Where Is The Money Going?

According to ABCNews.com, the Federal Government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in stimulus money to fund projects that do not exist.

The website that has been set up to monitor the stimulus money, Recovery.gov, includes fraudulent listings of projects that do not exist in locations that do not exist either, such as the $760,000 that have been spent in to save 30 jobs in Arizona's 9th congressional district. The problem: Arizona has only eight congressional districts.

Sure, one mistake could be a simple typo, but how do you explain all the rest of these:

"There's no 86th congressional district in Arizona either, but the government's recovery.gov Web site says $34 million in stimulus money has been spent there....

....In Oklahoma, for example, the site lists more than $19 million in spending -- and 15 jobs created -- in congressional districts that don't exist. In Iowa, it shows $10.6 million spent – and 39 jobs created -- in non-existent districts.

In Connecticut's 42nd district (which also does not exist), the Web site claims 25 jobs created with zero stimulus dollars.

The list of spending and job creation in fictional congressional districts extends to U.S. territories as well.

$68.3 million spent and 72.2 million spent in the 1st congressional district of the U.S. Virgin Islands....

....$47.7 million spent and 291 jobs created in Puerto Rico's 99th congressional district."

To make it all even more ironic, the banner at the top of the Recovery.gov site reads, "Recovery.gov is the U.S. government’s official website providing easy access to data related to Recovery Act spending and allows for the reporting of potential fraud, waste, and abuse" (emphasis mine).

But all this still begs the question: what happened to the money that was supposedly spent on those non-existent projects around the country? Have millions of dollars apparently just disappeared, or is the administration simply lying about the creation of jobs to make themselves look better? Either way, it makes me uncomfortable.

If you want to grab your fair share of the stimulus money (and why wouldn't you?) for no good reason at all, head over to Reason.com and have some fun with their Personal Stimulus Generator.

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