"We Won:" "Stimulus" Money Flows Twice as Much to Areas That Voted for Obama Than to Areas That Didn't

The Chicago Way.

...

"There's no politics at work when it comes to spending for the recovery," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says.

Counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration's $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, a USA TODAY analysis of government disclosure and accounting records shows. That money includes aid to repair military bases, improve public housing and help students pay for college.

Get ready for some Only In Washington type logic:

Investigators who track the stimulus are skeptical that political considerations could be at work. The imbalance is so pronounced — and the aid so far from complete — that it would be almost inconceivable for it to be the result of political tinkering, says Adam Hughes, the director of federal fiscal policy for the non-profit OMB Watch. "Even if they wanted to, I don't think the administration has enough people in place yet to actually do that," he says.

He brings up other reasons to doubt this, but note his main reason: This is so brazen and so obvious and so enormously lopsided that obviously this couldn't be intentional.

His thinking is thus: If only a small amount of extra money was flowing to Obama counties, like 10%, well then, that could possibly be due to political favoritism.

But when 100% more -- double! -- flows to Obama counties, obviously that can't be explained by political rigging.

That's like claiming that because the wife you hated was shot with six bullets rather than one you can't have been her killer. One bullet? Sure. Six? Overkill. No way you could be guilty. What kind of guy shoots a woman six times?

Oh, right: The husband who hates her.

An important caveat is contained at the end: from 2005-2007, counties that would ultimately vote for Obama received 50% more in federal aid than counties that would vote for McCain. So, shockingly, there's a bias in the system already. Go figure, those most demanding of other people's money vote Democratic.

But 50% is not 100%.

posted by Ace at 01:40 PM

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