Hear That Sucking Sound?

It's the sound of the stimulus bill, hard at work wasting your tax dollars. James Taranto reports on one of the first "shovel-ready" projects to get off the gouund:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said, "The work begins today in Montgomery County, Maryland, where a work crew is starting on a project to resurface Maryland State Highway 650--a very busy road that has not been fully repaired in 17 years."

The resurfacing contract is going to a Pennsylvania-based family-owned company, American Infrastructure, LaHood said. He said the project will support 60 jobs. "And that's how we're going to get the country back on its feet," LaHood added.

And what is "supporting 60 jobs", exactly? Jobs that would have been lost? Unlikely, because LaHood would have pointed that out. Jobs that have been gained? No, LaHood would have jumped all over that as well.

It's meaningless, like everything coming out of the Obama administration these days.

Taranto make a good point, though:

Wow, 60 jobs! Of course, $787 billion divided by 60 comes to $13,116,666,666.67 a job. Yet while that may seem high, remember that it can only go lower.

And that's not to create or save jobs, either . That's just the cost of "support", whatever the hell that means.

And if you think this type of math is fun, wait until New Jersey gets its share of the stimulus monies! Then you'll get to play with some huge multipliers! For as you can see:

New Jersey takes in the most from taxayers and spends the most on state-administered roadways as as compared to the otherr forty-nine states. New Jersey received an average of $2,370,630 per mile compared to the national alverage of $126,354. That's 18.7 times greater. And our maintenance costs of $153,845 per mile were 7.8 times higher than the $7,824 national average. New Jersey ranked last in overall cost-effectiveness for the eighth consecutive year.

Wait until the People's State of New Jersey gets its chance to show the rest of America how we go about wasting taxpayer dollars - at an 18x multiplier of the national average! Then keep your eyes peeled as the rest of the country realize that Jersey's way is the way to maximize your rake-off of the next generation's future earnings!

Then just sit back, relax, and watch the race to the bottom...