Do all these pork projects seem like a good use of our hard earned tax dollars? What did it stimulate?

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/After-a-flurry-of-stimulus-spending_-questionable-projects-pile-up-8474249-68709732.html

– $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the AZ Diamondbacks and CO Rockies.

– $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its 2 headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.

– $430,000 to repair a bridge in IA County, Wis., that carries ten or fewer cars per day.

– $800,000 for the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., serving about twenty passengers per day, to build a backup runway.

– $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women.

– $2.3 million for the United States Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid.

– $3.4 million for a Thirteen foot tunnel for turtles and other wildlife attempting to cross United States twenty seven in Lake Jackson, Florida

– $1.15 million to install a guardrail for a persistently dry lake bed in Guymon, Okla.

– $9.38 million to renovate a century-old train depot in Lancaster County, Pa., that has not been used for 3 decades.

– $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.

– $6 million for a snow-making facility in Duluth, Minn.

– $173,834 to weatherize 8 pickup trucks in Madison County, Ill.

– $20,000 for a fish sperm freezer at the Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery in SD .

– $380,000 to spay and neuter pets in Wichita, Kan.

– $300 apiece for thousands of signs at road construction sites across the country announcing that the projects are funded by stimulus money.

– $1.5 million for a fence to block would-be jumpers from leaping off the All-American Bridge in Akron, OH .

– $1 million to study the health effects of environmentally friendly public housing on 300 people in Chicago.

– $356,000 for IN University to study childhood comprehension of foreign accents compared with native speech.

– $983,952 for street beautification in Ann Arbor, Mich., including decorative lighting, trees, benches and bike paths.

– $148,438 for WA State University to analyze the use of pot in conjunction with medications like morphine.

– $462,000 to purchase twenty two concrete toilets for use in the Mark Twain National Forest in MO

– $3.1 million to transform a canal barge into a floating museum that will travel the Erie Canal in NY state.

– $1.3 million on government arts jobs in ME , including $30,000 for basket makers, $20,000 for storytelling and $12,500 for a music festival.

– $71,000 for a hybrid car to be used by student drivers in Colchester, Vt., as well as a plug-in hybrid for town workers decked out with a sign touting the vehicle’s energy efficiency.

– $1 million for Portland, Ore., to replace one hundred aging bike lockers and build a garage that would house 250 bicycles.

9 Comments on “Do all these pork projects seem like a good use of our hard earned tax dollars? What did it stimulate?

  1. Does not look like it to me.

    Instead of posting on YA all day – maybe you should contact your representatives and complain about this.

  2. Stimulus? No…

    $800 billion in Pork filled political payback? YES!

  3. I agree, most seem like a waste. The 1st 1 takes place in AZ , where John McCain is a Senator. McCain has stated in the past to cut out waste and make famous those who request it. Send your first letter to him.

  4. I REALLY hate to break it to you but MOST of these pork projects were added to the bill by REPUBLICANS (AZ IS a McCain RED STATE – your first example).

    dee dee dee

  5. What it stimulates is votes from the beneficiaries of the pork barrel spending. You know the old saying, we’ve got the best government money can buy!

  6. McCain didn’t vote for the Stimulus act, aka American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009, H.R.1 on 2/10/2009

    Send your complaints to President Obama’nation, who during his campaign promised to READ EACH BILL, LINE BY LINE, AND ELIMINATE PORK.

  7. Assuming I can trust your facts, I’d say, yes, most (I’m not reading them all) of the above (a TINY percent of the total package) are stimulative.

    People have to be hired, and materials bought to do them — which creates or saves jobs. Many of them are worthy projects.

    Much of the most stimulative items in the original proposal were offed by GOPs (who then refused to vote for it after all); and less stimulative parts added by same.

    However, mostly the money is going to do good things — quality of life, envrinmental improvement, infrastructure.

    I bet every worker on every 1 of them is glad to have the work; every supplier and person transporting materials are glad to have the business; and the people who will benefit from the results will be glad to do so.

    Is each an IDEAL use of the money? No. But when does that EVER happen?