The stimulus bought Castleton United Methodist Church in Indianapolis a new heating and cooling system. In Laramie, Wyo., it bought the Church of St. Laurence O’Toole new windows for the Roman Catholic school it runs. And in Harrisburg, Pa., Christian Churches United of the Tri-County Area spent its $120,000 in stimulus funding on food and shelter for local homeless people.

“It kind of fell from the sky, and it was unbelievable that we had this much extra money,” said Jackie Rucker, executive director of the church-sponsored nonprofit in Pennsylvania’s capital.

For many conservatives, the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as the stimulus is formally known, has been Exhibit A in their case against the Obama administration, a symbol for an era they feel will be defined by out-of-control government spending. (See: Biden: ‘Recovery Act is working’)

But the stimulus is also the largest-scale embodiment of what was, not long ago, a conservative priority: directing tax dollars to “faith-based initiatives,” as President George W. Bush called them. (See: Obama to rename Bush’s faith office)

The story of the Obama administration’s large-scale spending on faith-based groups has been largely untold, perhaps because it cuts so sharply across the moment’s intensely partisan narrative. And in fact, when the stimulus was being debated in February 2009, conservatives attacked the bill as “anti-religious” in its spending guidelines…

[continues at Politico]

The federal government last year sent about 89,000 checks of $250 each to dead or incarcerated people through the Obama administration’s economic stimulus program, according to a watchdog report.

The Social Security Administration distributed about $13 billion to 52 million eligible beneficiaries in the form of $250 checks as part of the economic recovery program. The program cost $814 billion. Most of the payments were issued properly, but SSA failed to check all available payment records or was unaware that beneficiaries had died, according to a report by the Social Security Office of Inspector General.

Although SSA lacks the authority to recoup most of the money, the report estimates that slightly more than half of the payments have been returned.

Continues at The Washington Post …

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), spent $823,200 of economic stimulus funds in 2009 on a study by a UCLA research team to teach uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals after having sex.

The genitalia-washing program is part of a larger $12-million UCLA study examining how to better encourage Africans to undergo voluntary HIV testing and counseling – however, only the penis-washing study received money from the 2009 economic stimulus law. The washing portion of the study is set to end in 2011.

“NIH Announces the Availability of Recovery Act Funds for Competitive Revision Applications,” the grant abstract states. “We propose to evaluate the feasibility of a post-coital genital hygiene study among men unwilling to be circumcised in Orange Farm, South Africa.”

Because AIDS researchers have been unsuccessful in convincing most adult African men to undergo circumcision, the UCLA study proposes to determine whether researchers can develop an after-sex genitalia-washing regimen that they can then convince uncircumcised African men to follow…

[continues at CNS News]

Here’s a new way to think about the U.S. government’s epic borrowing: More than half of the $9 trillion in debt that Uncle Sam is expected to build up over the next decade will be interest.

More than half. In fact, $4.8 trillion.

If that’s hard to grasp, here’s another way to look at why that’s a problem.

In 2015 alone, the estimated interest due — $533 billion — is equal to a third of the federal income taxes expected to be paid that year, said Charles Konigsberg, chief budget counsel of the Concord Coalition, a deficit watchdog group.

More on CNNMoney.com

The chief federal oversight official for the stimulus program said in a letter Wednesday that he can’t certify whether the number of jobs “created or saved” by stimulus funds is accurate.

Recovery Board Chairman Earl Devaney was responding to a request for information by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In a letter to Issa dated Nov. 17, Devaney wrote, “Your letter specifically asks if I am able to certify that the number of jobs reported as created/saved on Recovery.gov is accurate and auditable. No, I am not able to make this certification.”

The Obama administration claimed that it saved or created at least 1 million jobs this year. But errors in the stimulus job creation data have become a political hot potato, as the administration has been hit by news reports revealing that data it posted on recovery.gov includes jobs allegedly created in congressional districts that don’t exist.

Read more: Politico

Hmm, Wall Street had no problem getting some funds to keep them in business, to have people “work” in a manner that continues to cause great damage to our economy. What’s the government’s plan of action for our modern-day Pony Express?

Sarah Hollenbeck reports on NBC-2 TV, Fort Myers:

The United States Postal Service faces a $7-billion deficit this year. Closing local post offices and cutting one day of delivery service have both been suggested to save money, layoffs have not. But a decline in mail volume has led to some paid employees spending entire days doing nothing at all.

Postal Service officials we spoke to say processors now are sorting 17-percent fewer pieces of mail in Southwest Florida alone and 32-billion fewer nationwide. While there is less work to do, the Postal Service still has the same number of employees. The American Postal Workers Union has a no layoff clause in their employee’s contracts which guarantees all employees who have worked for more than six years, 40 paid hours a week — even if there isn’t work to be done.

Postal Service spokesman Gary Sawtelle explained that unionized employees across the nation are being put on what’s called “standby time” — a policy drafted in 1991 by the Postal Service. The guideline is laid out in the Postal Service manual, but is not part of the union contract.

“It’s really not been until recently that we have really applied it,” Sawtelle said. Under standby guidelines, when there’s no mail to process, employees sit in conference rooms until there is work. Sometimes workers will wait for an hour — sometimes they will wait longer.

Read more here.