Here’s a real shocker; billions of dollars in federal stimulus aid have gone to Counties that supported Obama overwhelmingly compared to counties that did not support Obama. This is the first $17 billion that can be tracked locally; surely nobody is surprised by this. Of course the Administration denies that politics are in play.
President Obama
Obama counties stimulus aid support has gone double as opposed to those who backed McCain. The estimated value per person in the Obama counties is $69 dollars a person, while in the McCain counties it is only $34 dollars per person on average.
Those who track the stimulus money are skeptical that it has anything to do with politics as usual, some say it’s just areas that normally get federal help so they are sort of on a fast track for the federal stimulus funds. I could buy that; more Obama counties would be already used to receiving federal entitlement funds, I suppose it would make it easier for the government to get those Obama counties their money. From USA Today:
The imbalance didn’t start with the stimulus. From 2005 through 2007, the counties that later voted for Obama collected about 50% more government aid than those that supported McCain, according to spending reports from the U.S. Census Bureau. USA TODAY’s review did not include Alaska, which does not report its election results by county.
On the other hand, I don’t doubt that there is a little political payback going on too. Obama county stimulus aid shouldn’t be a big surprise. A lot of counties that supported Obama, are counties that rely heavily on government assistance. Obama won less than 900 counties nationwide while McCain won over 2200 counties.
Obama counties, although fewer in number would have far more people, crammed in a more urban area. This would include the larger cities, which would have far more people on the government roles already. It will be easier to tell later on, when a larger percentage of the money begins to be dished out.
I do expect however, whether intentional or not, for Obama county stimulus aid support to continue to double that of other counties.
Rush Limbaugh on Stimulus