Posted on 03/19/2009 11:21:05 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Biden Begs: No Swimming Pools! Posted by Mark Knoller | Comments
Looking to strike fear and compliance in the hearts of local officials, Vice President Joe Biden warns that if they use money from the economic stimulus fund to build what he regards as the wrong kind of projects, “I’ll show up in your city and say this was a stupid idea.”
“No swimming pools!” he implored. “No tennis courts!” he begged. “No golf courses!” he pleaded. “No Frisbee parks!” he exhorted.
“This can’t be government as usual,” he told an assemblage of local officials invited to the White House from around the country.
Even if they can promise him that building their projects will create jobs and generate revenue, Biden wants none of it.
“The answer is no, no, no!” He said “it’s got to pass the smell test.”
He urged the officials to think about how their constituents would react if the projects they launched were plastered on the front page of their biggest local newspaper.
“If it doesn’t automatically make sense, don’t do it!”
Once the officials get funding for infrastructure, Biden said, they can do what they like with it. But he served notice that if they launch the kind of projects he deems inappropriate, he won’t be shy about saying what he thinks.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Hey, the mexicans are doing the road work here in Houston - yard work, housing construction - I don’t know where white guys work anymore!
We get a...
Drum roll please...
ROAD WIDENED.
Yes, yet another useless and stupid road widening. Thats all the stimulus for the entire North of Clark County. Worth about 10 jobs.
What a joke.
He's jockeying for a UN post.
White guys sit behind desks and get chubby.
So I guess that means that dirt lot at the end of my block that was supposed to be made into a park 5 years ago will remain a dirt lot.
What’s wrong with swimming pools? OK, arguably tennis courts, golf courses and frisbee parks are of interest to only a limited segment of the population. Swimming pools, on the other hand, are typically used by everyone in the community, especially children. Swimming is a healthy activity, and swimming is an important skill for children to learn in order to help drown-proof them.
Swimming pools are bad, but it’s cool Mass. is spending one fifth of their money honoring the Kennedy legacy? WTF?
That’s me! :)
ping
“;....to build what he regards as the wrong kind of projects, “I’ll show up in your city and say this was a stupid idea.””
Wat to go, Joe, AFTER the money is gone you will point out that it’s use was a bad idea. AFTER. Ok.
ping
Pools are much better than libraries. People actually use pools.
I feel like it’s all gonna be good now.
Uh... We’re getting a bike path up and down the mountains of the Poconos. This isn’t something for commuters that would save energy. Hey, Joe!
There goes the pool worker’s union vote....
““This can’t be government as usual,” he told an assemblage of local officials invited to the White House from around the country.”
A rare moment of candor. Even Joe recognizes that government usually will squander taxpayer funds. His delusion is in thinking that somehow—with Sheriff Joe on the watch—the stimulus funds will be spent any more sensibly.
It was “government as usual” that created porkulus in the first place. It will be “government as usual” that won’t quit until every last dollar is squandered in “feel good” projects whose selection will be designed to maximize the political prospects of the incumbents charged with spending someone else’s money.
I’m sure City Administrators everywhere are just QUAKING in their boots.
I’m from MA.
Thanks for the happy news.
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