Spend 18 million to redesign the Recovery.gov website? That is what Obama will spend.
And it DOES make sense from Obama’s point of view. Obama wants to weaken the private sector and strengthen the public sector. The $18 million will create more government jobs. And the private sector is weakened because they have to pay for the re-design of this ONE website. It is all about power — shifting power from the private sector to Obama’s control.
See the following article posted also on Something To Say Today.
18M Being Spent to Redesign Recovery.gov Web Site
July 08, 2009
“For those concerned about stimulus spending, the General Services Administration sends word tonight that $18 million in additional funds are being spent to redesign the Recovery.gov Web site.
The new Web site promises to give taxpayers more information about where their money is going than the current version of the site.
“Recovery.gov 2.0 will use innovative and interactive technologies to help taxpayers see where their dollars are being spent,†James A. Williams, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, says in a press release announcing the contract awarded to Maryland-based Smartronix Inc. “Armed with easy access to this information, taxpayers can make government more accountable for its decisions.â€
The contract calls for spending $9.5 million through January, and as much as $18 million through 2014, according to the GSA press release.
“We are pleased that another major milestone has been achieved,” Earl E. Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, says in the press release. “We thank the GSA for its assistance and look forward to working with Smartronix.”
UPDATE: The RNC has released a new web ad mocking the Obama administration’s decision to allocate additional funds to the redesign of the Recovery.gov Web site.
July 8, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (115)
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Just hearing the word “transparency” ( as mentioned
by Earl E. Devaney, chairman of Recovery Accountability and Transparency) makes me feel ill.
How did we ever live without the “t” word for all
these years…. Did you have to look up the meaning of the word, since nobody is living by it since the
election?!
Posted by: 2smart4u | Jul 8, 2009 10:30:26 PM
This is just a smokescreen so we dont realize he wants to veto the intelligence bill that would force Obama’s legislation and the government to actually be transparent and have to answer for what they have done.
Posted by: guesswhaturwrong | Jul 8, 2009 10:48:16 PM
I could redesign a whole lotta “innovative and interactive” websites for $18 million.
If they were talking about how much the band-width cost to keep the site up and running, I MIGHT be able to see it. But just a redesign???
I think maybe the government is already “accountable” for this bone-headed idea.
Posted by: Jaylah | Jul 8, 2009 10:48:31 PM
Who ever heard of spending $18 million dollars on a website? Who is getting the money???
Posted by: guesswhaturwrong | Jul 8, 2009 10:49:20 PM
Once the numbers are posted what are we going to be able to do about it really anyway?
Posted by: guesswhaturwrong | Jul 8, 2009 10:50:27 PM
guesswhaturwrong, that intelligence bill dates back to 1947. If you’re going to whine about it, whine at Harry S Truman and every president since then. Not Obama.
Posted by: Jaylah | Jul 8, 2009 10:50:38 PM
Hmmm… 18 Million bucks to redesign a government website….riggghhht! That’s enough money for 18 responsible 40 somethings to live the rest of their lives in relative comfort. It’s far less money than was spent so our Socialist leader and his black-hearted wife to have “date night” in New York on our dime.
Posted by: Taxpaying victim | Jul 8, 2009 10:54:17 PM
Classic government…. Doesn’t know what anything costs, and spends 20 times what anyone else would (18 million for a web site is crazy!).
Posted by: Jen | Jul 8, 2009 10:59:09 PM
So it’s supposed to tell us what’s happening to our hard earned money? Unless the home page says “Here. Here is where your money is going,” then this is the most ridiculous thing ever ON TOP of being a waste of money in the first place.
Posted by: Pete | Jul 8, 2009 11:00:04 PM
Oxymoron of the day: Responsible Government Spending.
It ranks right up there with “Vacation bible school”.
Posted by: Taxpaying victim | Jul 8, 2009 11:04:18 PM
“Oxymoron of the day: Responsible Government Spending.
It ranks right up there with “Vacation bible school”
LOL Well said!
Posted by: Jaylah | Jul 8, 2009 11:12:21 PM
At this point even this foolishness does not surprise me. I have lost all faith in our government.
Posted by: CWG | Jul 8, 2009 11:15:21 PM
All the good intentions and idealism of Obama is being squandered by those who were entrusted with executing and enforcing his plan viz. his cabinet and his staff. The stimulus will be judged not by the 18 million dollar web site but by the reversal of the job loss trend, by the economic growth and by the recovery of 401k plans. That the stimulus monies were intercepted and swindled by the usual suspects is no surprise. A second stimulus would be a disaster of epic proportions when the first one was so grossly mismanaged that the states used it for pie in the sky projects even though the states are in dire straits. It would have been preferable to let the states pay the funds towards their deficit reduction instead of unwanted porky projects. Businesses small and large are cutting costs and reducing the payroll to try and balance their books. Why can the government not do the same instead of getting bloated and mounting the deficits, sky high. All the talk of the windmills and green energy was just blowing hot air during the campaign.
Posted by: gjkotw01 | Jul 8, 2009 11:16:01 PM
Is this administration completely nuts, or are the contracts for this redesign going the way of pork? Personally, I’d like to know the name and URL of the company that has been contracted. The dollar figure is patently absurd.
I repeat……Is this administration absolutely NUTS!?
Posted by: John Vacek | Jul 8, 2009 11:24:10 PM
OK kids..those that think 1.6 million a year to develop, staff and maintain a web site with a national presence, purpose and verifiable data set is a lot, please sit down. You obviously don’t know anything. That’s a site staffed and maintained by AT MOST eight FTEs. (full time employees) If you could do it for less, I suggest you bid the gig.
Posted by: vidtweeker | Jul 8, 2009 11:29:10 PM
You mean to tell me the government spent 18 million dollars to keep informed and answer the question of over 300 million people. Talking about your glass house! Finally a government that reports to the people!! I suppose next your going to tell me people actually have jobs to do this. Wow! straight forward and easy to understand! No economics of dung!! Go Obama Go!
Posted by: rightbehind | Jul 8, 2009 11:33:37 PM
18 million? I could have done it for 9 million!
Posted by: SamTyler1973 | Jul 8, 2009 11:37:41 PM
For God’s sake… a web design job pays only about 20k a year these days at best.
I run a multi section/topic political site and do it in my spare time and do all the graphics and imbed live feeds chat and statistics for nothing.
Maybe I should get out of the health care business and stop saving lives for a living and work for the government.
For more go to: Something To Say Today
I knew Obama was going to be true his word and cut the pork. I am guessing He meant instead of “fat” products (pork) he meant something more “Herbal”. You know, the kind one can smoke and lots of it. Because obviously someone in Washington is smoking something that kills brain cells.
Posted by: David Baron | Jul 8, 2009 11:43:14 PM
