Recovery.gov a lame attempt at stimulus transparency

Based on a campaign promise by Obama his administration is now utilizing technology to provide bleeding edge transparency to government in ways unseen before. Even before the stimulus bill found support in Congress, one of the very first provisions in the bill spoke about Recovery.gov as a means to provide transparency to the American public. Aim here is to let the people know where exactly our hard earned money is going and even give us a chance to participate, or in this case write about emotional stories of how someone else’s money changed our lives.

Given that a bill of this size passed through Congress in truly record speed, one would expect the website to be fully functioning and full of lip smacking goodness. Instead, the user is greeted with a bar chart that breaks down the money distribution in several sections. I was intrigued by the staggering figure of 288B for ‘tax relief’ considering $400 checks to those making less than 75k and an AMT patch cannot possibly amount to this kind of cash, so I clicked to learn more.

We are greeted with a colorful display

The first realization is that 81 Billion is going to ‘Protecting the Vulnerable’. No description or details of what this means, but it is a rather whopping number considering it certainly does not apply to me or anyone I know. I actually pay my mortgage every month so I am out.

Second realization is that 144 Billion is going into an all purpose state slush fund where states swarming with illegal immigrants will be eligible for money based on their needs. Rumors suggest that California, Nevada, Florida, Arizona and Michigan will be the top recipients taxpayer goodness. In case you thought the Florida and California illegal immigrant problem was not your problem, think again!

Finally and much more painfully is the realization of what 288 Billion in tax relief truly means. This can be seen as fine text below the pretty bubbles:

“Tax Relief – includes $15 B for Infrastructure and Science, $61 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $25 B for Education and Training and $22 B for Energy, so total funds are $126 B for Infrastructure and Science, $142 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $78 B for Education and Training, and $65 B for Energy.”

So Imagine this, tax relief is just an all purpose label that contains moneys allocated for other sections that are separately defined in the epileptic bubble display. 15B to infrastructure and science is tax relief? Since when? How does that work? If I buy a chemistry set do I get to write that one off? What the hell!?

In other words, the website designed to provide transparency and usher in a new innovative approach in informing the public does nothing more than to shuffle money where it looks best! How else can you justify creating specific sections called Energy, Education, Helping the Vulnerable, Science and then purposely take money designed for these sections and masquerade the moneys as tax relief? Even if there are some obscure energy tax credits, specific education tax credits and more unemployment extensions – it is NOT tax relief! As I have written before, there are NO tax cuts in this bill, period. Tax relief for some of us will come in the form of 13 dollars a paycheck.

How can our government rush the most expensive bill into law, but cannot even create a website displaying the most rudimentary facts? Then again, virtually nobody in Congress read the bill so I imagine it might be difficult to create a website detailing something nobody is even familiar with. One thing is clear, money is being circulated from one class of people to another and phony websites are used to mislead the American public into complacency.

Visit Recovery.gov to learn about WHERE your money is going! There is a fun video from our president! One stop shop for your stimulus needs.