Reply #6: The stimulus was poorly done, [View All]

[IndyPragmatist]

I believe it could have had a much bigger impact, but our congressmen and women seemed to eager to just grab some cash for their district, than putting that money into areas that would help the nation.

There are dozens of sites (mostly right wing) dedicated to all the wasteful spending from the stimulus. And they are completely right. Those billions could have had a positive impact on our economy, but instead, we just pushed the money to pet projects with very little forethought.

*The town of Union, New York is being urged to spend $578,000 in stimulus money that it did not request for a homelessness problem that it claims it does not have.
*Sheltering Arms Senior Services was awarded a contract worth $22.3 million in stimulus money to weatherize homes for poor families in Houston, Texas - but a new report from Texas Watchdog says that the weatherization work was performed so badly that 33 of the 53 homes will need to be completely redone.
*In Nevada, $2 million in stimulus money built a new fire station, but because of budget cuts, the county can't afford to hire firefighters to work there.



These are just a few examples of poorly directed funds. There are plenty of positive programs that came from the stimulus, but there are also billions in wasted funds. Regardless of party, when you just tell Congress that we have billions of dollars to spend, and to go find places to spend it, you likely find a huge amount of wasted money.