"Because Nobody Messes With Joe!"

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (aka the stimulus package) was one of the most furtive and poorly drafted pieces of legislation in U.S. history. The final bill was a measly 1,588 pages with a price tag of $787 billion. That’s quite the audaciousrescue plan for the president to sign into law just a month into his presidency.

To put it bluntly, the underlying question is: has it worked? Of course, the answer would vary depending on whom you asked. The Wall Street Journal reported that a White House economic advisor claimed, “About half of the $340 billion committed from the $787 billion measure so far went toward small business loans, tax cuts, unemployment benefits and other forms of support that don't easily translate into jobs reporting.”

President Obama campaigned promising a tax cut for 95 percent of Americans. However, the tax credits implemented in the stimulus package haven’t worked out quite as well as the administration would have hoped. The Los Angeles Times stated, “A person working two jobs, for instance, could have received twice the amount in tax credits and would have to pay back half of it.” In retrospect, an $800 tax credit did seem a little too good to be true.

Also, Mr. Obama was quoted saying that this legislation would “save or create” three million new jobs. He also promised that the unemployment rate wouldn’t exceed 8.1 percent if the stimulus were passed; as of Oct. 31, it reached 10.2 percent.

If you visit the stimulus’ official “accountability” website, www.recovery.gov, you’d find it has “saved or created” roughly 640,000 jobs, costing taxpayers approximately $530,000 per job. The White House has since admitted that their job count was an over-estimation. The big problem is that the information on the website is certainly falsified.

Here are just a few examples of how completely dysfunctional the “accountability” website is. In South Carolina, $40.7 million dollars were rewarded to seven defunct congressional districts including districts 00 and 25. South Carolina only has six districts.

The website claims California has 99 congressional districts when in reality it only has 53. How about the $34 million sent to Arizona’s 86th District? Arizona only contains eight districts. An Alabama housing authority alleged that its $540,071 grant could create 7,280 jobs. According to The Birmingham News, 14 jobs were created.

Vice President Biden stated, "Don't get me wrong -- the president and I know full well that there's too much hardship that remains.” Do you really? So you’re well aware of the $790,000 grant to a company in Augusta, GA that instead of creating 317 jobs went towards pay-hikes for 317 employees.

According to The Associated Press, “‘phantom congressional districts’…suggest that stimulus money has been misspent.” Misspent? Dozens of false zip codes and Virginia’s 12th District (Virginia only has 11) receiving taxpayer’s money wasn’t money well spent?

While addressing Congress on Feb. 24, Mr. Obama had this to say in reference to his stimulus package, “And with a plan of this scale comes enormous responsibility to get it right, and that’s why I’ve asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough unprecedented oversight effort…because nobody messes with Joe!”

Someone is either seriously messing with the vice president or he’s just simply that incompetent. Regardless, the Obama administration needs to get its clandestine piece of legislation rectified. Wasn’t its purpose to put Americans back to work? Then again, maybe I’m just being too censorious.