Spending Lots; Doing a Little Good

Nancy Pelosi famously¹ said of Obamacare that you had to pass it to see what was in it.  It appears that was true of Joe Biden’s first big Covid relief bill, too.  In January, I said this about President Biden’s proposed plan in a post entitled “Covid-19 Relief Ought to Be More Than Just Throwing Money Around Randomly”:

“A properly-targeted pandemic relief program wouldn’t waste money by giving it to people who don’t need help.  If we target the help where it is needed, there will be more money for the people who actually need help.  It’s not a matter of cutting costs; it’s a matter of having enough money to help those who really need it.”

Back then I was particularly talking about the $1400 per person checks that were going to be sent out.  They seemed like a waste of money.  A lot of the money was going to people who really didn’t need it.  Now that the bill has passed, we are seeing more of this kind of provision.

Yesterday I discovered the bill included a program apparently giving public school parents a special $450 non-transferable debit card for food for each student they have in public school.  I read about it in an Op-Ed in the Chicago Tribune asking people who don’t need the money to pass it on.  The author said:

“Armed with my P-EBT debit card, I bought broccoli, yogurt and a few other family staples.  What I purchased isn’t important.  What happened when I returned home is.  I sat down and wrote a check for $450 to the Friendship Center, a food pantry near me. …

While I was tempted to load my SUV up with $450 worth of groceries and drop them off at the pantry, a can of corn doesn’t pay the utility bills.  It doesn’t fix a busted wheelchair ramp or pay the full-time staff who run food distribution programs. …

So here’s my simple ask to my fellow CPS parents out there. …

[I]f you are in the position to help, please spend that money on your family, and then donate the $450 to your local food pantry where it can do some greater good.”

This is another example of how poorly planned and focused this bill was.  It wasn’t about giving help to people who need it.  It was just throwing money at the wall and hoping some of it would stick where it was needed.  Instead of figuring out a way to give money to people who need it, we give it to some big group of people in the hope that some of it gets to people who actually need it.  The problem is that too much goes to people who don’t need it, and too many people who do need it aren’t getting any. 

Which makes you wonder about President Biden’s big infrastructure program.²  How many dollars are we going to spend on unnecessary infrastructure in order to spend one dollar on infrastructure we really need?
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¹ “Infamously” - ?  For another view of what Speaker Pelosi was really trying to say, see here.
² Not to mention the program(s) after it.