Where Did The Stimulus Money Go?
Stimulus money didn’t go to the states hardest hit by the recession. States with higher bankruptcy, foreclosure and poverty rates as well as lower incomes got significantly less money. And states that had higher unemployment rates received virtually exactly the same amount of money as states with lower rates.
But there was one group that significantly benefited: unions. The top 10 states receiving the most stimulus money got more than 70% more money per person than the 10 states that received the least money. At the same time those states had more than twice the share of their workers represented by unions.
John Lott and Grover Norquist editorial in Investors’ Business Daily.
Sounds like an argument for unionization. If they’re better at advocating for federal dollars, as is any citizens’ right, then maybe workers should see the benefit of joining. As for the suggestion of a quid pro quo, really? You think union support of the Dems is going to be affected by anything the Dems do? No union would ever vote Republican because they have an existential interest in supporting Dems. It’s a weak correlative argument. Finally, as far as DC receiving disproportionate money, it’s just because it’s a city without a diluting rural population. If you looked at the stimulus funding as a whole, it went to cities, not rural areas, because frankly that’s where the jobs are.
It takes taxpayer money to lobby for federal funds. Those states with the most resources are better able to gorge at the public trough. The same is true of Medicaid. The states with the higher percent of the population living in poverty are not the ones receiving the most federal matching funds.
That’s probably the best argument for block grants.
This is a reason unions are bad not a reason the stimulus itself was a bad idea. unions game the prevailing wage standard in a variety of ways. This being one great example.
I have to wonder if the relative strength of special interests in the better-off states had anything to do with it.
Didn’t a number of Republican governors refuse stimulus funding? If so, were they governors of states that were more “in need” of funding? Could be an explanation, though I’m sure Norquist has no interest in exploring that point.
To update, yes it looks like Jindal (LA), Sanford (SC), Perry (TX), Palin (AK), Barbour (MS), Otter (ID) all refused (or at least threatened to refuse) at least some, if not all, stimulus funding. Considering these states are not exactly union strongholds, that would skew the results.