While efficiency experts across the country are giggling at the ironic fumbling of the the American Postal Workers Union -- they have had to extend their union election because thousands of ballots were claimed to have been lost in the mail -- those same efficiency experts are gasping at the federal government paying out $18 million of the President's stimulus to 72,000 dead people.But not to worry says the Social Security Administration. About half of that money has been returned. And to Washington bureaucrats, losing $9,000,000 to criminals is just chump change.
In fact, the SSA is so generous to criminals that an additional $4.3 million of that stimulus cash went out to some 17,000 prison inmates.
But are all the stories of the Democrats' stimulus spending a bad (though very expensive) joke? Of course not. For instance, out in Palm Springs, the Democrat mayor Steve Pougnet, is crediting the President's stimulus gifts as saving the city from a “major, major depression.”
True, the once-luxurious tourist destination remains a pitiful version of its former self. It's run down, plagued by fleeing businesses, empty buildings and a 14% unemployment rate. But the stimulus package gave Palm Springs $1.37 million dollars for a park with fancy lighting and two Bocce ball greens.
The net employment gain? 20. And some of those will not be permanent.
So how does this save Palm Springs? It doesn't. But to Mayor Pougnet, an open homosexual who is now running for Congress and has nothing but a lousy record to boast of, he's desperate to cook up some kind of enthusiasm for his campaign. So what else but to go "old school" Democrat; that is, brag about being in such sad shape that you need money from the public trough to survive. And then waste that survival money on projects that serve just a few folks and which generates no sustainable revenue.
And finally, one more delicious item showing the Obama administration handing out your money for things you definitely do not want. In this case, $700,000 is going from your pockets through the National Science Foundation to a New York theater company. For what? The NSF commissioned the thespians to come up with a musical touting the need for America to act against climate change. Thinking Al Gore in a top hat? No, this one stars a lovely photojournalist working in the rain forests of Panama with all of the music, dancing, and propaganda that you'd expect.
Your money doled out to the dead. To prison inmates. To Bocce ball greens. To agitprop toe-dancers.
Feeling stimulated yet?
