a link to an essay titled The Coming Economic Collapse, by Graham Summers. “To give you an idea of how big a problem these deficits are, consider that the US government could tax its citizens 100% of their earnings and not have a balanced budget.”

From the Dr. Housing Bubble blog: Foreclosure Reality Check: 1.6 Million Foreclosure Filings with 5 Months of Data. California Notice of Defaults and Foreclosures Skyrocketing

Items from The Economatrix:

Protect Yourself From A Treasury Market Collapse “Fund doesn’t have to have “Treasury” in its name to be vulnerable

Green Bay Lays Down Gauntlet For Obama “We’re fed up with all this spending that is totally unnecessary,” said Dennis Feldt of Green Bay. “Obama is assigning all these stimulus packages and demanding a vote on it a day later. No one has time to read any of this. The lawmakers don’t even know what’s in it. It’s all because the president says we need it right now or we’re going to lose jobs. Where is all this money going?…It’s all gone. It makes us all very nervous.”