Study Shows Partisan Influence On Stimulus Spending
by Brian GarstDemocrats are feeling stimulated these days. In a recent study, Jerry Brito and Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center tracked stimulus spending in all 435 congressional districts plus the District of Columbia. They found that the amount of stimulus money received by a district was influenced by its partisan representation, rather than economic need. Districts with a Democratic congressman received almost twice as many dollars as those with Republican representation, whereas there was no relationship between a district’s unemployment level and the amount of stimulus money it received.
Barack Obama has broken many campaign promises since taking office, but when it comes to the comparisons to Franklin Delano Roosevelt saddled on him by his adorning followers in the media, he has worked hard to live up to the hype. We already knew that both dishonestly campaigned against the excessive spending of their predecessors before breaking the bank on their own watch. Now we also know that President Obama, like FDR, has abused a crisis atmosphere to direct economic relief funds for partisan purposes.
Patronage was instrumental in protecting the incumbent Democratic Party in the first mid-term election under FDR, despite an unemployment rate that surpassed 20 percent. His administration targeted swing districts for infusions of federal dollars – spending money not to increase employment, but to maximize electoral gains. He succeeded. Democrats expanded their majorities by nine seats in both chambers.
Given the proven benefits of directing federal dollars by political means, it is no surprise that the Obama administration appears to be doing the same. They are certainly familiar with FDR and his record, having touted the President as his intellectual heir during and after the campaign.
Fortunately, breakthroughs in media and communication have empowered individual citizens to new heights since the days of FDR. Local party bosses that used federal dollars to keep the Democratic Party in power for decades following the administration of FDR no longer exert the kind of influence they once did, so modern patronage efforts may not result in the same electoral benefits. Though the effect on the national debt – and our pocket books – is quite real.
The Mercatus study is just the latest in a long line of evidence warning against the central control of economies. When politicians are called on to make decisions, it is inevitable that they will make them using political criteria. Waste, fraud and abuse always follows. In other words, there really was no other outcome possible then the funneling of money to Democratic districts when a Democrat controlled Congress handed control of a giant slush fund to a Democrat President. If we don’t want the next batch of politicians to pull the same stunt, it’s imperative that they be of a mind to support individual liberty and not centralized control of the economy. The only dollar guaranteed not to be wasted by government is the one that never leaves your pocket.
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62 Comments
You mean it's all about buying favor and pay back?
No news. Barack Hussein Obama has to pay for all the votes they bought. Impeachment, Treason, then LIFE IN PRISON for BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA and his little toadies too!
can we revolt yet?
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Yes, but "Hope and Change" made for a much catchier campaign slogan.
They are emptying the treasury into their districts, and paying off favors with our money. Politicians have been doing this forever, that's the problem.
We need to take back both houses with real conservative candidates, not the country club fools that give up faster than the French.
If we get control of even one house they are stopped, and we audit the fed, investigate and uncover the corruption, go after any and every politician that is corrupt, publicize whatever we find (which will probably be horrific)
If we do it right by 2012 the populace will be screaming for Obama's head, and we will give it to them, we will pass balanced budget and fair tax and honest legislature amendments to make the remaing rats jump ship or face prosecution.
We are in for some tough times ahead, but we can destroy these people that hate America and take back our country if we are willing to work for it, people are already turning against them, we have only this limited chance left to put honest men and women into office, we need to take this very seriously.
[...] latest post on Big Government reports on a recent study on stimulus spending, and ties its findings to the methods of Democratic [...]
I'd settle for sane, non-power drunken non-megalomaniacs, and humble, even if they weren't conservative.
Best case scenario that I have heard to date, subject as always to change, is 20-30 seats in the House and maybe 10 in the Senate.__The Senate change would make the 1AM vote of this morning a thing of the past, but I fear that the damage will already have been done.__I'm not even at all confident that a massive change, 50 seats in the House 25 in the Senate would do any more then cause a repeat of the 1990's, when Republicans won big time, and promptly screwed it all up anyway.____Hell, I'm not at all confident anymore that the form of elected representation we have is workable anymore.__But I'll admit to not having a clue what to replace it with.__But by God, no one can claim that what we have now does even a marginal job of representing the will of the people anymore. (Unless, of course, you are the correct people.)
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Like I said, arrogant power-mad megalomaniacs.
Make that "Cope and Hang."
By participating in the virtual on-line public square, you already have.
Best case scenario I've heard so far is hope that at least one other Supreme Court Justice is outraged enough to join Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scallia to reign in these out of control partisan hacks on both sides of the aisle.
