Might you want to be advertising...NOW?

Back at Drew, one of Dr. Mastro's favorite topics in his American Government Intro class was pork-barrel spending. I still remember laughing and shaking my head at some of the ridiculous things on which our leaders wasted Federal tax money (and not only in West Virginia) If Dr. Mastro would have lived today, he would have cringed at the level of spending we see today.

Driving around, I have seen many signs advertising construction projects as part of the "American Investment and Recovery Act," aka, "The Stimulus." Today, an article stated these signs cost taxpayers $20 million!

Around New Jersey, I have seen these signs for the most minor of projects and have also seen them in other states around the Northeast. We remember the platitudes of the stimulus and the president: jobs created/saved, a step forward, etc. We've even been told by Vice President Biden that the stimulus is working.

As I remember, the stimulus should have created/saved jobs, yet the unemployment rate is nearly 10%. Let us not forget that these statistics only include those who are receiving benefits, as those who have "given up" or are under-employed are not counted, thus making the full unemployment rate nearly 17%!

If the Summer of Recovery were really taking place, Congress and the President would have either supported additional tax cuts or extending the Bush tax cuts, giving businesses incentives to create jobs. Had this been the case, this would have been a true Summer of Recovery. It is unfortunate our leadership refuses to realize the Stimulus isn't working and Americans, especially those who want to work, would be a lot happier if they changed course and embraced the tax cut route. When the Bush tax cuts expire on January 1, 2011, it will only get worse.

Looking at the reason why the these "Brought to you by..." signs are all over the place, those who designed ARRA wanted to remind Americans these projects are because of Obama and the Democrat passage of this massive spending bill. As we see the Stimulus is an abject failure, I wonder if the Democrats are rethinking this policy. And if they tear down the signs hoping the voters forget, think of the money that will waste! (I'll look forward to Darrell Issa's investigation on that one in 2011.) The "Brought to you by..." signs won't help them very much come November, as it's just further evidence of broken leadership and policy that needs to come to an end.