Monday, May 11, 2009

AP: Stimulus bill stimulating the wrong communities

Well, when legislators don't read a bill, thinks like this are bound to happen, as AP tells us this afternoon:

Counties suffering the most from job losses stand to receive the least help from President Barack Obama's plan to spend billions of stimulus dollars on roads and bridges, an Associated Press analysis has found.

Although the intent of the money is to put people back to work, AP's review of more than 5,500 planned transportation projects nationwide reveals that states are planning to spend the stimulus in communities where jobless rates are already lower.

One result among many: Elk County, Pa., isn't receiving any road money despite its 13.8 percent unemployment rate. Yet the military and college community of Riley County, Kan., with its 3.4 percent unemployment, will benefit from about $56 million to build a highway, improve an intersection and restore a historic farmhouse.

Altogether, the government is set to spend 50 percent more per person in areas with the lowest unemployment than it will in communities with the highest.

That's change I don't believe in.

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

It'll come out the same way when they get done with Health care. Those who need it most will get the least.

Anonymous said...

But in the case of jobs, those who need it most are those who are too lazy to do them, so how is this really a surprise? Not having a job is what you get for dropping out of high school, stupids. Maybe you should have actually cared about your future. Of course I know none of these people are reading this blog, seeing they probably can't read at all, although they probably have lots of puff daddy songs memorized. So this is all rhetorical.