The Stimulus Had A Lot Of Pork In It
Jul 20, 2009 Political
Now we know why they call it the Porkulus… (from the front page of Drudge)
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $2,531,600 FOR ‘HAM, WATER ADDED, COOKED, FROZEN, SLICED, 2-LB’…
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,191,200 FOR ‘2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED’…
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $16,784,272 FOR ‘CANNED PORK’…
There sure is a lot of pork in that bill…
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack released a statement indicating that the quantities of pork purchased were much higher. He said the pork came in 2 pound packages and they bought 760,000 pounds of it and that is why it cost so much. He said it was about $1.50 a pound.
Food lion has pork for 0.79 a pound. Seems to me if they are going to buy 380 tons of pork they could get a better price than Food Lion.
These might be legitimate costs (if they are telling the truth) but there are plenty that are not. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace a (one) door and a (one) dumbwaiter as well as install a traffic light. I saw many items where the available money equaled the bid, how convenient!
Perhaps, if they want to keep from creating confusion, they could actually put a quantity purchased on the bills so we know what was bought and can assess if the money was spent wisely.
I also want to know how buying all this food (which includes tons of cheese) is creating jobs. Sure, farmers have to produce more but how many people are being put to work?
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Tags: government waste, jobs, pork, stimulus, Vilsack