Show me the money

Following 9/11, the government spent a staggering amount of money to the victims. Unfortunately, not all of it went where it should. The NY Daily News investigates.

...a four-month Daily News investigation of the $21.4 billion disaster recovery package reveals that major elements of the aid process were procedurally flawed — from the determination of how much money was supposedly needed, to how it was distributed, to how it was actually spent and ultimately, to how little oversight there was over the spending. In effect, no one was watching.

As a result, 9/11 recovery aid was used to finance a plethora of projects that taxpayers elsewhere could be forgiven for characterizing as old-fashioned pork-barrel spending.

The article goes on with examples:

Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on projects that seemingly had nothing to do with 9/11 and lower Manhattan.

Programs were plagued with so many loopholes that millions more ended up being given to recipients who did not fit the full intent of the particular program.

Still more millions went to help projects already in the works before 9/11 or on the drawing board with no prior funding source.

A good article with good research.

I can't say I'm all that surprised.

It really blows, too.

Michelle Malkin has a comprehensive round up.

UPDATE: A reader pointed out a mistake I made here. I said that the misapropriations in question were regarding private donations. In fact they involved government expenditures. I've since corrected this post. That's what I get for blogging while it's busy at work (not that I would blog at work...no way).

In addition to pointing out my mistake, the reader also points out: "As the Daily News will continue its series, perhaps they have information concerning that as well later this week." The Red Cross had similar problems in the past with 9/11 funds (I recall Bill O'Reilly on Fox News talking about it). I don't doubt there are problms there as well.