Allito and Roberts have shown to be strict constructionists. They are off to a good start, and will be around a lot longer than most of the children running Congress and the White House.
Asministrator….Thank you for deleting that disturbing post by Conservative Trash (what a weird name, even for a 'progressive')
I was nearly beside myself with disgust and revulsion.
It is beyond my ability to comprehend the lack of intelligence that must exist for someone to believe that kind of crap.
They're sure not a true majority but they are true believers.
I'm in. Whom do we hang first?
Obama is going to tell everyone how fair this push to force feed us this health care bill was and that he did it using bipartisanship….after all he did get (bought, stole or bribed) 2 whole independent's votes. Thug politics as usual!!!!!
The hopey changers brought some stimulus Obama cash for a city up the road. The latest unemployment shows it went up in November(again) to now stand at an even 13%. The town-area is about 50% black and Obama made a special trip there recently to buck up flagging support.
Give away money is not the same as real jobs. Democrats have odd views of the economy, probably because none participate in the real thing.
Imagine that!
Partisan Politicians playing politics with the Proleteriat. Who'd a thunk it?
Only in government can graft be rewarded. In the private sector if you trade money for influence and vice versa you often times go to jail.
Yes, totally agree – the minute you give money to the government to do anything but protect our freedom and rights, it'll get spent on building power bases, not helping the people. So damned annoying seeing those that most need help being slighted by our government.
The truth hurts, eh? Gotta censor me out? That is better than victory! HOORAH!
We're all privy to the talking points, you can keep the kook-aide.
Too many folks want to live off everyone else. It reminds me of a song by the Long Beach Dub Allstars called "Kick Down," a dub/ska/rap/rock song (pardon any potentially offensive lyrics). Everytime I hear the song, I think of those wanting to take from me. The song, in part, states:
"Kick Me Down Is All I Hear Now Adays
Break Me Off You Can Say It in a Thousand Ways
Give Me This, Give Me That As If You Feed On Greed
Lyin' to Kick It Just to Smoke Up All My Weed
Drinkin My Brew and Gettin Drunker Than Me
Tell Me What Is It That You Wantin From Me
Aint Nothin Free I Had to Work to Get Whats Comin to Me
Open Your Eyes and Realize That This Is Somethin' to See"
Keep on fighting the greed and corruption of Washington D.C.
I agree. GOP is only hope, but only becuase they have the infrastructure in place. My mantra – its triage time. Stop the bleeding then we can reform GOP or go to third party. Now is not the time to be pure idealists. We need results and fast! If we don't we will be forever disgraced in the eyes of our children.
Close but not "as usual". This is thuggery ( not to mention bribery) on steroids.
Based on laws written by the graft takers. irony is not their strong suit.
Term limits would take care of alot of the problem.
Probably a better knowledge and respect for the Constitution by the people too.
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Bipartisanship in our current vocabulary referes to democrat and republican, since at the moment independents are very unrepresented. The important thing is no republicans voted. So they own it.
Typical selective GOP propaganda. Did you ever look at a study of where the public's money under Reagan and the Bushes went?. Did one forget the Savings and Loan fiasco, and the Bush run Silverado Savings and Loan and their connection to GW Bush's deal with the Texas Rangers and their new stadium. Were you offended by the tax give aways, the lack of vetoes, the record deficits and the Jack Abramoff deals? Have you seen the list of GOP jail birds out of their administrations? The greed and corruption starts with 3300 lobbyists spending $400 million to fight healthcare reform from January to now. Take your money? Are you paying more taxes? No! By the way, under who's administration did the Recession of December 2007 and the crash of 2008 start? I rest my case.
RJ Garfunkel
Host of The Advocates
wvox 1460 radio
NY
Typical selective GOP propaganda. Did you ever look at a study of where the public's money under Reagan and the Bushes went?. Did one forget the Savings and Loan fiasco, and the Bush run Silverado Savings and Loan and their connection to GW Bush's deal with the Texas Rangers and their new stadium. Were you offended by the tax give aways, the lack of vetoes, the record deficits and the Jack Abramoff deals? Have you seen the list of GOP jail birds out of their administrations? The greed and corruption starts with 3300 lobbyists spending $400 million to fight healthcare reform from January to now. Take your money? Are you paying more taxes? No! By the way, under who's administration did the Recession of December 2007 and the crash of 2008 start? I rest my case.
