And you thought we were going into debt to build roads ...

Jun. 07, 2009 - Las Vegas Review-Journal
Con games and stimulus cash

Advertise a product at an unheard-of low price to draw in the shoppers. Once they arrive, the salesman goes to work, showing them how they can get so much more value for their money if they'll just "step up" to the upgraded model, at an ever-so-slight increase in price. You did want the extended five-year warranty for a modest additional six dollars a month, right?

In extreme cases, it can even turn out that the fine print said "while supplies last." The three low-cost models were gone in five minutes, of course. "But we happen to have something even better, if you'll just step this way. ..."
Governments use the technique a little differently. Perhaps the police tax issue promised voters the money would be used to "put 500 more cops on the streets." A few years later, when nowhere close to 500 new officers are on patrol, a department spokesman blithely explains some of the money was used to buy new computers, "which are considered to be the manpower equivalent of one-and-a-half new officers."
More recently, remember how all those billions in "stimulus" money allocated in Washington last year were reserved for "shovel-ready" projects, creating new construction jobs and additionally re-building our infrastructure -- roads, piers, bridges, stuff like that?
Well, let the man in the plaid sport coat and the white Corfam shoes explain it all to you, Mr. and Ms. Voter. Turns out you didn't want a bunch of crummy infrastructure, after all. Instead, they found something much better to spend your money on, if you'll just step this way ...
As it turns out, most of that money is going where government always puts most of its money -- into fat paychecks for social service bureaucrats.
"Most of the roughly $300 billion coming directly to the states is being funneled through existing government programs for health care, education, unemployment benefits, food stamps and other social services," The Associated Press reported this week.
Two-thirds of recovery money that flows directly to states will go toward health care. Not hiring new doctors or nurses, mind you. Just paying medical bills for poor people -- and the salaries of those who handle this redistribution of your hard-earned cash. ...READ MORE...