Where DID All The Money Go?

How The $825 Billion Stimulus Was Spent In Your State Over The Past Three Years. We'll start listing the major waste and abuse with all the States that begin with an "A".

ALABAMA
$400,000 For Highway “Beautification Project.” “The city of Hoover will get $400,000 in federal stimulus money for a landscaping and beautification project at the Interstate 65 and U.S. 31 interchange, city officials learned this week. The project will be paid completely with federal funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to the Alabama Department of Transportation. The city will not be required to provide any matching funds for the project.” (Staci B. Brooks, “Hoover To Get $400,000 In Federal Stimulus Money For Landscaping,” The Birmingham News, 7/8/09)

ALASKA
$15 Million To Construct Airport In Village Of Ouzinkie With 165 Residents. “The village of Ouzinkie is one of the remotest outposts in the United States—home to a mere 165 people on an island off another island off the coast of Alaska. There are no stores, no gas stations and no stoplights. Yet the village will soon be home to a new $15 million airport paid for by taxpayers under the federal stimulus package.” (Michael Grabell, “Tiny Airports Take Off With Stimulus,” Pro Publica, 7/13/09)

$13.9 Million To Replace Airport In Akiachak With 660 Residents. “The second calls for spending $13.9 million to replace the airport in Akiachak, a remote Yup’ik Eskimo village in western Alaska with a population of around 660.” (Michael Cooper, “Inspector General Questions Value Of Some Airport Stimulus Projects,” The New York Times, 8/11/09)

ARIZONA
$950,000 To Study The Genetic Makeup Of Ants. "Half a million dollars went to Arizona State University to study the genetic makeup of ants to determine distinctive roles in ant colonies; $450,000 went to the University Of Arizona to study the division of labor in ant colonies." ("Senate GOP Point Out 'Pure Waste' Found In Stimulus Package," The Hill, 12/8/09)

Stimulus Funds Spent To Build “Bat-Friendly Cupolas And Desert Tortoise Fencing…” “By the administration's calculations, recovery act money created or saved almost 400 jobs in the county while providing money for projects ranging from bat-friendly cupolas and desert tortoise fencing...” (Mark Duncan, “Stimulus Report Card: Where Did All The Mohave County Money Go?” Kingman Daily Miner, 1/23/12)

ARKANSAS
$2.5 Million For The Clinton Presidential Library. “A historic bridge at Bill Clinton's presidential center in Little Rock is slated to get $2.5 million of federal stimulus money from Arkansas's share of the funds.

Members of the Arkansas congressional delegation sought an $8 million legislative earmark for the bridge this year, without success. But after Congress authorized the $787 billion stimulus package in February, representatives of the William J. Clinton Foundation contacted Mr. Beebe's office, according to Matt DeCample, the governor's spokesman, and spoke with Mr. Beebe's recovery director and ombudsman to suggest the bridge project receive funds from Arkansas's share.” (Louis Radnofsky, “Clinton Site Gets A Taste Of The Stimulus Pie,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/30/09)

$13,000 For A Sculpture To Decorate Fort Smith High School. “A large piece of art amidst the extensive renovation at Southside High School in Fort Smith is part of an effort to change the appearance of the ‘factory-like’ main building at the high school. The cost of the sculpture and surrounding area, which was designed by Fort Smith architect Tim Risley, is $13,000, according to information from the school district. The cost of the renovation of the high school — which includes new sidewalks, landscaping, lighting, parking lots — is around $2.6 million. The school district says 80% of the funds are federal stimulus dollars.” (“Large Art Structure Part Of High School Renovation,” The City Wire, 8/5/09)

Thanks to the Republican National Committee for their research and bringing wastefull stimulus spending to the light of day. You won't see this information in any legacy news media reports.

Republican National Committee, 310 First Street SE - Washington, D.C. 20003 - phone (202) 863-8500

Solyandra and Obama's Loan of Taxpayer Money

While Obama is out trying to get support for his tax increasing costly "jobs" bill, the story comes out about Solyandra, solar panel company that received $535 million dollar loan of tax payer money, is declaring bankruptcy leaving tax payers on the hook. This was the same company that Obama visited in the spring of 2010 saying the company was "leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future." Actually it was only a month later that Solyandra let 100 employees go and canceled it opening public stock option.

This week FBI agents raided the company and seized boxes of documents. Why is that?

Republicans are accusing Obama and his administration of rocket scientists (I say that facetiously) because this is the same company that the Dept of Energy, under Bush, turned down for a loan because of bad company prospects. And yet Obama gives this less than stellar company a $535 million loan of our money!?!

Now e-mails between White House and Dept of Energy indicate that the Obama Administration may have pressured Dept of Energy to grant the loan so that Obama could show case it in a photo opportunity. Also smelling of political poop is the fact that Billionaire and Obama Campaign contributor George Kaiser was supporting the deal.

It is undeniable that after the sorry deal went through, Obama officials re-financed a bad loan into another bad loan from which Solyandra defaulted on earlier this year. Part of that loan re-financing allowed Solyandra to pay back investors before tax payers as it went bankrupt, and the facts are apparently now that Solyandra was going bankrupt when the re-financing came through. Holy Cow, people get fired for this in the private sector,.....oh I forgot that we get to fire Obama and his motley crew of business misfits in November next year.

What does the White House say about this? Basically Carney, the White House mouth piece and chief propagandist declared in part that...."there is no evidence (to indicate wrong doing on the Administrations part)." The FBI won't say why it raided Solyandra's offices, but the FBI later searched Solyandra executives' homes.

There is an upside to the downside that we will lose the $535 million of tax payers money, and that upside is that the there is a call to do away with Obama's green jobs program. We'll hopefully see an positive outcome over this and hopefully someone will be held accountable,....maybe for the first time in this Administration..... .......but first the obvious question has to answered,...Was it corruption or just incompetence?