10 Insane Ways Local Governments Wasted Biden’s ‘COVID’ Bailout Money

The Biden administration is begging Congress to give them billions more taxpayer dollars to waste. They claim they’re out of money to pay for COVID-19 tests, vaccines, and other essential pandemic-related healthcare. But wait: didn’t the Biden administration pass a massive $1.9 trillion “COVID” bill just last year? Where did all that money go? Well, as I previously explained for BASEDPolitics, only roughly 1% of that money was spent on vaccines and just about 8% on COVID-related healthcare. In reality, most of that $1.9+ trillion went to all sorts of partisan programs and wasteful schemes.  The biggest of all was a $350+ billion bailout for state and local governments. The stated rationale for this enormous subsidy was to give revenue-strapped local governments the money they needed to pay first responders during the pandemic. But this was always a farce: there was never any revenue crisis to begin with. In reality, it was a huge handout for local government cronies to waste on corrupt schemes. https://twitter.com/CatoInstitute/status/1351702493802205184?s=20&t=yU-87zQlcQXbJX1n5LRQXQ Now, thanks to a new AP investigation, we’re starting to see just how ridiculously this money was spent. The Associated Press reveals dozens of examples of insane local government spending schemes that were, directly or indirectly, subsidized by the Biden bailout.  https://twitter.com/brad_polumbo/status/1506998576068632583 Here are the 10 craziest examples the AP discovered: 

1. New York County Spent $12 Million Renovating Minor League Baseball Stadium

2. Massachusetts Spent $5 Million Paying Off Debts Of Boston-Based Edward Kennedy Institute

3. Florida County Spent Millions Subsidizing A High-End Hotel & Spa

4. New Jersey Spent $15 Million Upgrading Stadiums to Improve Its Chances of Getting to Host the 2026 World Cup 

5. Puerto Rico Spent $70 Million on Tourism Marketing Campaigns

6. Colorado Spent $6.6 Million Repairing Irrigation Systems at Two Golf Courses

7. Virginia City Spent $120,000 Upgrading Its Tourism Website

8. Iowa Gave Count $2 Million to Help A County Buy a Private Ski Area

9. Massachusetts Spent $300,000 Founding a Museum Honoring a Famous Bicyclist 

10. Washington, DC Spent $2.5 Million Hiring More Parking Enforcement Officers

Yep: This is actually how local governments spent the supposed “emergency relief” money that Congress took from taxpayers.  In some cases, this was done directly using federal funds. In other cases, it was done using general revenue and then they used the federal funds to fill in the budget gaps. (Money is fungible, y’all).  Either way, it’s embarrassing and corrupt—and ultimately the fault of President Biden and Democrats in Congress for shoveling hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars out the door so recklessly and unnecessarily. Remember this disgrace now that they’re coming back and asking for more taxpayer money. (When they really should be clawing back some of that $1.9+ trillion that hasn’t been spent yet).  Every dollar Americans allow the federal government to take from us is a dollar we’ll never get back. And, as this investigation shows, it’s much more likely to end up in some corrupt scheme than actually helping citizens. 

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