The other kind of pork

It seems that the stimulus bill had done one thing that we knew government was capable of doing; spending money like a sailor on shore leave. Recovery.org has a list of some of the great stimulating projects that the government has thus far spent our money on. Check out this list (from Drudge).

RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $2,531,600 FOR ‘HAM, WATER ADDED, COOKED, FROZEN, SLICED, 2-LB’…
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,191,200 FOR ‘2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED’…
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $351,807 FOR ‘REPLACE AND UPGRADE THE DUMBWAITER’…
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,562,568 FOR ‘MOZZARELLA CHEESE’…
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $5,708,260 FOR ‘PROCESS CHEESE’…
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $16,784,272 FOR ‘CANNED PORK’…
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $1,444,100 FOR ‘REPAIR DOOR BLDG 5112′…
RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $541,119 FOR ‘INSTALL TRAFFIC SIGNAL’…

Wowsa, that’s a lot of mozzarella cheese and ham. Apparently the Department of Agriculture was not too happy with Drudge for releasing these numbers (and headlining them) so they released the following press release which you can read in full here.

In fact, the contract in question purchased 760,000 pounds of ham for $1.191 million, at a cost of approximately $1.50 per pound. In terms of the dairy purchase referenced, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) purchased 837,936 pounds of mozzarella cheese and 4,039,200 pounds of processed cheese. The canned pork purchase was 8,424,000 pounds at a cost of $16,784,000, or approximately $1.99 per pound.

Heh, there is your government stimulus money hard at work, upgrading dumbwaiters. Just in case you had any doubts about government single payer health insurance, this is the kind of goodness you can look forward too. Government never has been and never will be efficient or cost-effective because they have no reason to be. Every time Obama says we will actually save money by implementing national health care, just remember this.