States Using Stimulus Just To Stay Afloat

[OhioChick]

Source: AP

9:38 pm EDT July 8, 2009

WASHINGTON -- Projects in some of the nation's poorest areas don't appear to be getting a fair shake in the spending of $787 billion in stimulus funds, the chairman of the House oversight committee said Wednesday.

Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., chairman of the panel, said he was particularly concerned that transportation projects in economically distressed areas were being left out -- even though they are supposed to be a priority.

"There is a substantial variation among states as to what constitutes an economically distressed area," Towns said. "For this reason, it is unclear whether Recovery Act funds are going where they are needed most."

His comments came in response to a Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday at a hearing before his committee.

The GAO said about half the money set aside for road and bridge repairs is being used to repave highways rather than to build new infrastructure. And state officials aren't steering the money toward counties that need jobs the most, auditors found.

Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/money/19991494/detail.html

---

Well...Color me surprised...

[xchrom]

1. ...

:grr:

[mark olson]

2. Many of US told ya so. The STIMULUS would be wasted!

They could have just as well loaded it into trucks and shoveled the money out the door as they drove around neighborhoods for all the good this 800 billion of our grandchildren's money will do.

PISSED AWAY.

[OhioChick]

4. You still posting from Mom & Dad's basement? n/t

[babylonsister]

5. What's wasted? Keeping people afloat? You'd prefer tent cities?

What is your solution, oh bright one?

[MUAD_DIB]

7. The GOPiglet is just angry that its party is collapsing.

[MUAD_DIB]

6. Gee, 33 posts and you've almost totally blown your wad.

[Warpy]

8. Yeah, you really resent schools, roads, police, firefighters, public health programs,

traffic lights, restaurant inspections, and a million other things the states do for you every single day of your ungrateful life.

Yes, better the states had withheld those services until Republicans got the point, I agree. Unfortunately, all of us rely on them equally and we don't want to get shafted along with you.

[Hello_Kitty]

10. Did you feel that way about the money Dubya shoveled to the war? eom

[Ken Burch]

12. $800 billion in tax cuts for the rich would also have been pissed away

(I know this guy's been 'stoned, but that needed a response).

[Javaman]

13. So what do you like on your pizza? nt

[JayMusgrove]

14. What did you tell us? Only a Republican plan of

no $ and cutting government size would save us all?

Sorry, my parents lived through 1929-1933.....the stories they told me stick in my mind, soup lines, rise of crime, banks failing, people losing everything, police, fire, teachers' jobs cut to 70% of salary, if kept at all, (when teachers were previously paid $1000/yr, and could not be kept on (were fired) if they became pregnant, (married women).

I do no choose to go back to the dark ages you seem to long for, and eulogize, the depression that took another 12 years and tens of millions dead in WW II in order to "recover".

[babylonsister]

3. So are the stimulus funds working or not? nt

[bluestateguy]

9. Not a bad thing necessarily

For example:

In Flint, Mich., for example, new schools haven't been built in 30 years but the school superintendent told auditors she would use federal money to cope with budget deficits rather than building new schools or paying for early childhood education.

That means some teachers and school employees' jobs were likely saved. That's people who will not be laid off.

[bertman]

11. She sounds like a smart woman. Many of us were educated in schools that were older

than 30 years and we got good educations. She has the right priorities in mind.