Here Is How Stimulus Money Was Wasted
by Big Dog on Nov 4, 2009 at 04:48 Political
The nearly trillion dollar stimulus that had to be passed immediately but that very little of has been spent (as a percentage) is being wasted and has done little in the way of providing jobs. Obama told us we needed to pass it NOW or unemployment would go above 8.5% and now it is nearly 10%. The purpose of the stimulus was to pay off special interest groups for supporting Democrats. Here are a few items that stimulus money was spent on. Please feel free to chime in and tell me how they stimulated the economy:
– $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state.
– $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.
– $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.
– $430,000 to repair a bridge in Iowa County, Wis., that carries 10 or fewer cars per day.
– $800,000 for the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., serving about 20 passengers per day, to build a backup runway.
– $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women.
– $2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid. Washington Examiner
Money for a helicopter to look for rabbit turds, money to study the sex lives of college women (I know a bunch of guys who would do that for free), money for the Murtha airport (a money pit), money to build a bridge between two Microsoft buildings and money to build a stadium for baseball teams.
What does any of this have to do with stimulus? In addition, why are we taxpayers building anything for Microsoft? Bill Gates is one of the wealthiest people in the country. He gives away more money than anyone can imagine and we have to pay for a bridge for his buildings? Why are we paying for a baseball stadium? Can’t the wealthy team owners or the taxpayers of the state pay for it? Most of us will never go there to watch a ball game and we damn sure will not get any revenue the teams generate so why are we paying for their stadium?
Why are we using stimulus money to mess with arthropods?
This is the kind of waste and abuse that one expects and knows will happen when government is involved. This is the kind of waste we see in Medicare and it is the kind of waste we will see in the government takeover of health care.
We still have quite a bit of unspent stimulus money and we should put a halt to further spending.
None of these items can be defended. None of them created any jobs (not lasting ones) and none of this spending is what America had in mind.
The Democrats always talk about Republicans taking care of the rich. I fail to see how the Democrats are any different when they spend OUR money to build something for Bill Gates or baseball teams.
Vote all of them out of office in 2010.
This kind of spending is irresponsible and should not be tolerated.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: fraud, Obama, stimulus, waste
I’m going to hold out for some more fact checking on this article. A quick Google search shows that $300,000 is a pretty good deal on a helicopter without any bells and whistles. “GPS-equipped” raises a red flag too. It’s like the thing is trying to be made to sound extraordinarily fancy when GPS is actually quite commonplace and pretty cheap as well.
Not surprising the sources provided by your source are news reports (really?) and two elected officials that clearly have a bias against the stimulus spending.
Maybe it is a remote controlled helicopter.
But you miss the point. Why do we need to look for rabbit turds? Why are we spending tax money to look for rabbit turds? How is this stilmulating the economy?
The big picture is important. It does not matter what the bias is, what is the money being spent on and why is it being spent that way.
Look Randy, if you have a guilty conscience about having the money you earned you can send it to me. I will give you my Pay Pal address and you can send it my way.
I am willing to bet that the helicopter, if it was purchased and purchased with stimulus funds, was purchased to do more than simply look for rabbit turds. I will do my own checking later, but I am very busy at work and have more important things to address right now.
Come on now. Did you even look into the project? It’s part of the largest environmental cleanup in the US related to working with plutonium in the area. When you boil every project down to silly parts like “rabbit turds” then of course it seems stupid and wasteful.
This is like John McCain snickering about beaver management when the project is an eco project that saves the residents millions a year potentially.
You forgot to mention Blake’s favorite turtle tunnel. Maybe he can reconstruct his bogus logic on that one for us.
You can rationalize all you want. I am pretty sure they have a lot of helicopters in the government (I use to fly on a bunch of them) so why another (unless it is a drone). How many jobs did the rabbit turd project provide?
Did they spend money to teach the turtles to use the tunnel? How many jobs did the tunnel project provide? Perhaps the state should have paid for it and not those of us who do not live there.
I completely understand. The promise, no hgher than 8.5% with stimulus. Now near 10 and will be higher. Don’t tell me about lagging indicators, their assessment was not above 8.5%.
The cost per job is astronomical for the few that have been created.
There is no such thing as a saved job. Can’t be shown, can’t be quantified. It is rhetoric to give the appearance of effectiveness without having to prove anything.
The stimulus is not working, will push us deeper into debt and is bad for the country.
It’s strange. You’ve switched from legitimate questioning of the stimulus to pretending you don’t even understand what the stimulus was designed to do in the first place.
