$6.4 Billion in Fed Stimulus Goes to 440 Non-Existent Congressional Districts
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Bill McMorris at Watchdog.org combined all the state Watchdog reporting on federal stimulus money going to phantom Congressional districts, and then dug through the rest of the data reported at recovery.gov, the $84 million website established by the Obama Administration to “track every last penny,” as our President put it, of the $787 billion stimulus.
McMorris has discovered that a total of $6.4 billion went to 440 non-existent Congressional Districts. What does the Obama Administration have to say about this? Michael Noyes, my Monatana Watchdog colleague at the Monatana Policy Institute, was able to get a telephone interview with Ed Pound, director of communications for the Recovery Accountability and Transparency board, which oversees the recovery.gov site. When asked about millions going to fictitious Congressional districts, Pound blamed it on the recipients not knowing in which congressional districts they live. He said recovery.gov did nothing wrong, because it reported incorrect information correctly. “Our job is data integrity, not data quality,” he said.
In other words, garbage in, garbage out. This is not exactly the excruciating oversight and accountability President Obama promised. And if the recipient of millions of our money doesn’t know their Congressional district, one must wonder about their competence to handle so much of the public’s money.
Posted under News.
Tags: Bill McMorris, Scarantino, stimulus, Watchdog.org
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Moralia - Transparency in action: your tax dollars into the abyss
[...] Scarantino of the New Mexico Watchdog reports that $6.4 billion in federal stimulus dollars has gone to non-existent congressional districts. Yes, you read that right: non-existent [...]
10:23 am on November 18th, 2009
18 Nov. 2009
$6.4 billion to non-existent congressional districts. This is surreal. We need a states constitutional convention to create the following amendments:
1) Term Limits (2 for Senators, 3 for Reps)
All laws passed by Congress must be reviewed by the Supreme Court to determine constitutionality before they can be applied.
2) Congress cannot exempt itself from any law that it passes.
3) Balanced Budget Amendment (only exception would be during a war)
4) Limit on % of GDP that the government can take as tax (except during wartime)
5) To keep the crooks from engaging us in wars just to get around 3 and 4, we need an amendment that in case of war, the children of Senators and Congressmen will be drafted first.
6) An Amendment that the Senate can approve no treaty that infringes on the U.S. Constitutional rights of U.S. Citizens.
7) Congressional Pay must be limited to 1.5 times the average income of residents of Washington D.C.
It is imperative to lasso these miscreants for the survival of the Republic and democracy.
The Declaration of Independence and Constitution and the Federalist papers should be required reading for all students, every year, from the 7th grade through highschool.
States should enact laws that you can only get a drivers license after graduation from high school and passing a written reading, writing, and arithmetic test.
Manford Eaton
9:12 am on November 19th, 2009
Just another case of sour grapes. Dig a little farther and tell everyone where the money did go instead of reporting half-truths, and trying to incite a deeper political division that this country doesn’t need. And if you are really the “watchdog” group you claim to be (as opposed to just an Obama-Democrat bashing group) then investigate the Billions (yes that’s right Billions not millions) of dollars, in cash no less, that the Bush administration “lost” in Iraq. Those were Our tax dollars just as much as the stimulus money was. Politics (and most politicians for that matter) are crooked. I know, I had to live through George Ryan, Rod Blagoyevich, and now Pat Quinn. At least have the integrity to “watch” both sides, the Dem’s and the Rep’s, and report the whole truth. If not, then you become just as much a fraud as the groups you are speaking out against.
10:45 am on November 19th, 2009
Agreed, JC, we do need to dig deeper and find where the money went. But there are no “half truths” in this report. The full truth was that the website created to tell the American public where nearly a trillion dollars went said money was going to and jobs were being created in nonexistent congressional districts. We really don’t know where that money went…yet. Give us some time now to look at individual recipients and jobs claims numbers. The Associated Press has been doing that and finding jobs claims turn out to be false claims.
My beat is what happens in New Mexico. The billions that disappeared in Iraq is a legitimate story, but beyond my reach. I hope one of the big media outlets with the money to send a team to Iraq will dig into that.
Thanks for writing, JC. Your comments are appreciated. I understand fully your frustration with the state of affairs.
1:24 pm on November 19th, 2009
So just wondering, who in our New Mexico Government are we able to ask where this money went?
We need to find out who knew about this money going into these nonexistent congressional districts. Someone had to set that up so that it could occur.
Is it a Senate thing? Congressional? Would the Governor be involved? Could this be all the way down to even Uncle Marty?
The way I see it is we talk to each of our government leads here in New Mexico and if they are not involved, then we request that they help us get the answers we need. Hold them accountable to the positions they hold until we get the answer as to where the money went.
Anyone that side steps the questions like President Obama did should not be voted in next year.
And as far as JC’s comments about the money Bushed used for the war…. I totally agree. We need to make sure that money that is said to go to a certain area goes to that area. All of these side issues that money is given to needs to stop.
11:03 am on November 20th, 2009
To say money went to non-existant places is foolish. If the money went anywhere, which it probably did, it had to be handled (addressed to someone or some entity). It did not simply vanish. Politicians know how to disguise their transactions, especially the questionable ones. I think they just convicted that Lousiana congressman for things he hid in his freezer and much, much more.
Piles of money, whether in Iraq ot the U.S. attracts the worst motives within, ordinarily honest people like bears to honey. They get caught sometimes but the punishment is less than the amounts taken. Much greater than the price exacted by the courts. After all, there’s more where that came from, this is America! I’d start with Gov. Richardson here in New Mexico.