re: #980 Dianna

Capital projects are always set to the side, and organizations put them off until they become really urgent. Most organizations will do pretty much anything to avoid using operating revenue for a capital project.

Sure. The problem I see, though, is that this - and a great deal many other stimulus expenditures, it seems - are being used to fund government expenditures that would have taken place normally. Eventually, the VA would replace that dumbwaiter as part of the normal budgeting process. Now, the need for that expenditure, and similar ones, will be masked by the stimulus, making accurate accounting all but impossible. Future projections of budgetary needs are going to be grossly distorted because they won’t “see” projects like this.

How much do you want to bet that such gross underestimates will be touted as “savings” the government has realized, rather than the shifting of expenses onto a separate spreadsheet that’s really taking place?