That’s right keep on spreading the blame for GOP failures. When Taft failed, the progressive Theodore Roosevelt got into the 1912 race and the country elected the reform minded- Woodrow Wilson., but were the irreconcilables led by Henry Cabot Lodge happy with Wilson over the Fourteen Points, the World Court, The League of Nations, the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, the Brandeis appointment, the Federal Reserve, and other progressive legislation? No way! So what were we left with the know-nothings; Harding and Coolidge and Hoover who was over his head. Now in the wake of the New Deal, the conservative revisionists accuse FDR of not signing on to Hoover’s last minute, 11th hour actions in the lame-duck period! If only Hoover had another 6 months his market cycle ideas would have cured the whole mess, In fact, according to Newsmax and the Tea Party geniuses it was FDR who turned the 1929 recession into the Depression. But are we finished? It must have been those few Democrats in Congress in the 1920’s that steered Hoover into the crash!
But what of Eisenhower and his three recessions, the farm collapse, U-2, the collapse and embarrassment at Geneva, the sell-out to Joe McCarthy of Marshall, Nixon’s great triumph in South America where he was pelted by fruit, the over thrown of Batista, the civil rights inactivity, (he stated that his worse mistake was the appointment of Earl Warren), the CIA bungling over the Bay of Pigs, our non-support of Hungary’s freedom fighter, and the abandonment of Britain, France and the Israelis over the Suez Crisis? It must have been LBJ and the Democratic Congress that caused the GOP meltdown in 1958! But what about Nixon and his activities that led to Watergate, enemies’ lists, domestic spying, the extension of the Vietnam War with more casualties than LBJ, the oil embargo and a slew of other mistakes? It must have been the Democrats? But how about that clown Gerald Ford, and his WIN button? He couldn’t walk or chew gum at the same time. Blame it on Congress for that incompetent! In fact, because he was so weak, we got a rank outsider and unknown Jimmy Carter, who barely beat him with 50.06 of the vote.
But all is not lost we then inherited the biggest fraud of them all, Ronald Reagan, who gave us 70% tax cuts for the rich, unemployment of 8% for eight years, record deficits, Iran-Contra, 250 dead marines in Lebanon, Bittburg, the $1 trillion savings & loan boondoggle, the 600 ship navy, star wars and the wave of spending without cutting expenses that led to the Bush II disaster. Do we have star wars or the 600 ship navy? Funny thing is that we do have Daniel Ortega! But it was big government in Washington!
Let’s not forget Bush I, who squandered his post Gulf War popularity of 95%, stated “no new taxes,” and almost caused the country to go bankrupt. That is why in 1992 his vote as an incumbent was lower than Hoover’s and maybe Martin Van Buren’s.
Now we are again in another mess. It is all because Dodd and Frank wanted easier mortgages. They must have created the derivatives, debt-swapping, Country Wide Financial, Enron, and all of the de-regulation fathered by Reagan-Bush! They must have sponsored the Dubai Ports, Katrina, two unfunded wars, the 8 year failure in Afghanistan, the blurring of the “establishment clause,” the faith based initiatives, the porous borders, the migration of jobs, the petro dollar outflow, the disappearance of our manufacturing base, the drug and energy giveaway legislation and the collapse of our banking system, the auto industry and the stock market. They must have forced Bush to not veto a GOP sponsored bill for six years. They must have sent GW Bush to Crawford to cut brush during those eight months before 9/11. In fact it was on their watch, not his! He was only guilty of reading a book upside down on 9/11!
So you are right, it isn’t all Bush II fault!
Richard J. Garfunkel
Host of the Advocates
I know that 2010 will most likely be a hold the line and disrupt the operations kind of thing.
The GOP is corrupt, no doubt, but I don't think it's completely corrupt, and if the candidates are vetted properly I think we can do a lot of good. I hope to heck it's not a 1990's thing again else we are completely lost on the political front.
I believe the constitution needs to be amended to clarify the purpose of the federal government, it's so far from what was intended that it will be a hard fight.
I do think that the left is so absolutely arrogant that they will continue to overstep and continue to alienate a large portion of the population, at that point I think some common sense amendments will play well and can be passed.
Remember that a balanced budget amendment was only 2 votes short when Clinton ran crazy with lefty stuff, what the current hard core left is doing is making Clinton look like an amateur. Take some hope in the fact that with control of both houses and the presidency it took them 340+ days to get to cloture, people are buying into their crud less and less and they know it.
Way to completely ignore the issue at hand. I've seen red herrings before, but this grab-bag of random thoughts (a term which I use loosely) which you spewed onto your keyboard takes the cake.
And to think, they say that conservative radio hosts are angry.
how dare they take my money, give it to someone else and act like they are good people. I've got an open invitation to any democrat that wants to meet at the YMCA and lace up the boxing gloves.
