The American Spectator : Your Tax Dollars at Work…for Obama

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The Obama Watch

Your Tax Dollars at Work…for Obama

By Fred Lucas on 9.7.10 @ 6:08AM

If you see another gaudy sign promoting the $862 billion stimulus package, Rep. Darrell Issa wants to know about it.

Some include the words, “Barack Obama, President.” Most say “Putting America to Work.” All say “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” Regardless, if you see another gaudy sign promoting the $862 billion stimulus package, Rep. Darrell Issa wants to know about it.

Issa, the ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has set up an e-mail address, stimulussigns@gmail.com, asking folks to send pictures of the signs with information. The California Republican also asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to explore whether the signs promoting the recovery act, and other actions he considers propaganda, are legal.

The Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board is expected to release a report about the cost of the signs this month. Congress did not make signs a part of the recovery act. Rather, the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a March 2009 directive for posting the signs.

“Projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will bear a newly-designed emblem,” the OMB directive said. “The emblem is a symbol of President Obama’s commitment to the American People to invest their tax dollars wisely to put Americans back to work.”

The words “will bear” imply a mandate for all state and local governments or contractors getting stimulus money to post these advertisements. That’s not the case, at least not now. Some federal agencies required the posting of the signs, but scaled that back to “strongly encourage” the posting of signs, according to recent inspector general reports from the departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. Meanwhile, the Department of Commerce still requires the posting, according to its IG report.

By far, the Department of Transportation has the strictest guidelines, regarding size and visibility of the signs and making no bones that the point of the signs was to “publicize” the recovery act.

“Despite eliminating requirements to post signs, Department of Transportation agencies are still improperly focused on pushing projects to display signs crediting President Obama and the so-called ‘stimulus’ for earmarked funding handouts,” Issa said in a statement. “The administration’s obsession with using taxpayer money to get political credit for projects adds unnecessary expenses and bureaucracy to a spending package that’s failing to spur promised job creation in the private sector.”

The Obama administration insists that the signs are just its way of being transparent.

“The Department of Transportation continues to believe that taxpayers have the right to know where their Recovery Act dollars are being spent,” DOT spokesman Bill Adams told CNSNews.com.

The DOT agency guidelines vary. But the Office of Inspector General reported that most agency say that signs “be placed where they can be easily identified with the corresponding projects.”

The Federal Aviation Administration guidelines said “the signs should be solely used to publicize ARRA funding of an airport project,” according to the IG report.

And state or local politicians should not even think about getting as much credit for the existence of the project as the Obama administration. The Federal Railroad Administration guidance states, “Grantees may elect to have a secondary project sign which identifies other project partners.” But it says, “Such secondary signs should be smaller and less prominent than ARRA Project Sign.”

The FRA also states the signs “should take the form of a decal, no smaller than 12 inches measured diagonally. For passenger rail cars, such decals should be placed so as to be visible to every passenger entering the car.”

Like other agencies, the FRA guidelines initially said, “The grantee shall post a sign at all fixed project locations at the most publicly accessible location and a plaque in all purchased or rehabilitated rail cars announcing that the project or equipment was funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration with funds provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” This “shall” was dropped in favor of encouraging such posting.

The Federal Transit Administration’s first issued guidelines on April 7, 2009 that said the recipient “agrees” to post the emblem. But FTA officials told the IG they changed that policy to “encourage” on Aug. 14, 2009.

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About the Author

Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for CNSNews.com.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (51) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

JS| 9.7.10 @ 8:11AM

Anyone for some Hatch Act prosecutions in 2013?

Louis Jenkins| 9.7.10 @ 8:27AM

The WRSA recommend running your car into the signs, or at least vandalizing the beasts.

Tom Shire| 9.8.10 @ 12:58AM

Wouldn't it be nicer if people could just claim that the stimulus act "created no new jobs" or "did nothing to help the economy" without those pesky signs staring them in the face?

