Stimulus Show-and-Tell Starts

State by state, the Recovery Scoreboard is lighting up with projects to be funded by some of the $787 billion Congress passed last month to get the economy moving again.

Just keeping track of the money, let alone spending it wisely, is going to be a monumental job as governors appoint overseeing groups and, in some cases, "czars" to make sure the money is not fraudulently or stupidly spent.

The Recovery.gov web site is getting almost 4,000 hits a second, according to the chairman of the federal Transparency and Accountability Board, but it's not clear how many of the viewers are concerned citizens or job seekers looking to get to the money tap.

Residents of every state can click on the interactive map and get, along with a self-puffing picture and message from their governor, a breakdown, with varying degrees of detail, on the projects about to get going in their area.

State officials are under pressure to move projects fast and efficiently. As Vice President Joe Biden warned them at a Washington meeting this week:

"Six months from now, if the verdict on this effort is that we've wasted the money, we built things that were unnecessary, or we've done things that are legal but make no sense, then, folks, don't look for any help from the federal government for a long while."

Politics, of course, is part of the picture, as 2012 presidential hopefuls like Govs. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Alaska's Sarah Palin righteously turn down part (but far from all) of the federal funds.

Their conservative grandstanding may go down well in future primaries, but they may have to take some flak meanwhile from their own residents watching them throw the money back at Washington.

Uodate: The New York Times reports: "President Obama issued a directive on Friday requiring lobbyists to make their requests in writing about the projects they believe should be awarded from the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, saying the plan 'will not be an excuse for waste and abuse.'

"In a speech to state lawmakers here, Mr. Obama outlined what he called 'unprecedented restrictions' to increase the transparency on how the government spends money on projects to boost the economy and create jobs. The conversations between federal lobbyists and his administration, he said, would be disclosed on the Internet.

“'Whenever a project comes up for review, we’re going to ask a simple question,' Mr. Obama said. 'Does it advance the core mission of the Recovery Act? Does it jump-start job creation? Does it lay the foundation for lasting prosperity?'”

Stimulus Timeline

The new web site Recovery.gov is up and running and, as we hold our breaths to find out how well the stimulus works, provides clues to what and when we will be learning about it.

On March 3rd, Federal agencies are scheduled to begin reporting use of funds and, on May 3rd, making Performance Plans available and detailing their allocations to entitlement programs, followed on May 20th by reporting competitive grants and contracts.

On July 15th, recipients are scheduled to start explaining how they are using the funds.

Beyond that, the site promises to reveal where the money is going, "to which states, to which congressional districts, even to which Federal contractors. As soon as we are able to, we'll display that information visually in maps, charts, and graphics."

Whether or not the program succeeds is an open question, but at least taxpayers won't be kept in the dark about how it is being implemented.

Online Overhaul for America

In his weekly address, the President is selling his plan to save the economy and, at the same time, promising to tell us all about it as he goes along.

"We’ll launch an unprecedented effort," he says, "to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government, and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new web site called recovery.gov."

You can add it to your bookmarks now, even though there is nothing to see but a promise to show "where and how your tax dollars are spent" after passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Among other promises in the Act are proposals to update our electric grid with more than 3,000 miles of transmission lines; weatherize 2.5 million homes; protect health insurance for more than 8 million Americans in danger of losing their coverage; secure 90 major ports; renovate 10,000 schools; and triple the number of science fellowships.

All this, and a web site to show us if and how members of Congress are getting their grubby hands on any of it for pork. Should keep us pointing and clicking for months to come.