A Lesson In How To Scam Tax Dollars

I can not be the only one who is getting fed up with all of the lies, and that is what they are, that spew out of liberal politicians mouths. Unfortunately we live in a society that doesn't read beyond the headlines, or an email in this case and their expert opinion on matters is based on information provided in 10 second soundbites on their 6 or 11 newscast.

It is an established fact that the Democrats know as much about creating private sector jobs as they know about anything military related.

Rep John Lewis recently sent an email newsletter to the folks who have signed up for it in which he made the claim that a proposed streetcar project in Atlanta, here we go with the Dems love of trains again, in which he made the wild claim that it would create a gazillion jobs.

Even better, it would create jobs, according to a newsletter to constituents from U.S. Rep. John Lewis. Under the header "New jobs created by the Streetcar project," it said the line would generate 1,399 jobs to build and run it, and an additional 4,204 when it spurs economic development in surrounding neighborhoods.

Somebody sent the story to PolitiFact for a little research of these pie in the sky numbers and they were able to quickly label this as False. In more sleight of hand accounting that has got to infuriate Bernie Madoff, Lewis used figures provided to him by the group which applied for the taxpayer funds to hoodwink the feds. In reality the number of jobs that would be created, and I don't think created is even an accurate term since those who get the contract will probably use mostly current employees. The basic scheme behind these numbers is to count the same job for each year of the project, so for example if you employed 10 people for 10 years that equals 100 jobs using their new math.

Regarding the streetcar project. It is an attempt to recapture a time from Atlanta's past and it does have a certain appeal but Atlanta's biggest problem is that it does not really have what some would term a tourist area. The closet we have is an area known as Five Points which is where you will find attractions such as the Aquarium, the Coca-Cola Museum and Centennial Olympic Park. After you have made the rounds there you are left with not much else to do. The city has been struggling for years with trying to build some sort of character that would put Atlanta on the minds of people but they just can't seem to get it right. The biggest problem is that when the sun goes down most sensible people make sure they are outside of "The Perimeter". The perimeter is the area formed by I-285 which circles the city. They killed off the nightlife which used to abound in an area of town called Buckhead after some high profile killings, at least one of them involving Ray Lewis of the NFL. The other nightlife hot spot was Underground Atlanta but the same story. Criminals took over and regular patrons left. Venues that are hard to get to with the lack of security leaves most events for those visiting from out of town. They can't seem to figure out why sporting events have low attendance, especially those that take place at night. They are more likely to sell out a football or baseball game if it takes place during daylight then they will at night.

Anyway, this post is about a congress critter telling folks what they want to hear in order to secure our tax dollars for a project that will quite honestly probably yield little benefit either in the way of jobs or what it's intended purpose once completed is. We just come full circle on this spending argument though. Everybody says cut spending just don't cut my allowance. Hey, congress. Somebody is always going to be upset, so man up, grow up, step on a few toes and let's cut the damn spending.