Is it any wonder that the Stimulus Bill did not work?

Early last year, the Democrats passed the so-called Stimulus bill that was supposed to jump start the economy and prevent unemployment from getting over 8%. It did not work. Unemployment is just under 10% and has stayed there for over a year.

I have written before that it was no wonder that the stimulus did not work since the bulk of the spending was on things like guaranteeing state and local workers that they would still get their raises and comfortable benefits despite the decline of tax revenues. The Stimulus also paid for grants to another favorite constituency of the liberal Democrats, namely college professors and their frequently wacky "studies" of things that have no impact on the economy whatsoever.

Today, another of these wacky studies has been uncovered. According to CNS, "The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), spent $823,200 of economic stimulus funds in 2009 on a study by a UCLA research team to teach uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals after having sex."

I think that it is uncontroversial to state that this study had no possible stimulative effect on the US economy. Nevertheless, taxpayer money was wasted on this nonsense. Does it really take nearly a million dollars to teach a man how to wash his genitals? I think it is safe to say that most men already know how to do it. What will be next? Two million dollars for a study on how to teach women in Sri Lanka to breathe?

The real problem with the Stimulus is that is was not designed by anyone who understood that it was not a slush fund to award Democrat constituencies, but rather expenditures to help the economy. If there was ever a reason to get rid of the Democrats in congress, this is it. We need representatives who do not consider the US treasury as their personal piggy bank which can be raided to give money to their friends and supporters. We need representatives who actually care about doiong good for the country. Right now, we have neither.