Obama's Stimulus Waste: $7 million per House on Internet Access

Townhall.com ^ | July 8, 2011 | Bob Beauprez

[Kaslin]

In our blog post of July 5, 2011 we cited analysis of the recently release quarterly summary report of Barack Obama's Stimulus that concluded the Administration spent $278,000 per job they claimed to have "saved or created" with the $666 billion the White House has spent thus far of the more than $800 billion authorized by the legislation approved in 2009.   

The Administration used the Stimulus as a private slush fund to funnel vast amounts of money to programs and industries favored by the President.  

One of his campaign pledges was to expand broadband internet access, particularly to rural areas, and with the Stimulus check book in hand, Obama proceeded to deliver on that promise spending a total of $7.2 billion, with $2.5 billion specifically allocated to "Rural Utilities Service" (RUS).  

Jeffry Eisenach and Kevin Caves of Navigant Economics, a financial and economic analysis and consulting firm looked at the results of Obama's rural broadband expansion efforts.   The results aren't very pretty.

The Navigant analysts evaluated programs in three areas: Southwestern Montana, Northwestern Kansas, and Northern Minnesota that received Stimulus funds to extend broadband access to homes currently lacking service.  

According to their report, it cost on average $349,234 per household.  

But, it gets worse. 

In the Montana region, there were actually a number of providers, including wireless, that already provided service in the area.  

Eisenach and Caves found that if 3G wireless was included, only seven households in the entire region could be considered to be without any option for access.  Thus, the cost to extend access to those seven homes was about $7 million each.  

Like Einstein said of insanity, this was doing the same thing over again and expecting different results.  

According to the Eisenach and Caves, "Prior investigations have shown that RUS' broadband subsidy programs were not cost effective, and often funded duplicative coverage in areas already served by existing programs."  

But, Obama funded it anyway – and sent American taxpayers the bill.  

[cranked]

The day of reckoning is fast approaching..... =.=

[FrankR]

That is just incredible...

The problem with him showering all these handouts on "holder's peeps" is ending them.

My little dog won't bother my food, but if I give her a rib bone, or anything else, DO NOT TRY TO TAKE IT BACK! She won't bite me, but I would pity any stranger trying to take it away from her...and she only weighs 10-pounds.

Goes along with the old adage, "You can't put the toothpaste back into the tube."

We saw what happened in Greece when they ran out of money - the moocher class did not take it sitting down, and rioted in demand of money the government did not have.

You give a mouse a cookie, he'll want a glass of milk.

[Terry Mross]

Is $666 million a coincidence or does he do this just to mess with us.

[Liz]

The $700B TARP Bailout is now being called, "A MASTERFUL DECEIT." Bush-era Treasury Secy Henry Paulson, et al, may not have pulled a fast one when they testified in favor of the TARP before Congress----but Congress' phony outrage is a puzzlement. If HR 1424 was a 'MASTERFUL DECEIT' then CONGRESS didn't do its job.

TITLE I—TROUBLED ASSETS RELIEF PROGRAM (required 'Congressional Oversight' sections listed)
Sec. 101. Purchases of troubled assets.
Sec. 102. Insurance of troubled assets.
Sec. 103. Considerations.
Sec. 104. Financial Stability Oversight Board.
Sec. 105. Reports.
Sec. 107. Contracting procedures.
Sec. 108. Conflicts of interest.
Sec. 111. Executive compensation and corporate governance.
Sec. 116. Oversight and audits.
Sec. 118. Funding.
Sec. 119. Judicial review and related matters.
Sec. 121. Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Sec. 125. Congressional Oversight Panel.
Sec. 127. Cooperation with the FBI.
Sec. 129. Disclosures on exercise of loan authority.

In HR 1424, there are enough rules, regs and CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT REQUIRED that not one Thin Dime should have been 'misspent.' So if anything crooked did go on Congress should look in a mirror. They dropped the ball -- or were they in on the scam?

================================

$6.4 Billion Stimulus Goes to Phantom Districts
watchdog.org | November, 2009 | staff
FR Posted August 09, 2010 by bronxville

Just how big is Obama's stimulus package? Well for one, it has doubled the size of the House of Representatives, according to recovery.gov. TARP funds were distributed to 440 congressional districts that do not exist.

According to data retrieved from recovery.gov, nearly $6.4 billion was used to “create or save” just under 30,000 jobs in these phantom congressional districts–almost $225,000 per job. The web site operates on an $84 million budget and is tasked with monitoring the distribution of the $787 billion stimulus package passed by Congress–which, for the record, counts 435 members–in early 2009...

