Obama Stimulates Those Who Stimulated Him

USA Today is showing a break down in stimulus funding that shows far more money being directed to counties that supported Obama than to counties that didn't:

Billions of dollars in federal aid delivered directly to the local level to help revive the economy have gone overwhelmingly to places that supported President Obama in last year's presidential election.
That aid — about $17 billion — is the first piece of the administration's massive stimulus package that can be tracked locally. Much of it has followed a well-worn path to places that regularly collect a bigger share of federal grants and contracts, guided by formulas that have been in place for decades and leave little room for manipulation.

"There's no politics at work when it comes to spending for the recovery," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says.

Counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration's $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, a USA TODAY analysis of government disclosure and accounting records shows. That money includes aid to repair military bases, improve public housing and help students pay for college.

The reports show the 872 counties that supported Obama received about $69 per person, on average. The 2,234 that supported McCain received about $34.

Investigators who track the stimulus are skeptical that political considerations could be at work. The imbalance is so pronounced — and the aid so far from complete — that it would be almost inconceivable for it to be the result of political tinkering, says Adam Hughes, the director of federal fiscal policy for the non-profit OMB Watch. "Even if they wanted to, I don't think the administration has enough people in place yet to actually do that," he says.

"Most of what they're doing at this point is just stamping the checks and sending them out," Hughes says.

I think the explanation is pretty simple. Counties that supported Obama tended to have more people in them who were already receiving some sort of government handout, and many of the stimulus programs simply enhanced those handouts. The poor also overwhelmingly fell for Obama's hopey-changiness and voted for him in large numbers. Those poor are now part of the big government largesse receiving line.

The other issue is the impact that the Dem writers of the stimulus bill had with their local pork projects in their Democrat districts. Of course more money is going to go to those places already supporting Obama.

It all makes sense to me.