57 out of the last 64 years the Democrats have controlled the House where all spending originates. 54 out of the last 64 years the Democrats have controlled the Senate. So Mr. Garfunkel – what was your point?
The Democrats have had super majorities in the House and Senate in 1961-1967 and 1975-1979. Not exactly times in our History where great things happened to our Nation. We are faced with over 100 trillion of unfunded mandates passed during the first super majority of Democrats. Not something they should be proud of. This current legislation is an attempt at covering up their first screwup back in the 60's. It's the only way they can do. How else can the correct the 100 trillion dollars of unfunded mandates unless they take over the whole Health Care system.
2/3 of the stimulus money has NOT been spent yet and is targeted for those so called 'shovel ready' projects scheduled for the summer of 2010. An emergency spending bill that parks most of the money till just before the elections, then distributes the money 2-1 in favor of swing states/districts is nothing more than an illegal political slush fund! When you consider that this amounts to $500 Billion Dollars its enough to make you want to throw up.
We need to get back to State's rights! The Fed is WAY too powerful and was never intended to be like this. If States won their Constitutional powers back then we could vote with our feet as demonstrated by the exodus from NY to Florida. Any state could implement all the socialist spending programs they want, if the people dont like it, they simply move down the highway a few exits and poof… they get their freedom back. Fiscally sound and responsible States would grow by leaps and bounds past the tax and spend bankrupt Californias, NYs and NJs of the world.
A Constitutional Convention shifting power back to the States is the best answer…. a State like Texas has no incentive to remain part of the current system. We need to do this soon or risk losing our Union forever.
I wouldn't regard the period from 1961-7 as the worst period in our history, in fact it was quite progressive and dynamic. JFK, when he road in the Inaugural Parade, he finally took a look around at the poverty and degradation of Washington, that was the beginning of urban renewal and eventually the Great Society. Little was done in the Eisenhower Era except the Interstate Hwy System and three brutal recessions. That is why in 1958, the Democrats regained their largest majorities since the Depression. There was solid progress in America after eight mediocre years. By the way, President Eisenhower, to his credit, stated that it wasn't his intention to end the New Deal. Unfortunately his health, Korea, McCarthyism, the problems on our farms, and the Cold War diverted his energy and he was a tired and sick man halfway through his presidency. JFK and LBJ were left with a SE Asia problem that was growing from the collapse of the French at Dienbienphu. The right-wing screamed about Vietnam, with their renewed cry of "Who Lost China." and LBJ got sucked into that maelstrom. Too bad, in retrospect! No one can excuse the problem of Vietnam, but Richard Nixon came into office with a "secret plan" to end the war. There were more American deaths under his watch and certainly more bombings and mayhem in Vietnam. The war was ended by Congress, and what happened? Vietnam unified, the Domino Affect never happened, and we are trading with Vietnam today, and they are as capitalist as our trading partner, China. The period of 1975 through 1979 was certainly influenced by the Oil Embargoes of 1973, the overthrow of the Shah, and Watergate. Why didn't Nixon break the back of the first oil embargo? Any answers? He could have split apart OPEC with a policy of buying international oil with sealed bids from the OPEC producers. I am not apologizing for Carter, but the Nixon-Ford legacy of oil dependency and inflation didn't help. As to the claim that we have unfunded mandates of $100 trillion. They are paid by payroll taxes and have been for 80 years. They will be adjusted, and the problem is not the policy or the programs, but the change in demographics. Maybe that reality should be blamed on our Euro-centric population having less children, the Baby Boom generation being historically large, and the Reagan-Bush Generation X being smaller, poorer and less structured. Meanwhile, those mandates do not come from the general fund!
When you or your parents need Social Security or Medicare just be principled, don't be a hypocrite, and return the check! In fact convince your libertarian, flat-earth thinking friends to do the same. I am sure you and your merry little band will be quite lonely!
RJ Garfunkel
Host of The Advocates
Spending, what else is new? Do you recommend no spending? The military, its benefits and veterans suck up trillions. Where do you geniuses recommend cutting. As I recall the Reagan-Bush Years had the largest peace time spending in our history, the national debt surged, and every one of Reagan's eight budgets were larger than the one's that came out of Congress. Again, Reagan's tax plan cut taxes on the highest bracket from 70 to 28% and raised the lowest bracket from 11 to 15%. In that same period Fortune 500 compensation rose 3500% while real income growth only rose 10% from 1970 from 2000. What was the result ? Look at the numbers, we averaged 8% unemployment in the Reagan years (two years of 10%) and incredible debt. I suggest you starve the government more and let's see what happens. I am not sure what most of the right-wing wants, but I'd like to hear something other than Social Darwinism and "The End Justifies the Means!" By the way the general fund has borrowed $2 trillion from the Social Security Fund, and you say it is broke!
