More Non-Stimulating Stimulus

In the continuing chronicles of waste from Obama's 'stimulus' package...

Dead People Get Bailed Out!

Millions of Americans on Social Security are receiving $250 checks as part of the president's stimulus plan — including an Anne Arundel woman who died more than 40 years ago.

The woman's son, 83-year-old James Hagner, said he got the surprise when he checked his mailbox late last week.

"It shocked me and I laughed all at the same time," Hagner said. "I don't even expect to get one for myself, and I get one for my mother from 43 years ago?"

His mother, Rose, died on Memorial Day in 1967.

Social Security representatives said there is a good explanation. Of the about 52 million checks that have been mailed out, about 10,000 of those have been sent to people who are deceased.

There's that wonderful government accuracy and efficiency that will soon take control of our health care!  But it gets even better:

The billions in transportation stimulus dollars that President Barack Obama promoted as a way to create jobs shortchange counties that need the work the most, an Associated Press analysis has found.

The AP's review of more than 5,500 planned transportation projects nationwide is the most complete picture available of where states plan to spend the first wave of highway money. It reveals that states are planning to spend 50 percent more per person in areas with the lowest unemployment than in communities with the highest. The Transportation Department said it will attempt to replicate the AP's analysis as it continues pressing states to dole out money fairly.

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 3.4 percent unemployment, will benefit from about $56 million to build a highway, improve an intersection and restore a historic farmhouse.

Michelle Malkin's conclusion adds some more fun facts:

The jobs estimates are shady.

And states can't afford the administrative costs of it.

But hey, cheer up: The stimulus package is helping Americans buy…scooters!

Imagine if the reporters now blowing the whistle about the generational theft act's shortcomings had been as vigilant about policing the White House claims before it was rammed down our throats…

Even when the recipients are alive, though, it's hard to imagine how some expenditures create jobs (because, remember, that was the whole point of the 'stimulus'...).  For example:

In a time of deep recession, the American taxpayer might assume that our government has taken care to spend its money responsibly.  (All right, stop laughing, you know I'm setting a stage here.)  Even when we hear about monumentally stupid outlays like the snowmaking machine in Duluth in the Porkulus wish list, we assume that the monumentally stupid spending will remain in the US.  Not so, as CNS points out about a curious grant awarded to Wayne State University:

The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will pay $2.6 million in U.S. tax dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job.

Dr. Xiaoming Li, the researcher conducting the program, is director of the Prevention Research Center at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit.

The grant, made last November, refers to prostitutes as "female sex workers"–or FSW–and their handlers as "gatekeepers."

"Previous studies in Asia and Africa and our own data from FSWs [female sex workers] in China suggest that the social norms and institutional policy within commercial sex venues as well as agents overseeing the FSWs (i.e., the 'gatekeepers', defined as persons who manage the establishments and/or sex workers) are potentially of great importance in influencing alcohol use and sexual behavior among establishment-based FSWs," says the NIH grant abstract submitted by Dr. Li.

"Therefore, in this application, we propose to develop, implement, and evaluate a venue-based alcohol use and HIV risk reduction intervention focusing on both environmental and individual factors among venue-based FSWs in China," says the abstract.

Almost three million dollars to teach Chinese hookers how to hold their liquor?  In the middle of a recession?  This can't be real; it's a "too good to check" item, right?  Wrong, although CNS discounts the high-minded motive behind the study:

A $2.6 million grant will help a Wayne State University School of Medicine researcher establish and evaluate whether an alcohol and HIV intervention center can assist in reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS among sex workers in China. …

"The global literature indicates an important role of alcohol use, especially problem drinking (abuse), in facilitating HIV/AIDS transmission in commercial sex venues where elevated alcohol use/abuse and sexual risk behaviors frequently co-occur," Dr. Li said. "We expect that the intervention will improve protective normative beliefs and institutional support regarding alcohol use and HIV protection."

It's still a multimillion-dollar study that essentially teaches Chinese hookers to sober up when plying their trade, the better to prevent the spread of disease.  That may be a good idea for a project for the Chinese government to fund — and cynics can point out that the Chinese are funding our budget deficits, so it may all be moot anyway — but the NIH might want to study those effects here in the US instead.  After all, if the American taxpayer is funding the study, how about preventing disease amplification here rather than in Guangxi?

I'm curious as to how supporting foreign drunken prostitutes creates jobs for Americans, but I don't suppose anyone will bother asking the President about that.

Or, it could be that all this extra government expansion is creating jobs...government jobs:

The US Government is broke but keeps on hiring.
And, the average pay for a federal worker will leap from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 next year.
That's "average" pay.
In 2007, the median annual household income was $50,233.00 according to the Census Bureau.
CBS News reported:

President Obama's call last year for "shared sacrifice" doesn't extend to federal employees, at least based on the details of his administration's 2010 budget released this week.

At a time when the official unemployment rate is nearing double digits, and 6.35 million people are receiving unemployment benefits, the U.S. government is on a hiring binge.

Executive branch employment — 1.98 million in 2009, excluding the Postal Service and the Defense Department — is set to increase by 15.6 percent for the 2010 fiscal year. Most of that is thanks to the Census Bureau hiring 102,000 temporary workers, but not counting them still yields a net increase of 2 percent in one year.

There's little belt-tightening in evidence in Washington, D.C.: Counting benefits, the average pay per federal worker will leap from $72,800 in 2008 to $75,419 next year.

It's really no surprise then that the Washington DC counties top the list as the nation's richest counties.

This is not exactly the way to bring the economy around!  Expanding government control always -- ALWAYS -- results in a slowdown of the economy.  I challenge anyone who doesn't believe this to point to one major industrialized nation in the world (or in history) that has become powerful and prosperous by having a gigantic government.  It may appear to work for a while, but eventually it fails.  Every time.

And that's what Obama is doing to America.  I'm sorry, but not even the Obamessiah can buck economics 101 and history at the same time.

There's my two cents.