SOURCE http://watchdog.org/1530/6-4-billion-stimulus-goes-to-phantom-districts/

[hflynn]

Another DOTUS WTF.

[WOBBLY BOB]

Algore’s tie-breaking vote on the USF fee being added to all phone bills was supposed to cover this any way...

F’N liars.

[Uncle Ike]

Hmmm...

I’m about as ‘rural’ as ya can get (30 miles from the nearest WalMart) and my DSL bill just went *UP*!!!

Where’s MY share of all that largesse????

[F.J. Mitchell]

That is obamanable!

[Mr. K]

FOX News should be making DAILY HEADLINES with these reports

Let’s hold their feet to the fire too

I am getting a little tired of them goinv OVERHBOARD to be ‘fair and balanced’ when the other side is not. The other sides has its own mouthpieces already

[Josephat]

There are no coincidences.

[darth]

Corruption and graft on a vast scale.

I want to know whose bank accounts the checks went into for the non-existent Congressional districts. That’s the tip of the iceberg.

Investigate, audit, prosecute, seize assets, and send the perps away for decades of hard time.

Rudy Giuliani would make a good AG. If he could take down five Mafia families, maybe he could handle the THOUSANDS of prosecutions that this incredible ripoff should generate.

The evidence will show that the corruption went all the way to the TOP!

[Josephat]

A subtle warning from God about who we are dealing with, perhaps.

[Kaslin]

Would that make them better in your eyes? It would not in mine

[Josephat]

I agree. They are still wasting time on Casey Anthony. Lots of time for trash, no time for the stuff that really matters. I don’t think the Republic has any friends in the media.

[Soul of the South]

Unfortunately the Republicans are not using the facts to their advantage. The refrain should be — “Why raise the debt ceiling when there is all of this waste to cut?”. Everyday Boehner and McConnell should stand on the steps of the Capitol and reveal a new example of waste and corruption spawned by the Administration. Perhaps they should bring back former Democrat Senator William Proxmire’s “Golden Fleece” award.

I am very frustrated by the Republican leadership’s inability to crank up a PR machine to highlight the waste and fraud occurring everyday.

[airborne]

Bookmark

[rdb3]

Is $666 million a coincidence or does he do this just to mess with us.

I know, right. That popped up in my mind when I saw it.

If you can't appreciate the pure beauty of the violin after hearing this, something's wrong with your ears.

Or you can get raw with these strings. Either way, the violin is sweet yet lethal.

Do it!

[Liz]

Corruption and graft on a vast scale. I want to know whose bank accounts the checks went into for the non-existent Congressional districts.

You got that right

ITEM Novelist Dean Koontz estimates about $70 Billion has been looted from US govt assets since Ohaha came in.

ITEM At least half a dozen people in the Ohaha admin are going to walk away from “Public Service“ living like the Sultan of Brunei......and we can name them all without even breaking a sweat.

ITEM Obama tapped VP Joe Biden to "allocate" the stimulus $$trillions. Biden's son and brother were involved with Texas financier H. Allen Stanford, now charged with an $8 billion offshore fraud. The Bidens $50 million fund was jointly branded between the Bidens' Paradigm Global Advisors LLC and a Stanford Financial Group entity, and was known as the Paradigm Stanford Capital Management Core Alternative Fund, the WSJ said. Stanford-related companies marketed the fund to global investors....... Paradigm Global Advisors is owned through a holding company by the VP's son, Hunter, and Joe Biden's brother, James, according to the WSJ.

ITEM As Ohaha's COS, Wall Street Rahm controlled the NJ Treasury and placed his brother in charge of Medicare/Aid and O/Care billions. (Wall Street can make money disappear faster than a cream puff at a Weight Watcher weigh-in.)

ITEM----HOW GANGSTER GOVERNMENT SCAMMED BILLIONS USING THE MADOFF MO The trustee ID'ing Madoff's assets, found Madoff created a labyrinth of interrelated international funds, institutions and financial entities of unparalleled complexity and breadth......with assets and businesses in multiple places offshore that hid government fraud, thievery, money laundereing, tax evasion........ all out of sight of taxpayers, the IRS, SEC, FEC and US banking laws.

[upchuck]

I’m about as ‘rural’ as ya can get (30 miles from the nearest WalMart) and my DSL bill just went *UP*!!!

Quit crying. I'm less rural than you (20 miles to the nearest Wally) and I don't even have DSL. And prolly never will as AT&T is pumping all their bucks into Uverse. Much better ROI.