The Internet is buzzing with discussions about how America should spend the $787 billion in economic-recovery money pouring out of Washington. Web users are flocking to sites that let them voice their opinions quickly, and without red tape.
Almost every state has produced a local version of the Obama administration’s Recovery.gov Web site, which describes and promotes the stimulus plan. But governors of six states — Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Ohio and Virginia — have gone further, inviting residents to submit ideas online about what they would like officials to do with the money. Ohio and Virginia have also published the answers, though Virginia stopped accepting new suggestions last month.
Teachers suggested ways to modernize woodworking programs. Green-energy enthusiasts proposed wind-turbine test sites. Others crafted arguments in support of five- and six-figure grants to make mortgage payments, buy a car, or pay off credit cards or student debt, although the site discourages such individual pleas. An applicant who said he had become homeless after serving as a full-time caregiver for an elderly relative proposed a $2,700 “get back to life project” to include gas, an apartment, food and clothes. One suggestion for a nursery for trees and shrubs that would mature in around three years estimated the recession would be over and new-home sales and landscaping would revive.
Critical sentiments are also finding other homes online. More than two million people have visited stimuluswatch.org, which was created by Jerry Brito, a government-transparency expert at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. Users can read about local projects officials have proposed across the country and submit comments. Around 100,000 votes have been cast at the site on the suitability of some projects, according to site administrators.
Originally reported by the Wall Street Journal Online
Tags: Internet Speed, Stimulus Package