It is wasteful that $15 million in federal “stimulus” money is being used for a runway improvement project at Dulles International Airport outside Washington – especially when that $15 million project has created only 17 jobs.
But the waste is not only at the airport itself. About $10,000 was deducted from the budget for the runway improvement to install a 10-by-11-foot road sign near Dulles telling motorists the project is part of “The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act” (aka, the stimulus) and that it is “Putting America Back to Work.”
An isolated example? We wish.
A number of states are spending plenty of “federal money” not just on wasteful stimulus projects, but also on hundreds of road signs promoting the stimulus. ABC News found that the state of Illinois had spent $650,000 on nearly 1,000 signs, for example.
Here in Tennessee, the state Department of Transportation told ABC it had spent about $13,000 on 324 stimulus signs around the state.
And nationwide, estimates of “stimulus” funds spent not on actual construction projects but on signs promoting the stimulus range from $5 million to $20 million.
In one case, the Department of Housing and Urban Development stated in its “requirements” to a stimulus recipient that a sign should read, “Funded By: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Barack Obama, President.” And the logo that the federal government recommended for another sign was very similar to Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign logo.
That’s troubling. Whether or not you agree that the stimulus has created jobs as the federal government claims, tax dollars should not be used for political gain. The signs convey an obviously pro-stimulus political message.
Whether the stimulus has helped the economy is a matter of hot debate – especially as unemployment has risen to around 10 percent. Taxpayers certainly ought not to be forced to foot the bill for millions of dollars’ worth of pro-stimulus signs along our nation’s roads.
As U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill., told ABC, it is wrong “to spend tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, borrowed money, on a bunch of signs to tell them how we are spending their taxpayer money.”
We agree.