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Monday, March 9, 2009
10:00 AM EDT
Sandra Fabry

Fact of the Day: First Stimulus Project a Bridge to (Almost) Nowhere?

 Only seconds after President Obama signed into law the trillion dollar spending and debt package under the guise of economic “stimulus,” Missouri transportation commissioners approved their first “stimulus” project – the replacement of a circa 1933 bridge in Tuscumbia, Missouri.

On March 4, CNN ran a report on the project, and visited the site. According to the report, here’s how you find your “stimulus” dollars at work:  “drive forty miles south of Jefferson City, then take a left ten miles on a rural road.” Not only is the bridge project located in a remote area, the town of Tuscumbia had a population of only 223 in 2007.

Here's what Grover Norquist had to say about the project:

Congratulations, President Obama – you just got your first bridge on the road to nowhere. Now building a bridge serving a town of two-hundred-and-then-some residents is supposed to turn this economy around. This is Keynesianism at its best – the only problem is it hasn’t worked in the past, and it will not work now.
 
Choosing this bridge as the first of the ‘stimulus’ projects is emblematic of the underlying flawed logic. The money from the trillion dollar spending and debt package will go towards projects that have never been important enough to receive funding through the regular appropriations process at the local, state or federal levels. Then magically, when passed as part of a hasty and unaccountable spending package, these projects become an engine for economic growth?
For a pdf version of the press release click here.

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