Story here on National Review. (H/T The Other McCain via ECM)
Excerpt:
As it turns out, when controlling for state capitals and a host of other potentially relevant variables, we find that the original findings still hold. We learn a few other things, too:
- First, how and where the money is spent doesn’t seem to be related to unemployment or decline in employment in the district where it is spent.
- Second, the district’s party affiliation matters in where the money is spent. (We still don’t know how much it matters compared to other factors.) The average Democratic district receives 81 percent more than the average Republican district. Even after taking out the money spent through state capitals, the average Democratic district receives at least 30 percent more than the average Republican district.
- Third, whether a district has part of a state capital in it is an important factor in how stimulus money is spent. However, controlling for this factor, or even taking the money going to state capitals out altogether, doesn’t negate the finding that the district’s party affiliation matters in where the money is spent.
- Finally, how long the district’s representative has been in office seems to have a small but significant impact on how the money is spent (this is a new finding, as well).
There is still much more to learn on the question “How are stimulus funds being spent and why?”
The more I dig into this, the more important the question seems.
George Mason University is a pretty moderate school, but they boast a fine conservative economics department. Jennifer Roback Morse used to teach there, and Walter Williams still does. It’s probably the best place for a conservative or libertarian student to do an economics degree.
Now seems like a good time to re-post Michele Bachmann’s denunciation of gangster government, too.
Michelle Malkin calls them Corruptocrats. It fits.
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