Citizens Against Government Waste: ‘Stimulus Spending a Failure Again’

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Washington, D.C. – The nation’s premier taxpayer watchdog group, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), today expressed more outrage with the Obama administration’s $862 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), or “stimulus” package, following the release of a new study by Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and. John McCain (R-Ariz.).  The report highlighted the fact that some stimulus programs led to job losses, instead of job creation.

The report also detailed more questionable uses of the stimulus money, including $1.2 million for converting an abandoned train station into a museum in New Jersey, $762,372 to develop interactive dance software in North Carolina, and $554,763 for new windows in a visitor’s center that closed in 2007 in Washington.

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“The President promised that 90 percent of the jobs created would be in the private sector and that unemployment would drop to 8 percent, but the only positive job creation has been in the public sector, as private sector unemployment has risen to 9.5 percent,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  “The administration’s spokespersons have been all over the board on jobs creation numbers, claiming anywhere from 640,000 to 2 million; yet the numbers show more than 3.4  million jobs have been lost since President Obama promised to create more than 3 million jobs when he announced the stimulus package 18 months ago.  While touting the stimulus as part of the effort to get the country out of the Great Recession, all it has done is help to create the Great Debt.”

The 74-page report scrutinized 100 stimulus projects.  A news report by CNBC highlighted the fact that the study “spotlights everything from federal stimulus money that went to study the effects of cocaine on monkeys to dollars that went to construction projects that blocked access to local businesses – which laid off employees as a result.”

“President Obama talks incessantly about wasteful government spending and reining in the budget deficit, yet his policies do the opposite and end up spending more taxpayer money than any previous President.  In fact, President Obama and Congress have increased discretionary spending by 84 percent,” continued Schatz.  “The stimulus is part of a large down payment on a long-term legacy of fiscal woe, as the national debt will nearly double in the next 10 years.  In the prescient words of CAGW co-founder J. Peter Grace, ‘we’re mortgaging our children’s future…we’re robbing piggy banks, we’re taxing our defenseless children without representation. … It’s unforgivable.’”

Submitted by Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. I have a transportation issue that I have been attempting to get the members of the General assembly to take seriously.

    What they are doing is unconstitutional and is a federal crime, but they refuse to approach attorney general Ken Cuccinelli for his comments because they know that I am correct.

    As an individual my voice as a concerned citizen has been quashed. But as an organization you may have better luck approaching these legislators and forcing a change.

    My argument is as follows: the Virginia State Vehicle Safety Inspection Mandate is unconstitutional because it discriminates against all of Virginia's vehicle owners by requiring that they submit to having their vehicles certified annually or lose the privilege of driving on the very roads that their tax dollars are used to maintain while allowing vehicles that are not registered in Virginia to enter our boarders and travel upon the very same roads unencumbered by this mandate, potentially putting the lives of the individuals that submitted to the mandate and proved compliance in peril from vehicles that are not regulated and may be deemed unsafe based on the same Virginia Vehicle Safety Inspection criteria.

  2. The solar issue and politics just got a little more interesting. The Tonopah Solar Company, in Harry Reid's Nevada, is getting a $737 million loan from the Obama's DOE. The project will produce a 110 megawatt power system and employ 45 permanent workers. That's costing the American tax payer just $16 million per job. One of the investment partners in this endeavor is Pacific Corporate Group (PCG) is the PCG executive director Ron Pelosi who is the brother of Nancy's husband. Just moving folks….. ""nuttin goin"" on here. EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW HOW THEIR MONEY IS BEING STOLEN by big Government to provide to the fat cats of those who know someone in high places. They are spending America's money to appease the wants of parsites.

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