I know! Let's investigate the signs! That's a good use of taxpayer money!

MIMI| 9.7.10 @ 8:46AM

These partisan Democrat..silly, amateurist, spending parties will be over in 56 days. We Americans had an almost instant....taste. smell,..feeling sickness SOON after this bunch came to POWER . Now the stench is at the ROTTEN stage...The silly's won't know or have a clue...What did we do wrong??? Thank God for Patriots to see and right the nation. A sign is just an example... of their downright stupidity!!!

Jim O'Brien| 9.7.10 @ 8:49AM

For all those who think Obama should resign, let's have a consumer boycott on September 28, 29, 30. Buy nothing.
Spread the word.

Thinker Right| 9.7.10 @ 8:56AM

Fred - It's hard to imagine how you could be more petty. Grow the fuck up.

Redstateboy| 9.7.10 @ 9:03AM

"petty" ??!! PETTY?!?!? Billions of dollars.. OUR DOLLARS wasted!!! is Petty?!!? Let me axe-q you somethin Pal... would you turn down the Mill Ohio blew ??

Thinker Right| 9.7.10 @ 9:13AM

Hey, little Red State Boy Toy, how do a few signs add up to "Billions of dollars"? Or maybe in your red state they don't teach arithmetic?

Redstateboy| 9.7.10 @ 11:27AM

you're a blithering idiot.. you Really think I was implying these signs are costing Billions of $ ??
FO!! I AM stating that the Waste adds up to Billions!!

Thinker Right| 9.7.10 @ 11:45AM

Red State Boy Toy - No, I am not a blithering idiot, not even an idiot. However, you are incapable of stating what you mean.

By the way, what "Waste" are you referring to? Please be specific, and try to get it right on the first try so that you don't have to append clarifications.

JeffW| 9.8.10 @ 4:02PM

RedStateBoy's point was obvious. As was your being facetious. Each sign is estimated to cost approximately $1,200. Considering how many of them you see on a work project multiplied over many states that adds up to quite a large sum of wasted money for political gain. And I did you the favor of even getting my info from a liberal rag.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/us/14sign.html
You wouldn't be Vtwin would you. The mentality is similar

Redstateboy| 9.7.10 @ 8:59AM

Great!! I'm live'n of F'ck Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwichs, I'm barely hang'n on but I suppose I'm too F'ck stupid and I need to be informed that this F'ck Road project is compliments of Hussien the Magnificent!!!

Clinton nee Publius | 9.7.10 @ 4:30PM

I know where you are coming from and I hope Mr. Issa isn't the hypocrite he was during the Bush years when there was no spending bill that was too much for Republicans. If he is truly turning over a new leaf and is going to do the right thing, then bully for him and I hope he becomes President someday. The reality is that we have 30 years of betrayals behind us so I'm not jumping up and down with glee either.

Jeff| 9.7.10 @ 9:28AM

Personally I think the more signs the better. Every one is a reminder of failure. Most of the ones around here are stuck in piles of dirt that have been off and on projects for years with no indication they will ever be finished.

Ned the Red| 9.7.10 @ 10:14AM

Jeff, I agree. I would love for every project spawned by the Democrat stimulus to be marked in some prominent manner.
Think of all the teachers with President Obama's logo branded on their foreheads or would a tattoo be better, installed by a government funded tattoo artist.
We could take this a long ways, the new Volt car should also have the logo stamped on it somewhere. As should all the union members who have had their retirements and benefit packages saved. The new “Obama Saved Stamp.”

Ned| 9.7.10 @ 12:08PM

This sort of crap ain't even new for the DimOcrats... 30 years ago (and it wasn't new then) I watched in amazment as the *very first* act of the new mayor of Chicago (imagine that) was to spend $3.5M to remove the name of his predecessor from public structures and put his own name up... when driving into O'Hare, who gives a damn who the mayor is?

