New website can't track paths of federal stimulus grants

Denverpost.com ^ | 9/28/09 | Miles Moffeit

[Nachum]

The goal was to build a reporting system that allows the public to follow the zigzagging paths of dollars awarded under the $787 billion federal stimulus package.

A financial GPS of sorts.

But despite federal lawmakers' pledge of transparency, the final stages of most money trails, along with key information about job impacts, will remain invisible to users of the Recovery.org website when it debuts next month.

Only details of a stimulus grant's passage through its first two stops after it leaves the federal government must be reported, according to guidance memos from the White House Office of Management and Budget.

That means billions of dollars will be untrackable and thousands of recipients will be left unidentified through the database, officials acknowledge.

[Nachum]

A trillion here, a trillion there and pretty soon you're talking real money.

[Nachum]

The list, ping

[FlingWingFlyer]

This is the most “transparent” corrupt administration this country has ever seen. The commie ‘RATS have given up trying to hide their corruption. They are doing it out in the open and daring “racist” Americans to call them on it. This goofy “historical” president thing is getting really old.

[freedumb2003]

(sung to the tune of “Tracks if my tears”)
People say I’m the life of the party
Because I spend a trillion or two
Although I might be laughing loud and hearty
deep inside I’m laughing at you
So take a good look at my face
you’ll see my joker smile is in place
No matter how close you look, you’ll never trace
the tracks of my grants
I don’t need you, don’t need you’
Since you elected me, if you see me spending
Seeming like I’m having fun
Although it is your dough
It’s mine now, so
because you are where the money comes from
So take a good look at my face
you’ll see my joker smile is in place
No matter how close you look, you’ll never trace
the tracks of my grants

(whaddya think, Charles?)

[browardchad]

But despite federal lawmakers' pledge of transparency, the final stages of most money trails, along with key information about job impacts, will remain invisible to users of the Recovery.org website when it debuts next month.

But, of course, the goal never was transparency...it was the appearance of transparency.

And for this administration, appearances are everything -- designed for the edification of those whose only source of information is the evening news.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

This is pretty reliable. It breaks it down by state so you can see how much of your fellow mans tax dollars YOUR state is wasting on local boondoggles:

http://www.stimuluswatch.org