$2 Million Per Person? Why A Tiny Alabama Town Wants $375 Million Chunk of the Stimulus

US News and World Report:

At first glance, the town of Edwardsville, Ala., with a population of 194 people, might raise a few eyebrows with its bid to receive $375 million from the economic stimulus package being assembled by Barack Obama and lawmakers in Congress.

The tiny town, located near the Georgia border and 26 miles from the nearest "big city" of Anniston (population: 24,276), added 33 proposals--about two thirds of them related to "green" energy--to the list of "ready- to- go" projects assembled by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Total sum: $375,076,200.

Read the whole story: US News and World Report

Comments

[Veganie]

I am still working on my first million, hope to get to the other millions someday.

[apysmith]

They would be better off packing up their crap and moving to Atlanta.

[rasit]

Let us ask Sen. Shelby of Alabama, who valiantly opposed a bridge loan to the auto companies?

While we are at it let us also make sure that Alabama gets just a dollar in Federal spending, for a dollar paid in Federal tax paid by the citizens of that State...

[JessWonderin]

Sounds right . . . reject equal rights, government bailouts, welfare reform, auto industry help ('cept FOREIGN plants) and THEN cry out for MASSIVE funds to create Bubbaland . . . we'd be better off with a $49 Bus fare certificate for each of them to Atlanta . . . .

[gd7277467]

Give the Southern Clowns a Possum Burger, a cold beer, NASCAR and a freshly showered little relative , and all is well with the World !

[paixa3]

Can they afford to heat the water for a shower?

[Dayahka]

Hey, great idea...Why not just give all 320 million people in the US a million dollars each; that would sure be a great stimulus, just around 320 trillion dollars is all, around 10 years of the entire world's GNP, hey but what's a few trillion here and there so people can play golf comfortably. Americans must be plain mad, lunatics, bimbos all.

[paixa3]

No, but do the calculations if you give 80 million families 5000 dollars each. This is just over one half of the 750 billion give to robbers called banks and wall street.

If you designate through the distribution, that behind mortgages be paid, this is one hell of a stimulus, particulary if you re-write every mortgage to be fixed interest rate at prime +2 points, make them fixed lengths and set usuary laws at 10%.

I GUARANTEE this would be a better stimulus than the one of giving bailouts to banks. LET the greedy fail. There must be many entertainers who have enough money to start a bank. Eliminate all derivative instruments and CDS.

[hapaglloyd]

Sorry ,I like to rub it in to these j.erks in Alabama ,Misssssip­i,Georgia,­South Carolina and Louisiana. Except for South Carolina which Gave Obama 18% of the white vote,none of the others gave him more than 9%. This was a disgrace,they should be ashamed of themselves. Mississippi which has the largest percentage of blacks of any state---around 38%--- has never,ever elected an African American to state-wide office. Several years ago Mississippi held a referendum to retain the confederate flag as the state flag. It was in the mid-1990s that a black state senator discovered that Mississippi still had laws on the books that made slavery legal. The state legislators had "forgotton" to void it in 1867 after the end of the war. Georgia still has the confederate flag embroided in a small area of the flag. Even the International Olympic Commitee could not shame them in to completely dropping the flag. South Carolina is not any better than the others. These states have the lowest SAT scores,the highest number of folks without heath insurance ,the highest illiteracy rate,the highest infant mortality rate,the most persons in prisons,most of their jobs are minimum wage that keeps them in poverty,yet they vote the same way over and over and over,for ultra-conservative Republicans.

[FrTown]

Great analysis.

[GoneAreRepugs22]

Not to mention more than one in every five homes is a trailer there.

[bethinCary]

Hey Bamans..
Take it up with your own state govt-senators and reps....

Maybe they can get it out of Toyota, Honda and Mercedes plants they gave all the subsidies to.

[loki]

I think we should all apply for a bailout from the government. After all, it is really our money. The main goal would be to show how ridiculous this is, but I am sure it wouldnt change a thing. We would get tossed in the trash as usual, and the wealthy will get bumped to the head of the line, like usual.

[Nancy84]

The money should be spent where ever it will help stimulate the economy. Forget the bias (past and present) from both sides. Name calling and nit picking only adds to the divisiveness in this country. We are better than that!

[lj9283]

This project is part of a list of over 15,000 projects in the MainStreet Economic Recovery Report from the Conference of Mayors. These 15,000 projects are expected to be a pivotal part of Mr. Obama's stimulus package.

The Conservative Right has begun screaming about all the "pork" in the Mayors list of projects as a way of discrediting the program, and have used this project in particular as a "banner" Pork project.

I have been reading through the Conference of Mayors report (not a cliffhanger), and have found that a good number of projects have titles that mislead you from their true intention.

There is a "Park and trail System" in Arizona that when researched is actually a flood control project.

There is a golf course upgrade, and parking lot build out that is part of a city's commitment for the commercial development of a resort/hot­el/convent­ion center complex to increase a cities viability as a tourist destination (55% of the population is employed in tourism).

And so on....

But this project stands out from the rest as just not fitting in.

And it comes from Mr. Shelby's state, and is being touted by MSM as a prime example of "Pork".

Do I distrust the motives a request from Mr. Shelby' state that his side of the aisle ridicules as useless spending?

Yes.

[pogo]

Wouldn't it be cheaper and more effective just to send the revenuers in to bust up their stills?

[JohnFromCensornati]

I see that everyone on this thread is on board for the whole President of Everybody thing.

[hapaglloyd]

Look states like Alabama and Mississippi and Louisiana at one time-----not so long ago--used to spend a large portion of their budget in law enforcemen­t,building prisons,jails, locking up as much as their citizens as possible. They neglected education,health care and other amenities . They also turned their back on the rest of the country for years,ignoring federal laws,crying out "state rights", I remember the days if you drove through Alabama,Mi­ssissippi,­Georgia or Louisiana with New York or New Jersey tags or any New England state license plates,you would be stopped by the Storm Troopers......... I mean State Troopers and questioned. Now the whole world is changing and changing fast and they are too backward to keep up. Sorry,as of now I dont have much sympathy for them.

[gretcheno]

Neither do I why should they get any money and what is the reason to give it to them.

[nootrope]

Isn't that one of those red states -- you know, the ones that always vote republican because they are in favor of "smaller government" and "no handouts" to the poor (and yet take a large bulk of the US tax dollars anyway)? I say screw them until they start voting Democratic.

[nikky]

IS THIS ONE OF THOSE STATES THAT SAID THEY WERE DOING FINE WITH THE FOREIGN CAR MAKERS IN THEIR STATE (GIVE THEM NOTHING)

[rasit]

I AGREE; NOT A SINGLE CENT....