Random thoughts. no reality based history!
RJ Garfunkel
State's rights is an unmitigated disaster. If the stimulus money was spent too fast, everyone on the right would be crying , "No oversight, waste, corruption, etc." I have applied for funds through "state agencies" in New York! They are all controlled by the States not the Congressional Districts! By the way the Civil War and the Supreme Court has determined the primacy of the Federal government. "Get your freedom back?" What freedom are you talking about? You think Florida is in such good shape, look again! Your sophomoric views border on buffoonery that belongs back in grammar school playgrounds. Grow up and deal with reality. You could, of course move to Texas, and join Governor Perry's secessionist movement. Too bad the Alamo is in the center of San Antonio, or you could have climbed the ramparts with the ghosts of Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie.
RJ Garfunkel
Why should ANYONE return their SS checks??? They were FORCED by the Imperial Federal Government to pay into this Imperial Federal Government "Ponzi" scheme!! They had NO choice in the matter!
Ed!
No truer words were EVER SPOKEN!! It IS the Internet and folks like Andrew and a number of others who will bring Progressivism to it's knees and get it back into proportion with Free Enterprise and other social constructs.
CONSTANTLY guard the First Amendment first! I have no problem with being able to access "Media Matters" so long as I can freely access Big Government! If we see ANY attempt or construct to eliminate "Media Matters" or ABC, NBC or Big Government etc. START to ASK questions and then and only then consider the Second Amendment!
I will say as an ardent new NRA member, and 66 year old person only recently interested in politics, many folks have availed themselves of a fairly 'unfettered' second amendment rights this year!. Watch any attempt at messing with #2!
Keep it up Andrew! Lot's to think about and read! Keep turning over the 'rocks' and stumps to let us see what slithers out!
Several years ago, when I was into blogging, I did one of those top ten Americans of all time. Number 10 was the guys who invented the internet.
And I meant it. We are just on the very beginning edge of it. This is going to be the greatest, most social, historical, generational revolution in the history of humanity. We can't even fathom where this train is going to take the world. And we are here at the start. This is monumental history we are experiencing every time we log on.
Picture the people who bought the first telephones just around 100 years ago. Compare those old crank phones you had to scream into to be heard to the new Ipods, bluetooth, and cell phone technologies.
Right now, the internet is still in its hand crank telephone stage. So buckle up, hold on, because its going to be one hell of a ride.
So let's use it, work it, and do just what we're doing now – connecting with other like minded people, creating virtual public squares. Anyone with a computer, a high speed ISP, and our imaginations are our only limits.
Game on!
Money is power and Obama and crew are making sure that conservatives have as little of it as possible.
That' s patently idiotic. The rich, who are more conservative than liberal, own more of America than at any time since 1929. Tax favored IRA's, Roth IRA's, subsidies and tax policies by the last insane administration gave incredible wealth to high earners. By the way hedge fund managers paid 15% taxes on their stock options. Do you suggest we lower the capital gain tax, bring a flat-tax and eliminate inheritance taxes completely? Then I suggest you stop paying the military, moth-ball the fleet, get rid of NASA and every department in every level of government. While we're at it why don't we go back to the Articles of Confederation and real state's rights. Keep on dreaming.
RJ Garfunkel
Should anyone who is seriously interested in politics in the broadest and least partisan sense and the consequences of collectivism and central economic planning, read "The Road to Serfdom" by F.A. Hayek.
[...] STUDY SHOWS PARTISAN INFLUENCE ON STIMULUS SPENDING [...]
I can see from your article that you're a Fox Noise viewer. Your article is junk – the counties with the biggest populations got the most money and these counties, without exception, were won by Obama!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCHV5hPFbs8&fe...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_EBQelwrKM&fe...
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/001561...
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/001561...
I can see from your article that you're a Fox Noise viewer. Your article is junk – the counties with the biggest populations got the most money and these counties, without exception, were won by Obama!
Also, these same counties have gotten the most government money per-person going back generations. The USA article that Fox Noise used for this story has been completely discredited and they have in fact come clean.
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/001561...
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/001561...
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/001561...
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/001561...
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/001561...
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/001561...
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/001561...
http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/001561...
[...] written in the past about the destructive consequences of allowing the federal government to abuse its tax and spending power in order to cajole states [...]