John DuBose| 9.7.10 @ 9:32AM

There have been several allegations that some federal expenditures under the signature of President Obama have been illegal pro-Obama propaganda.

I do not know. But this is serious stuff. An independent - non partisan authority needs to be in place to deal with it.

Nate W.| 9.7.10 @ 9:41AM

Just think about it; until Obama came along, did we ever see "advertisement signs" for public road work, etc?

Thinker Right| 9.7.10 @ 9:53AM

Yes, I have seen them for decades.

Tom| 9.7.10 @ 10:08AM

I have seen them for state and local projects, never for a federal one. And honestly, I still have not seen one for a federal project.

Troy| 9.7.10 @ 8:46PM

In New Mexico we see signs advertising G.R.I.P "Govenor Richardson's Improvement Project". So happy he didn't make it out of the primaries.

Stan Redmond| 9.7.10 @ 9:46AM

Eventually these signs will be cut down. In the not to far future they will remind "every passenger who enters the car" that the big O used their hard earned dollars to fund the waste. Taxes will "necessarily skyrocket" and there will be the big O to remind them why. They will be sitting in traffic jams on their way to the unemployment office with 15 union road workers sitting in the shade of a big O sign. I see a time when these signs are nothing but a big joke. Of course the big O's fragile ego won't allow this and the signs will all be removed and replaced with "Bush's Fault" signs.

ROFL| 9.8.10 @ 4:20PM

LMAO

Sheila| 9.7.10 @ 9:49AM

Yes, Nate, it began with Saint Franklin Roosevelt plastering his alphabet-soup signs all over the place to demonstrate his masterful handling of the depression. I'm sure you remember this great deity, one of the pantheon of Democratic greats who inspired your current Dear Leader. Dealing with excrement like you on a rainy Monday morning with a sick kid home from school is not my idea of intelligent discourse. Go home. Decline and fall.

Dustoff| 9.7.10 @ 9:52AM

Well, lets see. O-bummer did such a great job with his huge spending last time ( that did zip)
Now he wants to do it again. Can you say FDR II.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
MILWAUKEE – A combative President Barack Obama rolled out a long-term jobs program Monday that would exceed $50 billion to rebuild roads, railways and runways, and coupled it with a blunt campaign-season assault on Republicans for causing Americans' hard economic times.

Pete| 9.7.10 @ 10:07AM

Yes, we should all be thankful to Osama that pennies on the (stolen) dollar found their way to unnecessary projects run by Dem friendly contractors so that a few extra people could be temporarily hired to hold Slow/Stop signs.

Redstateboy| 9.7.10 @ 11:30AM

"The administration's obsession with using taxpayer money to get political credit for projects adds unnecessary expenses and bureaucracy to a spending package that's failing to spur promised job creation in the private sector."

Pretty much sums it all up.

In Toto land| 9.7.10 @ 11:45AM

We have a project that has been in the works for about 10 years now, started physically working on it about 5 years ago, and now has one of these signs posted on it. Un-freakin believable. They are trying to take credit for a project that was already funded and started long before this pile of money came along. Maybe it got a shot in the arm with AR/RA money, but it would have continued regarless, so its still a crock.

Nick| 9.7.10 @ 12:10PM

Pretty soon, President Dither will be putting his picture on all of these signs.

Just like Stalin, Saddam, and all other tin-pot dictators have done.

AMEMBRO| 9.7.10 @ 12:46PM

Sensationally over da top warning for those of short appendage pleasure tool.

I posted on this site droppin Gs and street talkin about 6 months ago under the assumed AMENBRO handle. Allot of you ASS-U-MED I was African American, stating so in several posts. I laughed as hard as I am right now. It was just too good.

AMENBRO| 9.7.10 @ 12:50PM

Tech Difficulty
Sensationally over da top warning for those of short appendage pleasure tool.

