In late June, we saw the following quote in a USA Today article about “stimulus” spending:  “Federal spending meant to jump-start the economy slowed last week, two weeks after President Obama vowed to “ramp up” the pace of that aid. Last week, federal agencies allocated about $5.2 billion in stimulus aid for projects across the U.S., according to reports the agencies released Thursday. That’s less than at any point in the previous month and less than the roughly $8.6 billion the government has spent, on average, in every previous week since Obama signed the massive spending and tax-relief package in February.”

And since the wind and the waves and all forces of nature must bend to the velvet will of The One, stimulus spending must have increased since then, right?  Ummmm….no.

On Friday, the Washington Times reported that "Stimulus bill spending has slowed to a trickle, despite President Obama’s June order to his Cabinet to speed it up. The average stimulus spending per week has dropped severely, to just $4.2 billion over the past month from $9.7 billion during the prior four months. The government spent $2.9 billion in the week ending Aug. 7.”

Now there’s talk about how fast the government will have to spend money to live up to their promised spending targets by some particular date and there’s hand-wringing by politicians, some sincere and some with Cheshire Cat smiles, about how and when the money will be spent.

But let me tell you what’s REALLY going on here.

The “stimulus” bill was NEVER about stimulating the economy or fixing the infrastructure that needs fixing. That’s why it’s not being spent quickly and why many infrastructure projects are being undertaken where the bridge or road is not in very bad shape but happens to be in an important Democratic district.

Instead the “stimulus” bill is about stimulating the Democrats’ chances in the next election. The plan all along has been to save as much money as possible until mid-2010 and then spend like crazy, trying to buy as many votes as possible going into a mid-term election when the party in power tends to lose seats – and which is already looking worse than usual for the Democrats.

They know that 2010 could be a repeat of 1994 and they intend to spend the better part of $500 billion taxpayer dollars to put up signs saying “See how we’re fixing this road for you?"  They’ll hope to ramp up a short-term boost in employment next year as well, even though they’re doing it on the backs of our children.

The last sentence in the Washington Times article quotes a watchdog group as wondering out loud whether the slow spending means the government will simply make the total stimulus spending smaller. Absolutely not. They will spend every last penny because they’re trying to buy the next election with your money.