Why on earth would the bill give money to projects for construction, scientific research, or the arts? Well, because that is exactly what the stimulus was designed for.
Of the 26 listed they break down roughly that way:
Every project listed has potential to not just create labor jobs but stimulate consumption for the construction materials, lab equipment, office supplies, art supplies involved, and in doing so create more jobs.
Will the projects all work? Will it even create jobs? Will the jobs created be viable enough? Will the spending even stimulate or just be wasted money? All of these are good questions of course.
You on the other hand? You’ve for some reason reverted back to feigning ignorance of the entire process, pretending as if you never expected the stimulus money to go to thousands and thousands of projects just like are listed above. What is your point?
Oh, you mean it is a “trickle-down” scheme! I think we proved that doesn’t work, what? 20 years ago?
Japan has been using trickle-down exclusively in the battle to revive it’s stale economy.
No, not stale; comotose economy.
Just because BD doesn’t subscribe to your blind faith in Obamanomics, they are obviously “reverted back to feigning ignorance.”
Well, that is a step above actual ignorance. Adam, I wont ask your point; I know it.
Adam is a hater. He hates so many things, is a bigot and a fear-monger.
Or, to keep it simple, Adam is a liberal.
Well Adam, no there are not dead people cashing them. I bet they are being cashed by people who figure that if the government did not know they were dead then they will not know who cashed the check.
Do you know how much money it costs to mail all those checks?
What did a helicopter add to the jobs base and why is looking for rabbit turds a good thing? How many jobs could that produce?
Art jobs which in turn obtains supplies? Are you for real? The only art the Obama folks are spending OUR money on is the folks at the NEA propaganda machine.
And you too miss the point. Why is OUR tax money being used to build a bridge for a billionaire to connect his two buildings. He can afford to dso that himself. Will the public be allowed to walk there any time they want or will it provide access to MS employees only?
Why is OUR money being used to build a stadium? A stadium benefits the local economy where it is located. It will not provide any benefit to most of the people who paid for it and the guys who own the teams can build their own or have the city that stands to benefit from it pay for it.
I understand what the stated purpose of the stimulus was (depending on the time frame because there were many changing goals) and I understand what the money is actually being used for.
This is waste.
Do you want the government running your health care when they waste money like this? Do you want the same government that sends checks to dead people responsible for paying your medical bills.
I know it is difficult for you guys to understand personal responsibility but give it a try.
First of all we know two things. First, there isn’t a single stimulus project you would support. Second is you’re going to boil every one down to “rabbit turds” and “NEA propaganda” every time in order to distort reality. That’s OK, you can’t help it.
But, you wonder why our tax money is being used…to purchase construction materials, helicopters, cars, art supplies, road signs and other things? Does money spend differently based on what you’re buying? Does income from a job in the arts or sciences spend differently than income from a job in construction?
I know there are better projects than others and wasteful spending in the package, but your level of distortion here is almost impressive.
I would not support any project because I did not support the stimulus. It was the wrong way to handle things and that is being shown. While other countries that did not do a large stimulus (or none at all) are on their way to recovery we are still in an economic downturn.
Our tax dollars are supposed to go for the things that benefit the country as a whole. The items in individual states should be paid for by the people in those states.
Suppose they took stimulus money and used it to build the GW Bush presidential library, is that OK?
We disagree on what government should be doing with our money and what they are allowed to do with our money. You have a desire to be taken care of and I have a desire to live as a free man.
Wait until inflation rocks this country.
I do like how you dismiss the obvious illegal propaganda of the NEA fiasco. You like the Marxists in the ObaMao Reich.
Well, you go ahead. I would rather die a free man than live as a slave to government.
You have fun trying to pay off the 300k dollars which is your share of the debt.
“Suppose they took stimulus money and used it to build the GW Bush presidential library, is that OK?”
Yes, it would be fine with me.
“I do like how you dismiss the obvious illegal propaganda of the NEA fiasco.”
There was no “obvious illegal propaganda” and you know it. Your derangement has taken you to a point where you’ll accept any half truth or non-truth as your religion. This is everything you accused Bush haters of being so I hope you enjoy it.
So are you trying to pretend there is no governbment money for rabbit turd search or Bill’s bridge?
There are two ways to spend; one way promotes the generation of wealth.
The other just spends, wastefully.
Don’t preach your liberal twaddle to us. Your ignorance is glaring and tiresome.
