This Sign Is Wasting Your Money—and Killing People

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 14, 2009 1:47 PM CDT
This Sign Is Wasting Your Money—and Killing People
Cali. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stands in front of one of the signs at a highway project.   (AP Photo)

The federal government has mandated that every road project funded by stimulus money proudly tout the association with road signs, and that really steams Tait Trussell. The signs, “designed to meticulous federally dictated standards,” go for about $1,000, Trussell writes on Front Page. “So, publicizing thousands of projects will cost many millions of additional dollars—which, needless to say, won’t provide a whit of stimulus.”

“Apparently,” Trussel continues, “this is what Vice President Joe Biden…meant when he said ‘We know some of the money is going to be wasted.’” And the garish new signs are dangerous to boot. “Fully 29% of drivers in crashes were distracted by outside events or objects…such as a big new, ‘retroflective’ sign.” But Trussell suspects a stealth agenda: “Perhaps these wasteful policies, and their dangerous unintended side effects, will increase support for Obama’s most cherished government program: national health care.” (More Joe Biden stories.)

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