I posted those comment in celebration of an NPR rant by as insipid as this, ARA/NRA OBAMA, ROOSEVELT, (NATIONAL RECOVERY ACT so you slow to get the message do not get confused ),,,,,,COMPREHENSION PAUSE CAUGHT UP YET WITH DA DANGLIN PARTICIPLE, NPR expose understanding of humanity that everyone that does not talk like that TOAD Olberman must synonymously be an IGNORANT, shoeless, possum crapped between-st the toes Tea Party, America Loving, Religious Right, Gun Tottin, Bible thumpin TERRORIST, by some young intern ipppty-shit at NPR educated, like a few of the regulars in here, way beyond the dendrite synapse conductivity void. (Read again slowly if you are slow to comprehend several thoughts separated by metaphorical flourish & commas)

FOCUS. I know its hard. Can any yawl GENIUSES see the metaphorical oxymoronical conundrum, take your pick, HI-LARRY-ITY, in the worn out cliche. BIG BROTHER? Or,, for you ex 60's radicals Big Brother & the Holding Company.

Libs finally get complete control & systematical go about enslaving us all using Joe Stalin, Mao & Hitlarian Propaganda methods. An all of them are YANKEES. Watch the last three episodes of the HBO asskickingly period accurate Antebellum miniseries Deadwood. Eerily you will hear the word Democrat & Chicago. You will also witness the exact same tactics enforced in the formation of the States post the Civil War. Same sheepdip that is going on right now. You Yankees owe then entire world an apology. He who laughs historically last laughs way down from the very bottom of the diaphragm YAWL HEEEEEE HE. Within the Financial reform bill hurtling down the turd pipes of Congress a little known codicil will be unveiled as constitutionally bound mandate to require all banks have bronze statues of Barney Frank, Obama/Michel, and or, Chris Dodd & Teddy Kennedy in their infamous waitress sandwich repose.

Please pull em out & show me just how short they are. I live way inland save the stupidity if short walks on structures allowing fishing lines to exploit the human deficit-ed fish population. PAAALEASE astound me with your o-rig-in-al-ity. Ran outta meds sorry LOL

AMENBRO| 9.7.10 @ 1:10PM

As if to put the crossed Ts, dotted Is and periods to my insanly cynical rant. Equal insanity emmanates from Pennsylvannia Ave's historical quotation distressed oval office worrested wool & polyester festoon-ed-age, that the ever so petulant, little child, our equally vadipid, 57% of the electorate put in the most powerful office in the WORLD, will not be appearing with TELEPROMTER at Ground Zero on 9/11.

reckon we're just not worthy . Admitting to being geographically, as in the STUDY of interspatial behavior of humanity, is too stingingly apparent once presented with leading instead of having ones posterior incessantly kissed. HOW,"Like Exactly", did we get from there , to here, at this point in history.

marcia fox| 9.7.10 @ 1:37PM

Our tax dollars repaved 2 blocks of a residential city street in my neighborhood this summer. It took about 3 days to do it (if they would have worked on it steadily.) Yep, one of those humongous signs went up , just to remind us who sent the $.

mad libertarian guy | 9.7.10 @ 4:18PM

I discovered this morning that the stimulus is funding what can only be described as a beautification project putting in pretty stone sidewalks.

Of course this project too was already funded before the stimulus, yet it somehow gets all the credit.

Flee| 9.7.10 @ 3:26PM

Can't we get them for false advertising? What they are doing is spending not investing. Simply calling something an investment does not make it so. They should really look up the definition of investment before they try co-opting it for their frivolous spending spree. It gives traditional investors a bad name.

Steve A| 9.7.10 @ 4:25PM

Flee, Come on, get with the program. You confiscate a bunch of tax $$, borrow & print the rest & distribute it to entities that have proven to be inefficient. Obamanomics 101.

dw| 9.7.10 @ 5:07PM

He wants to begin another unfunded road building bill starting with 50 billion dollars, including another federal agency to administer it.
The sign building industry must be drooling right about now.

