Real Beneficiaries of the ‘Stimulus’

It was depressing but not surprising to read that tax cheats received $24 billion in stimulus money (“Stimulus recipients found to be tax cheats,” Page One, Wednesday).

Billions more in stimulus money were wasted previously by the Obama administration. Stimulus funds have gone to prisoners and dead people. Billions were spent on foreign “green” jobs, effectively outsourcing American positions. Other provisions in the stimulus package wiped out jobs in America’s export sector by reducing purchases of American products in Mexico and Canada. Stimulus money was used for abandoned bridges to nowhere and unnecessary government buildings in cities with declining populations, such as Milwaukee and Detroit.

A recent study by economists Bill Dupor and Timothy Conley found that the stimulus has wiped out 550,000 jobs. After reviewing its harmful provisions, Harvard University economist Jeffrey Miron concluded that the stimulus package was designed to reward special-interest “constituencies,” not to boost the economy.