Symptom of the Disease: Stimulus funds directed to Obama counties (4)

There are plenty of ways writers can spin recent details on how stimulus dollars – at a more than two to one ratio – are being directed to counties who voted for Obama/Biden as compared to McCain/Palin. It’s another sexy story, but just another symptom of the disease.

By this point, I hope I don’t have to again explain my Symptom of the Disease series of posts, but if you still have questions, review the previous articles.

Democrats and liberals will argue counties that need more assistance are getting more assistance. Some Republicans and conservatives will claim this is an obvious pay-off for those voters who did the right thing and voted for President Obama.

Gee, if the federal government was not in the business of stealing “tax” dollars from one group and redistributing those funds to another group … or county, or state, or school, or ACORN …  we would not even be having this discussion.

Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air notes a USA Today artice about the distribution of stimulus spending. From the USA Today piece…

Billions in aid go to areas that backed Obama in ’08
… “There’s no politics at work when it comes to spending for the recovery,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says.

Counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration’s $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, a USA TODAY analysis of government disclosure and accounting records shows. That money includes aid to repair military bases, improve public housing and help students pay for college.

The reports show the 872 counties that supported Obama received about $69 per person, on average. The 2,234 that supported McCain received about $34.

Investigators who track the stimulus are skeptical that political considerations could be at work. The imbalance is so pronounced — and the aid so far from complete — that it would be almost inconceivable for it to be the result of political tinkering, says Adam Hughes, the director of federal fiscal policy for the non-profit OMB Watch. “Even if they wanted to, I don’t think the administration has enough people in place yet to actually do that,” he says.

Maybe they are exactly right; it would be too difficult for the Obama administration to target funding to support Obama counties, but perception is reality. That said, for Robert Gibbs to state politics has nothing to do with the way money is distributed by the federal government is a complete lie.

Congressional committees are controlled by the majority party, and we know the minority party is frequently locked out of meetings where legislation is written and discussed. When the majority has a head-count significantly higher than the minority – as it does with this congress – I’m dead certain that politics is part of the equation.

Political cliques and infighting within the majority party are even part of the equation.

Gateway Pundit has more. Morrissey also has an article scheduled for publication over at American Issues Project today where he’ll continue to discuss how the stimulus is failing the American economy. Jobs “saved or created” my ass…

Graphic from Malkin, not sure who provided the original.