Porkulus Spending Slows Down Even Further-Why Spend it At ALL?

 Many top economists are projecting that within the next month the "worst recession since the the great depression" will be over:

The Blue Chip Economic Indicators survey of private economists released on Monday showed about 90 percent of the respondents surveyed believe the economic downturn will be declared to have ended this quarter.

This upbeat assessment followed recent government data showing gross domestic product (GDP) contracted at a shallow 1.0 percent rate in the second quarter after sinking 6.4 percent in the January-March quarter.

Recent data, including housing and key labor market indicators, have suggested a bottoming in the recession and the economy close to turning the corner. The economy slipped into recession in December 2007.

The supposed stimulus bill had little or nothing to do with the turnaround. You might remember the controversy two months ago when we found out that the pace of the stimulus spending was much lower that anybody expected.  According to new reports, spending on Porkulus projects have slowed down even further.

Stimulus bill spending has slowed to a trickle, despite President Obama's June order to his Cabinet to speed it up. The average stimulus spending per week has dropped severely, to just $4.2 billion over the past month from $9.7 billion during the prior four months. The government spent $2.9 billion in the week ending Aug. 7.

Taxpayer groups say the numbers show spending decisions are random and prove that the $787 billion stimulus program has had no effect on the economy.

"This is a typical bureaucracy. They don't operate in an efficient way. They can't operate in an efficient way and make an impact," said Leslie Paige, media director for Citizens Against Government Waste.

The spending has slowed despite Mr. Obama's declaration in June that he was "not satisfied" with its pace, and his demand that his Cabinet secretaries accelerate the distribution of stimulus funds.

..Spending as of Aug. 7, the 172nd day since Mr. Obama signed the bill, stood at $200 billion obligated. To meet the goal of $225 billion, the government will have to spend nearly $1 billion each day over the next four weeks -- or nearly double the pace of the past four weeks.

But taxpayer groups fear those sorts of deadlines can force agencies to spend money on wasteful projects, and states and localities say one reason the rate of spending is slow is because they need to meet all the transparency and productivity requirements imposed by Congress and the Obama administration.

Lets put two and two together here, if the economy is turning around, and the stimulus did not factor into it, and the vast majority of the stimulus dollars have not been spent as yet, maybe its time to cut the rest of the stimulus. Politically its a great move for the President, as voters are very concerned with the size with the deficit. And its a great move for the country as that concern is very justified.