Why the Stimulus Money Isn’t Working

By Filed under Science and Other News on August 4, 2010 with 8 comments

Here are the worst headlines I’ve read today:

  1. “BP Getting Stimulus Funds”
  2. “States With Most Joblessness Getting Less Stimulus Funds”
  3. “Reid’s Failed Stimulus Provides Monkeys With Cocaine”
  4. “Horror Stories Added to Stimulus Coverage”

Senator Tom Coburn and John McCain have compiled a list of 100 especially wasteful examples of stimulus spending. Examples below the fold.

  1. $554,763 to replace windows in visitor center that was closed indefinitely three years ago.
  2. $762,372 for a software program for interactive dance performances with real-time audiences.
  3. $677,462 to study why monkeys respond negatively to inequity and unfairness.
  4. $1.9 million to send researchers to the Southwest Indian Ocean Islands and east Africa to capture, photograph and analyze thousands of exotic ants.
  5. $62 million for a connector to Pittsburgh professional sports stadiums, although Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell called the connector “a tragic mistake.”
  6. $7.3 million for two Texas fire stations that have become so mired in red tape it is not clear when they will be built.
  7. $1.2 million for an abandoned train station converted into a museum in Glassboro, New Jersey.
  8. $357,710 for an old abandoned iron furnace for a facelift after money was squandered on the same project years before.
  9. $308 million for power plant construction that won’t start for a least two years.
  10. $89,298 to replace a sidewalk that was replaced only five years ago and that leads to a ditch.
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Comments (8)

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  1. Tom H. says:
    August 4, 2010 at 4:26 pm

    All this would be very funny if it were not for the fact that the money being wasted is ours. Even though the spending today is financed with borrowed money, we taxpayers are going to have to pay it all back tomorrow.

  2. Ken says:
    August 4, 2010 at 4:28 pm

    I agree with Tom. This is a joke. A cruel joke.

  3. Nancy says:
    August 4, 2010 at 4:33 pm

    This is all pretty disgusting. I wish there was something ordinary people could do about it.

  4. Stephen C. says:
    August 4, 2010 at 4:35 pm

    I hope Harry Reid’s opponent forces him to defend all of this.

  5. artk says:
    August 4, 2010 at 4:53 pm

    If you want a good analysis of the stimulus programs, you should read Mark Zandi’s analysis on economy.com.
    Mark was one of McCain’s campaign advisors.

    http://www.economy.com/mark-zandi/documents/End-of-Great-Recession.pdf?L=HPADV2&C=ZANDIBLINDER&P=LEARNMORE

  6. Devon Herrick says:
    August 4, 2010 at 5:00 pm

    I like how the McCain and Coburn people use creative titles. One of my favorites is “Second Least Busy Train Stop in New York Given Twice What it Needs to Renovate Station.” Another good one… “Museum With 44 Annual Visitors Gets Funding for Bug Storage.” Then there is… “High-End Boutique Hotel Built Where None is Needed.” It’s hard to beat…”Forest Service to Replace Windows in Visitor Center Closed in 2007.”

  7. ThomasL says:
    August 4, 2010 at 5:08 pm

    I have a hard time working up outrage over spending $500,000 of taxpayer money on windows when McCain and Coburn both supported (and support) spending $700,000,000,000 of taxpayer money on TARP.

    This is definitely a “pot calling the kettle black” situation.

  8. John Goodman says:
    August 5, 2010 at 9:08 am

    Here is Arnold Kling’s critique of the Alan Blinder/Mark Zandi study — which one would have to say is way out of the mainstream of conventional economic thinking:

    http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2010/07/what_blinder_an.html