If you want to know how many jobs each project is estimated to have created you’d have to look further than the anti-stimulus article you’re going by. If you were at all serious about debating the stimulus you’d have already looked into it instead of just doing a copy and paste hit job to distort the projects and slam the stimulus spending.
The jobs “created” were few and temporary. As for the bridge and the stadiums, I don’t care if they created a million jobs the items should not be paid for with taxpayer money.
Are you trying to say that speaking the truth is banned? Is that it, Adam?
Next you will be saying, “Oh, stop being mean to me! Mommy! Mommy Obama! They are being mean to me!”
And why would we need to order a helicopter? We have a lot of them.
I don’t know but if you’re so fascinated with the project why don’t you research it and get back to us?
It is up to you to prove the truth isn’t true, not for BD to prove the obvious isn’t what it is.
Bigd: “why would we need to order a helicopter? We have a lot of them.”>>
DAR
Yes, but as you know, most of them have been painted black and are being used to spy on the tea party protesters.**
**Changed by site owner from offensive word
Darrel, the helicopters I am talking about are not black. The government owns a bunch of them that are different colors.
You WILL NOT use the term for tea party protesters that you wrote here, again.
I changed it and it will not happen again.
Understood?
Jesus DAR, that is so rude! I say pretty mean stuff but you just insulted an entire class of people who you know absolutely nothing about!
In a sane world, what did is called “Hate Speach.”
And the fact that liberal parasites accept that phrase is proof that liberals are the Party of Hate.
You must have listened to a different set of recordings from the NEA than I did.
You must have listened to right wing paranoid interpretations of the tapes.
You probably didn’t hear them very well considering where you keep your head most of the time.
First of all you have been one of the folks comparing Obama’s community service initiatives to Hitler Youth and garbage like that. This takes away any hope for a firm footing you might have to judge what it is the NEA’s partnership with Obama’s United We Serve initiative is all about.
When you compare things it is because they have something in common or you are trying to show the differences. I see the commonality in his initiatives and the Marxist and NAZI policies of the past.
The NEA was, under direction of the WH, trying to solicit artists (using taxpayer money no less) to make art that supports Obama and his positions. This is propaganda.
It is not propaganda if an artist does this stuff on his own. If he receives money and/or directions from the government it is propaganda.
“I see the commonality in his initiatives and the Marxist and NAZI policies of the past.”
I rest my case.
If it walks like a goose, talks like a goose and C***ps like a goose, it is probably a goose.
Why does a referance to Hitler make it “Off Footing?”
Lib-tards compared Bush to Hitler every day of his wonderful and enlightened presidency.
It made no difference to them that the comparison of Bush to Hitler was like night and day.
Obama strikes me more as a Moosalini type, though. A Demegog-ish weak runt with a chip on his shoulder, very passionate about every wrong concept placed on his doggy-bowl.
Now, go pet your doggy, Adam! be a good little Obama Youth boy!
And you do so without giving any evidence to the contrary. You will wake up one day.
Once you step out of the bounds of logic what evidence can I provide to convince you you’re wrong? Obama’s initiatives do no have “commonality” with Marxist or Nazi polices. There’s just no truth there.
Was the NEA in the wrong for the most part? Yes, and a guy lost his position because of it. But was it some Nazi like propaganda attempt by Obama’s camp though? No. Not even close.
The arts funding in his conversation had nothing to do with the NEA but you brought it up because you like to chain together your outrage into one big delusional ball of sadness.
I said “his” when I meant “this” and by this I mean this:
And none of this stimulated the economy or created jobs on a large scale (if at all) but it is 1.3 million pissed away.
The NEA and the comparisons to the Marxists are two different issues though the propaganda is right out of the playbook and it was sanctioned by the WH.
The administration is filled with Marxists, those who love Mao (are you going to deny that) so it is a pretty good chance that by selecting Marxists, he is one.
Oh lord. Folks who love Mao? Do we have to recycle Beck and Limbaugh lies here or can we actually debate something within the realm of reason?
Adam will wake up one day like all the other fools who think our freedom is passed down through our genes.
No, actually I don’t think he will. The mentally ill have no idea they are ill.
He actually thinks he is right!
The danger is that people with that type of mental illness make it their point in life to influence everyone else, to destroy what they are able to destroy, and completely lack the ability to replace what they destroy with anything better.
They thrive on collapse and ruin, and because of that, they are very dangerous to humanity and the concepts of a better society.
But Adam will not learn. We may as well just push him about and slap him silly (he is silly already!) because given the chance, he whould chuck every one of us into the leave-shreader.
