Jumping back in the Wayback machine, I mentioned the bridge in Hillsborough, N.H., back in mid 2010 as one of the complete wastes of money from the Stimulus. $150,000 was wasted on some stone work and railings for a historic bridge that 1. stops and 2. literally goes nowhere.
(LA Times) Mitt Romney rounded out a week focused on what he views as overspending by the federal government with a critique of President Obama’s stimulus program during a speech in front of what opponents call New Hampshire’s “bridge to nowhere.”
Romney has argued throughout the campaign that Obama’s $787-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was a waste of money that did little to jump-start the economy — and he has charged that the federal government has inflated the job numbers associated with various projects.
On Friday, Romney mocked a project to preserve and enhance the historic Stone Arch bridge, work that was to include new surfacing, construction of parking area and bike trails linking the site to surrounding businesses.
“You all know the story of this bridge; this is part of the president’s stimulus plan. He went out and borrowed $787 billion and said that if we’re allowing him as Congress allowed him to borrow that kind of money, that he would hold unemployment below 8%, and it hasn’t been below 8% since,” Romney said, criticizing the amount of stimulus money that was spent for each job created.
The photo is from the LA Times story, and they have a bigger copy. Here’s a closer view of the bridge from my previous article
Some will say “it’s just $150k, what’s the big deal?” How many people could have been fed with that money? Why should the government waste taxpayer money?
Mitt is far behind in the NH polls and this will not help him, the people in New England love their old bridges this was was made into a park. Some people do not think that public parks are a waste of money, but then again some people even look at public funded schools as “socialism”
Actually, people were pretty annoyed in the local area over this waste of money. And, as far as I can determine, the park was never completed.
Furthermore, parks are great. So are historic bridges. Let the locals pay for it. Not our grandchildren.
They only have one bridge to no where? Come to Louisiana and you will find many such projects that cost far more.
It is not the bridge is old, john, it is that the government spent money on a bridge that 1) goes nowhere 2) cannot function as a bridge and 3) was not complete.
Are you really that stupid to think that the people of New Hampshire think the money was well spent?
As for the polls, Romney started campaigning this month in New Hampshire. Obama has been there for almost 6 months. (After all, he has nothing else to do.)
Romney is catching Obama in the state and it has to make the people of your ilk head’s explode.
What Lefties like John miss, GT, is that the Stimulus was supposed to ….. stimulate the economy and get people back to work. Yet, a project like this showed no indication of any jobs created. The Stimulus tracking page doesn’t show any. And even if there were, they would be temporary for a few months, then gone. Like with the way most of the Stimulus “jobs”. Temporary.
Well, Teach, because the government can waste our money better than we can.
When you elect your town councilman, who has raised your taxes over and over without filling your city’s potholes, you expect him to become America’s consummate financial guru.