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Congress is cheating itself out of dozens of districts
Commentary: Recovery.gov plays political roulette with stimulus
By MarketWatch
Last Update: 2:10 PM ET Nov 17, 2009
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Apparently the U.S. Congress has been cheating itself.
According to recovery.gov, the Web site that's tracking where every dime of the $787 billion in economic-stimulus funding is going, dozens of non-existent congressional districts have received money from Washington.
ABC News made the discovery after choosing to fact-check the Obama administration's site this week, rather than Sarah Palin's book.
Among the unusual facts on Recovery.gov not taught in any high-school civics class:
Illinois, President Obama's home state, has 59 congressional districts, not the 19 that currently have representatives in Washington.
Arizona, has 15, even though it's only got eight seats in the House of Representatives.
And Florida has a grand total of 88 districts, according to the site.
Results of the stimulus spending have proved uneven, according to the site.
Spending of $75,186,388 in New Jersey's 5th congressional district, has yielded a grand total of 4.5 jobs -- which presumably pay $16.67 million each.
If that seems a tad overpriced, consider that someone at least got a job in that district.
In New Jersey's 80th congressional district, the government has spent $203,193 of borrowed money to create no jobs. The good news is that since there's no congressman in the 80th district, he or she won't have to listen to irate calls from constituents about how the government is wasting their money.
Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn., a legend for bringing home federal dollars for "important" projects, has maintained his edge, landing $175,246,258 for his district. That has "saved or created" 150.4 jobs which apparently pay $1,165,201 each, plus a little spare change.
But Pennsylvania's congressional delegation as a whole is woefully undermanned, given that the state supposedly has 96 congressional districts.
Then there's lightly populated Vermont, currently represented by two senators and one congressman. But according to recovery.gov, the state has 15 congressional districts -- 16 if you count the "00 congressional district." (That's "00" like the extra green pocket on American roulette wheels that casinos use to improve their odds.)
Now if only Speaker Nancy Pelosi can round up candidates to fill all those extra districts, the next time she needs to pass something like a $1.3 trillion health-reform bill things should be a lot easier.
-- Tom Bemis, assistant managing editor
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