Grim Milestone Watch- Money Thrown Down a Black Hole....or, The Stimulus One Year Later

I guess you could've considered me a skeptic from the beginning. As it turns out, I'm hardly in the minority these days.

I remember sometime about a year ago catching a special presentation on the History Channel called The Crumbling of America. Like many a 'documentary' that network has been known to air lately, it came off as a tad alarmist- although it did raise several valid concerns over the age and condition of America's infrastructure. I only caught the first part of this special, but the release of this seemed to coincide with the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The conspiracy theorist in me might've thought that this was aired for the purpose of scaring up support for the $787 Billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

One of the highlighted structures was the Tappan Zee Bridge, which is the NY State Thruway bridge over the Hudson River north of New York City. It was mentioned how the bridge is being undermined by improperly treated wood pilings that were installed when it was being built in the 1950s. The special went on to suggest that it might actually be cheaper to build a new Tappan Zee bridge from scratch instead of extensively rebuilding the obsolete one.

Well...between the History Channel special, the recovery.gov website and stimuluswatch.org, the only entry I could find pertaining to the Tappan Zee Bridge was a $5,547,824 bid to purchase 7 low-emission passenger buses, two of which will be used for the Tappan Zee Express service. No mention of any work or projects concerning the bridge itself.

Now, while I was aware that much of America's infrastructure needed upgrading and repair, I had my doubts about how this administration planned on going about it. Perhaps most telling was President Obama's bold proclamation that a brand-new Maglev railway would be constructed between Southern California and Las Vegas. If I remember correctly, the Union Pacific Railroad has been looking to expand capacity on its LA-Salt Lake City line (which runs through Las Vegas) for some 10-15 years. Whenever the UP attempts to lengthen a siding or install double-track along their Mojave Desert line, an environmental group will file some sort of injunction demanding the railway ceases work because the tracks run through some endangered species habitat. Then the railroad is ordered to conduct a lengthy environmental impact study, paid for out of their own pockets. And whatever project UP intended to start falls by the wayside thanks to red tape, litigation and environmental obstructionism.

Now, keep in mind that the UPRR has been running through the Mojave desert for over a century. Now, imagine the hurdles that could be thrown out in front of a maglev railway being built through the same desert from scratch. The only people who would benefit would be the lawyers working on behalf of environmental groups seeking to halt construction.

And that is actually one of the less egregious examples. The San Francisco Chronicle and bloggers Zombie, New Class Traitor and myself documented the Federal government awarding Alaska Native Corporation Suulutaaq a $54 million dollar no-bid contract for a rail relocation project for the Napa Valley Wine Train that they promptly subcontracted for $33 million. There are also some pretty stark examples of wasteful ARRA spending here and here.

President Obama seems to have been aware of the growing discontent regarding the stimulus prior to the State of the Union address. With no significant private-sector job creation to speak of, the used-car-salesman in chief shifted the goalposts in the middle of the game and instead touted the effectiveness of the ARRA in saving the jobs of policemen and teachers. To be fair, that would probably be better tack for Obama than togo out there and tout the number of 'green collar' jobs that had been created under his watch.

The cynic in me couldn't help but notice that most public-sector unions, especially teachers unions, had heavily invested in President Obama's campaign so I suppose it's only fair for them that they got some bang for their buck. I guess the rest of us will have to wait to get 'stimulated' by Cap & Trade or Card Check.

This time last year, we were starting to hear what poor shape our infrastructure was in. 365 Days and a few hundred billion dollars later, the infrastructure is no better off...nor is the American taxpayer.