Research

Over the last week in our “They Messed With Joe,” video research briefing series, we have been highlighting much of the waste, fraud and abuse associated with Obama’s $862 billion stimulus. Today, we found out that the U.S. Census Bureau has joined the many who have messed with the Vice President.

Last month, we highlighted the fact that the Census Bureau was spending $2.5 million to run an ad in the Super Bowl. This inevitably begged the question of where did the $2.5 million come from?  We found out that last July, the U.S. Census Bureau announced receipt of $1 billion in stimulus funds. Now The Associated Press reports that the Census Bureau’s stimulus dollars are being subjected to plenty of waste, fraud and abuse:

• “More than 10,000 census employees were paid over $300 apiece to attend training for the massive address-canvassing effort, but they quit or were otherwise let go before they could perform any work. Cost: $3 million.”

• “Another 5,000 employees collected $300 for the same training, and then worked a single day or less. Cost $1.5 million.”

• “Twenty-three temporary census employees were paid for car mileage costs at 55 cents a mile, even though the number of miles they reported driving per hour exceeded the total number of hours they actually worked.”

• “Another 581 employees who spent the majority of their time driving instead of conducting field work also received full mileage reimbursements, which investigators called questionable.”

In a USA Today op-ed this morning, Biden claims that “the most exciting thing about the Recovery Act is not what we've done, but what lies ahead.” If that’s the case, Americans should watch their wallets.