Infrastructure: the Next Bailout

Nick Gillespie over at the Reason blog points out that with the automakers’ bailout practically a done-deal, the states and cities are using infrastructure investment to get their own “bailout.”
Among the infrastructure items funding is hoped for:

* a proposed “O’Malley Road Reconstruction” in Anchorage, Alaska, that will cost $30 million but provide 300 (count ’em!) jobs;
* a Gadsen, Alabama “Hoke Street Sidewalk Construction to serve new Department of Human Resources facility” that’s a real steal at $150,000 but will take almost surviving members of the Allman Brothers Band off the public dole (at last!);
* Police Facility Solar Panels for Lake Havasu City, Arizona, for only $400,000 and 75 jobs;
* Stormwater Settlement Ponds for Beloit, Wisconsin for $1,428 million and five whole jobs, which will feed a family of four in the Badger State, especially if they only eat government cheese;

Bastiat disproved the idea that government can improve our economic situation by wasting money on worthless projects. Unfortunately, if Congress and the White House cave to the governors and mayors we’ll be pushing off any economic recovery and making us all poorer.