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That $1 Trillion in Stimulus Funds -- Where Did It Go?
Tuesday Morning Quarterback ^ | 11.30.11 | gregg easterbrook

Posted on 11/30/2010 7:49:59 PM PST by InvisibleChurch

A few weeks ago, TMQ noted that New York state's comptroller -- the person whose job is to guard the public purse -- had pleaded guilty to corruption. Last week, the Virginia secretary of finance, that state's equivalent of a comptroller, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for embezzling public funds.

Meanwhile, in Prince George's County, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C., the former school superintendent is in prison for taking kickbacks and the county executive was just arrested for corruption. The accusation against the county executive has not yet been heard in court, but it is pretty hard to imagine what the innocent explanation is for his telling his wife to flush checks down the toilet and hide $80,000 in cash in her underwear as FBI agents approached the house.

All that "stimulus" funny money the federal government has been pumping out -- more than $1 trillion between the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations -- how come we don't see the promised road construction, public transit improvements and school upgrades the stimulus funds supposedly were going to finance? Maybe because the money's being stolen. Government suddenly puts $1 trillion into a pot, with no accountability. There's no chance it will be stolen, is there?

At the least, much of the TARP and stimulus spending -- for which a Republican and a Democratic White House share blame -- has become no more than handouts to special-interest groups. Over the summer, Obama approved a $10 billion special giveaway to prevent what he said would be layoffs of teachers in public schools. That sounds important. But how has the money actually been used? Loudoun County, Va., spent nearly $5 million of its share to give schoolteachers extra ...

(Excerpt) Read more at sports.espn.go.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 11/30/2010 7:50:03 PM PST by InvisibleChurch
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To: InvisibleChurch

the rest of the article is about 2/5 of the way down.


2 posted on 11/30/2010 7:51:53 PM PST by InvisibleChurch (Stimulus ~ Response / "...and that's why the color yellow makes me sad, I think.")
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To: InvisibleChurch
Wasteful Spending on Bodyguards Watch: Some of the stimulus money is being poured down the drain to provide state and local government officials with bodyguards whose role is to make the officials seem important while allowing them to double-park, cut in lines and speed through stoplights. Here, Michigan's independent Mackinac Center for Public Policy reports that although the city of Detroit has severe budget problems, it spent $1.35 million last year so the mayor and his wife could enjoy round-the-clock security details. Spouses of senators and Supreme Court justices don't have bodyguards. Why does a mayor's wife? The 2009 stimulus bill included $170 million, added to the federal deficit, for Detroit city government. Supposedly, this money was to revive the city of Detroit. How much has been spent to let political insiders act like pashas?
3 posted on 11/30/2010 7:52:36 PM PST by InvisibleChurch (Stimulus ~ Response / "...and that's why the color yellow makes me sad, I think.")
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To: InvisibleChurch
That $1 Trillion in Stimulus Funds -- Where Did It Go?

Stuffed inside Big Momma's bra in Prince George's County, Maryland.
4 posted on 11/30/2010 7:55:57 PM PST by advance_copy (Stand for life or nothing at all)
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To: InvisibleChurch

>> There’s no chance it will be stolen, is there?

I doubt that any more than ten to twenty per cent of the money has, or will, disappear down the corruption rathole.

That’s only one hundred billion or two hundred billion dollars... hardly enough to worry about, don’t you think?

I mean, it’s a number on par with the net worth of the world’s five wealthiest men. Combined.

That’s a small price to pay, right?


5 posted on 11/30/2010 7:58:23 PM PST by Nervous Tick (Trust in God, but row away from the rocks!)
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To: InvisibleChurch

It bought votes.
That’s what the stimulus was intended to do.
It bought the votes of all the people that voted for President Vuvuzela and his Congress.
It paid off the unions, the poor people, the socialists, and the rest of the debris floating on the tide of US prosperity.
It bought off the government retirees whose pensions are broke, and all the other folks at the bottom of the food chain who’ve been cheated by their leaders.
Don’t get confused, this has been a most successful two years for the Democrats.
It will take decades to fix this mess, especially with all the half-wit Republicans still in there.


6 posted on 11/30/2010 7:58:35 PM PST by Santiago de la Vega (El hijo del Zorro)
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To: InvisibleChurch

Into the private slush funds to keep everyone but the people happy.


7 posted on 11/30/2010 8:08:30 PM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: InvisibleChurch

George Soros’s wallet...


8 posted on 11/30/2010 8:23:42 PM PST by stefanbatory (Insert witty tagline here)
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To: InvisibleChurch

Don’t know where it went but know where it came from.

China and some current cash flow from taxpayers.

And that fed printing press.

Paid for by the next generation. They deserve better.


9 posted on 11/30/2010 8:29:16 PM PST by quantim (Victory is not relative, it is absolute.)
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To: All

This will be a liberal ploy working towards 12. Attempt to intermingle TARP and the Stimulus.

I was against TARP, but the fact is that it’s been paid by to the tune of 99%.

Not the same animal as the Stimulus.


10 posted on 11/30/2010 8:41:32 PM PST by rbmillerjr (I will not, under any circumstances, vote for Mitt Romney....none.)
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To: InvisibleChurch

Somebody better check Sandy Berger’s socks.


11 posted on 11/30/2010 9:21:34 PM PST by Rocky (REPEAL IT!)
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To: InvisibleChurch
Money is being added to the crushing national debt so members of politically connected interest groups can receive cash for doing nothing.

Headline: Parasitic fund-us organizations infect government!

12 posted on 11/30/2010 9:29:38 PM PST by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: InvisibleChurch

Worse then throwing good money after bad. They actually threw borrowed money after bad. And all we got in return was the bad.


13 posted on 12/01/2010 1:40:38 AM PST by justa-hairyape
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