Fillings are starting to come into www.recovery.gov, the website created to track stimulus money spending. Drudgereport has started posting some of the listings and making shock claims. In this diary we will track Drudge claims to see if it really is pork spending as well as finding pork projects of our own! I don't doubt that money is going to be wasted, but we need to find the REAL waste.
Update 2: Another headline busted; $1.4 million is for a hangar door.
At the top of Drudge this morning as of 10:35 a.m. CST:
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $2,531,600 FOR 'HAM, WATER ADDED, COOKED, FROZEN, SLICED, 2-LB'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,191,200 FOR '2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $351,807 FOR 'REPLACE AND UPGRADE THE DUMBWAITER'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,562,568 FOR 'MOZZARELLA CHEESE'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $5,708,260 FOR 'PROCESS CHEESE'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $16,784,272 FOR 'CANNED PORK'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,444,100 FOR 'REPAIR DOOR BLDG 5112'...
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $541,119 FOR 'INSTALL TRAFFIC SIGNAL'...
How scary!
You can see all the filed contract awards on this page of Recovery.gov. I am willing to take a stab that most of these things Drudge is worried about have simple explanations, but we shouldn't take that for granted. We've been given a great tool to rummage through to find problems, and by all means we should do that.
Please note: Not everything that has been awarded is currently listed. I know a bridge in my hometown has been torn up for several weeks with stimulus money, and it is not listed here.
Anyway, Let's see what google can find out about these Drudge scares.
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Ham, water added, cooked, frozen, sliced, 2-lb awarded to Cloughtery Packing LLC. Cloughtery, "processes pork products, including fresh-cut pork, prepared bacon, sausages, and boneless and bone-in cooked ham," according to a Yahoo! Finance listing. A little further googling reveals this page which, while not the same company, provides insight into what the product is.
Fully cooked ham, water added, D-shaped logs are sliced into approximately 0.67 oz. slices and shingled. Two 1.00 lb. shingles are stacked on top of each other and placed in a zippered pouch that contains approximately 48 slices and weighs 32 oz. (2.00 lbs.). Product is sent to a blast freezer facility and shipped frozen.
Yum. The product is recommended for
College & University dining halls, Business & Industry cafeteria feeding, Hospital cafeteria feeding, Camps Fast casual chains focused on sandwiches, Full service casual dining, Independent family style restaurants, Caterers, C-Stores, Sandwich Makers, Foodservice Cash & Carry outlets
What it's being used for: local organizations that assist the needy – including food banks, food pantries, and soup kitchens.
Department of Agriculture responds to Drudge
The Recovery Act funds referenced in press reports allowed states to purchase ham, cheese and dairy products for these food banks, soup kitchens and food pantries that provide assistance to people who otherwise do not have access to food. This program will help reduce hunger of those hardest hit by the current economic recession.
The references to "2 pound frozen ham sliced" are to the sizes of the packaging. Press reports suggesting that the Recovery Act spent $1.191 million to buy "2 pounds of ham" are wrong. In fact, the contract in question purchased 760,000 pounds of ham for $1.191m, at a cost of approximately $1.50 per pound. In terms of the dairy purchase referenced, USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) purchased 837,936 pounds of mozzarella cheese and 4,039,200 pounds of processed cheese.
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The $350,000 dumbwaiter for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Brooklyn. I don't know much about dumbwaiters, so I googled around and found this request from the beginning of the year:
Contractor shall provide all materials, equipment, labor, supervision and expertise necessary to modernize one (1) traction dumbwaiter and three (3) traction cart lifts at the John L. McClellan VA Medical Center, Little Rock, Arkansas. The contractor must provide and install new solid state microprocessor controls, drives, motors, dispatchers, leveling unit, and cabs. All work performed under this contract shall meet or exceed the current ASME-A17.1 elevator Code, State Code and the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards. All work shall be performed in accordance to the project plans and specifications. The dollar magnitude is between $250,000 and $500,000.
I'm not familiar with hospitals or the types of dumbwaiters they use, but $350,000 does not sound like a ridiculous amount of money to install a state-of-the-art version.
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Update 1
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$1.4 million to fix a door. Wow! If only I could get into this line of business. The door to my dorm room was sorta squeaky freshman year, and all it took to fix that was a $5 can of WD-40. Too bad I didn't get a government contract for that...
This was awarded to AFCO TECHNOLOGIES, INC, a company that seems to specialize in piping, to service what would seem to be one door in 'building 5112' at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas. Dyess is a 6,117 acre complex that contains over 200 buildings plus family housing, is the home of the 7th Bomb Wing and is an emergency landing site for the space shutle. There is a noticeable lack of information. Fortunately, DKos member BlackSheep1 cracked this one with this PDF
Repair hangar doors, 5112
Hey I was right ;)
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$541,000 for a traffic signal in Hawaii. Wait! Obama was born in Hawaii (supposedly). Clout! Chicago politics! Pork spending!
How much does a traffic signal cost? http://lmgtfy.com/...
A modern signal can cost taxpayers between $80,000 and $100,000 to install - depending on the complexity of the intersection and the characteristics of the traffic using it. On top of this, there is a perpetual cost which is almost never considered - the cost of the electrical power consumed in operating a signalized intersection 24 hours a day. This now averages about $1,400 per year.
Given that this is at Hickam Air Force Base, $541,000 suddenly doesn't sound too out of the ordinary. Of course, once again, recovery.gov doesn't provide much in the way of details. Noticing a trend?
I'll be updating this diary throughout the day as I explore and find more.