If spending is swift, oversight may suffer

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration’s economic stimulus plan could end up wasting billions of dollars by attempting to spend money faster than an overburdened government acquisition system can manage and oversee it, according to documents and interviews with contracting specialists.

The $827 billion stimulus legislation under debate in Congress includes provisions aimed at ensuring oversight of the massive infusion of contracts, state grants and other measures. At the urging of the administration, those provisions call for transparency, bid competition, and new auditing resources and oversight boards.

But under the terms of the stimulus proposals, a depleted contracting workforce would be asked to spend more money more rapidly than ever before, while also improving competition and oversight. Auditors would be asked to track surges in spending on projects ranging from bridge construction and schools to research of “green” energy and the development of electronic health records — a challenge made more difficult because many contracts would be awarded by state agencies.

The stimulus plan presents a stark choice: The government can spend unprecedented amounts of money quickly in an effort to jump-start the economy or it can move more deliberately to thwart the cost overruns common to federal contracts in recent years.

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If spending is swift, oversight may suffer

I am not one to bite my words and I never bow down to the PC Police, so, as you can guess, this is NOT going to be the time and/or place where I start.

I honestly believe that there are those that are pushing this *stimulus* package so hard and so fast in the hopes that there WILL be some windfall profits to be taken. Obama calls anew for swift action on economy. I am NOT saying that Obama himself is looking to take personal advantage of the *stimulus*, but I am saying that some of his friends and cohorts may very well be and are pushing him in that direction for deliberate reasons.

If my math is correct, the money that is going to be spent on this *stimulus*, an estimated $827B at this point, if that money were to be given to the citizens of the USA, every man, woman and child would receive somewhere close to $2,700 each. Multiply that by a family of 4. I would think that a family with a *stimulus* of $10,800 to spend would do a lot more to help this nation than would giving this money to corporations, the very corporations that got us into this fix to begin with!

I don’t believe the government can spend this nation out of our crisis. I believe that the American people can. That would be my one caveat on the money, if you get the money, you spend the money. Durable goods, vehicles and so forth. Spend it in the American market, spend it to make your American life better, I believe that would stimulate the economy at least as much, if not more, than all these corporate bailouts put together.

Oversight is going to suffer regardless of this *stimulus* happening now or later. Crooks are already licking their lips in anticipation of their imminent feeding frenzy. And for the record, the crooks I refer to aren’t wearing a mask and carrying a gun, they are wearing expensive business suits and have the title President, CEO, COO, VP and so forth. Place the money in the hands of the people and NOT in the hands of those crooks and this could go a lot better.