If he had his own country, he would be a Saddam.
So all the audio and video of these people expressing their fondness is made up?
Yes, people who love Mao. In their own words…
I know of one person who quoted Mao and has been accused of hero worship. Who else? Suggestions that Anita Dunn has a fondness or love for Mao is vastly overstated but then again Glenn Beck is master of such garbage.
There were at least two though I can’t remember the guy’s name.
She said Mao was one of two people she turned to most. I don’t see how you can overblow that.
Seems that you watch Beck. Better get back to your lib channels, they are floundering in the ratings without you.
Bigd: “She said Mao was one of two people she turned to most. I don’t see how you can overblow that.”>>
DAR
But she didn’t say that.
If I said: “I use my pickup truck the most…” and you stopped the quote there, it would look like, I use my pickup truck the most. But if you left out the part where I continued “…when I go to get firewood” you would be left with the false impression that I use my pickup truck “the most,” even though I rarely use it.
Beck’s dishonest truncation of her quote:
“[T]wo of my favorite political philosophers, Mao Tse-Tung and Mother Teresa, not often coupled with each other, but the two people that I turn to most…”
That’s how he repeatedly played the clip. And not by accident. What she actually said, in context [emphasis mine]:
“The third lesson and tip actually comes from two of my favorite political philosophers: Mao Tse-tung and Mother Theresa — not often coupled with each other, but the two people I turn to most **to basically deliver a simple point** which is ‘you’re going to make choices; you’re going to challenge; you’re going to say why not; you’re going to figure out how to do things that have never been done before.”
So what she actually said, in plain English is that she turns to them, when she wants to make this, particular, “simple point.” That’s what she said. Beck cut that part out.
As one person put it: “In other words, she found their words handy to make a universal and fairly banal point about being true to one’s self. That’s all. No Mao-worship. You also can hear laughter from the audience when Dunn couples Mao and Mother Teresa, so at least it’s clear that some in the audience got the joke. Glenn Beck didn’t.”
Dunn added later:
“The Mao quote is one I picked up from the late Republican strategist Lee Atwater from something I read in the late 1980s, so I hope I don’t get my progressive friends mad at me,” Dunn told CNN.
As for Beck’s criticism: “The use of the phrase ‘favorite political philosophers’ was intended as irony, but clearly the effort fell flat — at least with a certain Fox commentator whose sense of irony may be missing.”
Link.
Why can’t conservatives just be honest?
D.
I would disagree with you Darrel. By coupling Mother Theresa she gives the impression that she turns to them for inspiration. She never gave a Mother Theresa quote that she turns to most. What PARTICULAR point does she turn to Mother Theresa for? She said she turned to them most and then gave a quote. It makes no sense the way you put it with your truck example because you indicate that you use it most for firewood.
If she were making the point the way you say then she would say The person I turn to most when I want to make this point. The coupling of MT and the lack of clarity shows that she either failed to make the point or that is how she actually feels.
As for the laughter, it sounded like nervous laughter to me.
Bigd: “he gives the impression that she turns to them for inspiration.”>>
DAR
She didn’t say anything about “inspiration.” Best to stay with what she actually said, in context.
Bigd: “no sense the way you put it with your truck example because you indicate that you use it most for firewood.”>>
DAR
Just as she indicated she turns to Mao and Teresa when she wants to “basically deliver a simple point.” (which was given)
I turn to my truck when I need to get firewood.
She turns to these two when she wants to make this, singular, point.
This doesn’t mean I use my truck “the most” and it doesn’t mean:
“Mao was one of two people she turned to most.”
As YOU said.
Leaving off this qualifier, as Beck did, is just as dishonest as leaving off the part about me using my truck the most “…when I go to get firewood.” And it leaves an entirely wrong and dishonest impression, which was certainly Beck’s intent but probably not yours. You’re just repeating the distortion (also his intent).
D.
Yeah, I thought the same thing.
A long-winded “explaination,” from the kid caught with his hand in the cookie-jar.
DAR’s explaination, that is.
[…] From Big Dog’s House. How our tax dollars are spent as stimulus dollars. […]
And do not forget the cash for clunkers stimulus:
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20091104/D9BOVMNG0.html
Yeah, that great program that used money we do not have to entice people to trade in vehicles. The one that ended up causing about 24k for each car.
Great program where taxpayer money is used to help someone else buy a car. It is malfeasance. Broken glass fallacy at work here.