Let the Great Obama Cash Grab Begin!

FDR has his New Deal; now Obama will have his Great Cash Grab!

Ever seen one of those movies or TV shows where someone stands on top of a building with a satchel of cash and starts raining the money down on the crowd below?

People scrambling and shoving, pushing and pulling, stepping on each other and themselves in a grotesque melee to grab as much green as possible before someone else does.

Well, that's about to happen when our intrepid federal legislators approve the "stimulus" package and send it to Obama to sign like a big fat check.

Get ready for your elected officials lining up with palms up begging for their share of the pie.

Here in Massachusetts, the House leadership is talking about using the money to balance the state budget, while Gov. Deval Patrick wants to dedicate portions to help private developers by paying for infrastructure related to their real estate projects - costs that are usually picked up by the developers themselves

It will be pathetic and sad as mayors and boards of selectmen fight with state officials over why City A got more than Town B.

From Oregon:

The short timeline required by the federal stimulus bills is ... sparking a tiff between Metro (the Portland area’s regional planning agency) and some local government officials.

Metro (says it) is best suited to determine where the work should take place in the tri-county region, and is proposing that Metro oversee the funds in the Portland area.

Leaders in other jurisdictions say they would prefer to see federal money go directly to local governments, cutting down on administrative costs and allowing cities and counties the latitude to prioritize their own projects.

Let the greed and graft commence! Gentlemen, to your corners and come out fighting.

What is the over/under on when the first lawsuit over the funds is filed?

Let's hope that the process of doling out the funds gets nastier and dirtier than the fights you had with your siblings over that last slice of pizza in the box.

I want to see political back-stabbing in the State capitol building, screaming arguments in City Hall, fist fights at Board of Selectmen meetings, rifles flashed in the county commissioner's office.

After all, we'll be stuck paying this thing off for generations; we have to get some fun out of this...