And Rightly So… » Blog Archive » Let the public track exactly where stimulus money goes

Let the public track exactly where stimulus money goes

Posted by Raven on January 26th, 2009

Remember pork? No, not the bacon variety…I’m talking about the Congress brand. IT’S BACK. Even though Barry says it IS NOT!

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama’s ban on earmarks in the $825 billion economic stimulus bill doesn’t mean interest groups, lobbyists and lawmakers won’t be able to funnel money to pet projects.

They’re just working around it – and perhaps inadvertently making the process more secretive.

Well I all I can say is this: Barry ~~slums~~ slugs out of Chicago…where the politics and culture are as corrupt as it gets. We get what we vote for- at least the liberals do.

‘No earmarks’ isn’t a game-ender,” said Peter Buffa, former mayor of Costa Mesa, Calif. “It just means there’s a different way of going about making sure the funding is there.”

It won’t be in legislative language that overtly sets aside money for them. That’s the infamous practice known as earmarking, which Obama and Democratic congressional leaders have agreed to nix for the massive stimulus package, expected to come up for a House vote this week.

Instead, the money will be doled out according to arcane formulas spelled out in the bill and in some cases based on the decisions of Obama administration officials, governors and state and local agencies that will choose the projects.

Uh huh….

Lobbyists are hard at work figuring out ways to grab a share of the money for their clients, but the new rules mean they’re doing so indirectly – and sometimes in ways that are impossible to track.
[...]
Obama, who campaigned promising a more transparent and accountable government, is advocating a system that will eventually let the public track exactly where stimulus money goes through an Internet-powered search engine. In addition, Democratic lawmakers have devised an elaborate oversight system, including a new board to review how the money is spent.

Oh bullshit. Barry ain’t about to allow THAT much tranparency- especially when we know his Chicago ways will always follow him.

I think bloggers can track down every penny and expose it all for what it is…wasted money going to stupid projects that add no value to the people who are not working. Perhaps it’s time for Pork Busters to come back to life…with a network of bloggers in every town, city and region seeking, looking and documenting where this stimulus money really goes. An effort like this will put Barry to shame so….let’s roll.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Bailout or Handout, National Politics, Obama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.