Rendell hands out $300 million in 3 days

Gov. Ed Rendell has cross-crossed Pennsylvania by bus over the past three days handing out large cardboard checks for all sorts of "economic stimulus" projects.

POLICY BLOG took note of the tour in a recent post, Gov. Rendell to play rich uncle to Valley, focusing on some of the money Rendell passed out in the Allentown area.

"Unfortunately for Pennsylvanians, though, the rich uncle Rendell is pretending to be isn't reaching into his own pockets but has reached into ours," The Commonwealth Foundation notes. "This wealth redistribution scheme perpetrated on taxpayers year after year after year by politicians on both sides of the aisle is precisely why our economy continually ranks among the worst performing in the nation. As we are fond of saying, "You can grow the government or you can grow the economy; but you can't grow both."

You can read the original story by Matt Assad and John L. Micek about Rendell's generosity in The Morning Call.

The newspaper says Gov. Rendell's "Card Board Check Tour" will last five days, which means there's plenty more cardboard checks where that came from.

From the Morning Call:

Rendell's office Monday announced that it's spending $642 million in state money to help spur $1.9 billion worth of projects in 25 counties, and it promptly got the train rolling by dropping $11.7 million at its first stop in Erie.

So far, Rendell's generosity (it's our tax money, people) has been delivered to Crawford, Mercer, Beaver, Lawrence, Somerset, Bedford, Washington, Greene and Allegheny counties.