Surprise, Surprise; More Stimulus Waste

The latest of several reports documenting waste in President Obama’s fraud-infested stimulus reveals that tens of millions of taxpayer dollars have been unscrupulously spent on things like international ant research, to study why monkeys react negatively to inequity and a “tunnel to nowhere” in Pennsylvania.

There’s a lot more. The $787 billion stimulus, which Obama promised would jumpstart the economy and put Americans back to work, has also purchased state-of-the-art cell phones for low-income smokers trying to quit, fancy digital music players for high school students in one state and advertising to promote the stimulus.

The recent stimulus-funded projects are laid out in a lengthy report (Summertime Blues) made public this week by a pair of Republican U.S. Senators. The report lists and offers thorough background on 100 stimulus projects that give taxpayers the blues. The $62 million tunnel to nowhere, which extends Pittsburgh’s light rail under Allegheny River to a casino and a pair of sports arenas, tops the list but many other projects are just as outrageous. Pennsylvania’s governor has called it a “tragic mistake” and the local newspaper, which coined it the tunnel to nowhere, claims it’s a wasteful runaway tunnel project.

International ant research got nearly $2 million and $700,000 went to study why monkeys respond negatively to inequity. The BlackBerry cell phones that help low-income smokers battle their addiction by giving them access to a special hotline, cost taxpayers nearly half a million dollars and the digital music players for high school students in Utah $200,000. Additionally, $200,000 in recovery funds purchased advertising promoting the monstrous government spending program.

Uncle Sam also gave the company (BP) responsible for a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico $308 million for a “joint clean energy venture” and $16 million to help a major aerospace and defense corporation (Boeing) clean up an environmental mess it created a few years ago. A public university in North Carolina got more than $760,000 to develop a computer dance program and an abandoned train station in New Jersey got $1.2 million to transform into a museum.

These are simply the latest of many examples of frivolous projects financed by Obama’s plan. So far tens of billions of dollars have gone to wasteful projects, including $5 billion on a “weatherization” program to make low-income houses energy efficient, $3 million for turtle crossing in northern Florida and $10 million to renovate an abandoned train station that’s been shut for three decades.

In the few months before this week’s report exposed the latest round of waste, more than $70 million went to a pair of reprehensible causes documented in this blog. First a wealthy and politically-connected Indian tribe casino got $54 million meant to help struggling communities even though, as one of the nation’s highest grossing casinos, it didn’t qualify for the stimulus infusion.

A few weeks later around $20 million went to buy road signs declaring that the disastrous program is “putting Americans back to work.” The signs, erected on highways throughout the nation, feature Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign logo mildly tweaked to look like a special logo for the stimulus, which has failed miserably to jump start the economy as per the commander-in-chief’s promise.