The AP is reporting that many or most bridges which are receiving federal “stimulus” money are not the bridges most in need of repair.

The issue is that states want to spend money on the easiest projects which also tend to be in the richer areas. Meanwhile, dilapidated dangerous bridges, disproportionately in more “needy” areas, are being ignored, meaning that the only part of the stimulus spending which one could have argued was a legitimate government function, i.e. fixing transportation infrastructure that really needs fixing, is not happening.

This isn’t a big surprise, given that states are using stimulus money for all kinds of things, such as simply using the money to plug their budget deficits or to pay for signs advertising the wonder of stimulus.

The effect of the whole mess is to punish taxpayers while allowing states (and their politicians) to avoid the criticism (and resulting punishment at the polls) which come along with their profligacy of recent years.

We might have been better off burning our money rather than letting government waste it in the way they are.