Gadfly| 9.7.10 @ 5:26PM

Concerning those signs, I think Horace Smith said it best, and way before the current nonentity with a name starting in O:

On A Stupendous Leg of Granite, Discovered Standing by Itself in the Deserts of Egypt, with the Inscription Inserted Below

In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows:
"I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
"The wonders of my hand." The City's gone,
Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder, and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragments huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.

NeitherSide| 9.7.10 @ 7:07PM

Mr. Lucas, Typos aside, how about a little prioritization of importance for these op pieces? You have been given an opportunity to reach a large number of same-thinking individuals yet squander it on such meaningless trivialities. I suggest the self respecting American Spectator list all their administration grievances, then scratch out all the ones proven fraudulent, pandering hysterics, and simple minded hate mongering, and then if this 'issue' is all that is left, then count your blessings.
I do not recall this kind of pablum over the cost of the last administration's F-16 entrance under a giant "Mission Accomplished" sign celebrating the end of the 'hard' part of this falsified war back before the 'hard' part even started. But then again, those costs were compliments of the Clinton administrations incredible surplus (having turned around the early 90's recession handed over by GW senior then blamed for, in the same manner as this outlet lays total blame on the current administration for the wars, economy, debt and probably the weather.
I'll even help you out ... "Hey the President printed some signs, let's impeach him and send him back to his 'real' country to pursue voodoo witchcraft!"

NeitherSide| 9.7.10 @ 7:35PM

May I also add...
I doubt anyone reading this site would want the voters to forget who supported this stimulus money. It would seem to me, as they coyly wring their hands, hoping for complete failure of stimulus so we can get back to big oil interest, that they should be glad his name is attached to every infrastructure improvment this crumbling nation rights.
Every major city has a welcome sign at it's many borders and each bears the name of the current Mayor. Perhaps they should be cast out as well?
When Roosevelt saved our butts and employed thousands of WPA workers, it did not go unposted. I have seen these signs in the midwest along side many highway projects and they do not read like an election banner. It's a federal program and the President's name and title are at the bottom. It is not any different than any other major improvement project federally funded.
I can only imagine what detractors 'think' they look like, but it is such a non-issue that to waste time and energy foaming about it is embarrassing.
Surely you have 'real' issues to discuss, such as, "Why hasn't the Constitution been reinstated/respected and our alienable rights restored?" Write about something that matters and you might attract readers who have more to say than 'He's a "terrist" (sic).'

Thank you

JeffW| 9.8.10 @ 4:09PM

Psst, Neitherside!

Your liberal bias is showing.

Dennis Morris| 9.8.10 @ 12:33AM

I have been concerned about the large number of radio ads touting "tax breaks" that came from the "recovery act". They were wall to wall from about January to at least midsummer- well after April 15. on my local station in Rush's 3 hours there would be as many as 18 of them-(sometime twice in a break)they were not cheap to buy though they didn't pay the producer much for the insipid content. Certainly the Radio stations are doing well but what a waste of money.
Dennis Morris

GavInTucson| 9.8.10 @ 1:16AM

One of my favorite "stimulus" projects is in my former state of Pennsylvania along I-80. Apparently having mile-marker signs wasn't good enough. Some genius thought it would be great if we had marker signs every tenth of a mile, hence mile marker 1.0, 1.2, 1.3, etc. A pretty useless make-work project, indeed, unless someone can point out to me the benefit of seeing a mile-marker sign every three or four seconds.

Tony in Central PA| 9.8.10 @ 9:57PM

Why don't we just have deifying, building - sized portraits of a grim - faced Obama just like they do in dictatorships ?

raoul | 4.30.12 @ 1:44PM

Exactly, not far from where I live, the mayor announced that the city got 47,000 from the Byrne Grant, and the Chief of Police in that town announced that it was 38,000. Sounds like someone got reamed out of 9,000! google bomb "feds using extortion"

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