“Stimulus” Funds Road to Nowhere

Thursday, June 24, 2010 11:50 AM by Julie Borowski

The “stimulus” bill may have passed over a year ago, but that doesn’t mean the obscene waste inherent in its disbursement has ended. The Daily Caller today quotes CFA Executive Director Mattie Corrao in an article discussing the latest iteration of ludicrous “stimulus” spending:

Last Friday, Orlando, Fla. became the first city to name a road after President Barack Obama. Fittingly, $11,503,000.00 from Obama’s stimulus will fund the 3.3 miles of road combining Pine Hills Road and Mission Road in Orange County.

 Mattie Corrao, government affairs manager for Americans for Tax Reform, was not surprised by this recent use of stimulus funds to politicize yet another public works project.

 “This is pretty characteristic of the ’stimulus,’ which was essentially established as a slush fund for political pet projects.” she told The Daily Caller. “It just illustrates how much of the stimulus has been used to politicize and advertise the stimulus itself.”

As we have reported before, the “stimulus” signs cost taxpayers an average of $1,200 each and the number of arrogant pet projects named after lawmakers have become far too common. Last year, the "King of Pork" John Murtha swindled $800,000 from the “stimulus” to keep the airport named after him and used only by him running in Pennsylvania. And now, since the road sign propaganda wasn’t illustrative enough of big government waste, the President is getting a road named after him, at the hefty price tag of $11 million.

 The lists of inane spending proposals like this are the reason we are now facing staggering debt. However, some members of Congress believe the problem lies in revenue stream. This, of course, comes in the midst of the debate on tax extenders legislation, the war supplemental and the Democrats’ refusal to propose a budget, while leadership continues to ramp up its rhetoric on “jobs” (i.e. stimulus) measures. It seems, however, our politicians’ egos have been stimulated enough – time to stop the spending, stupid.

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