After all, if some stimulus cash is misspent -- say an errant official or contractor buys himself a Cadillac or a Harley Davidson, only to suffer the full force of law -- might not such fraud boost the economy more than if the cash languished in a law-abiding state account?

Steven Schooner, co-director of George Washington University's Government Procurement Law Program [says] "Are we capable of grasping the concept that in a struggling economy, it's more important to throw money at the problem, even if it's possibly inefficient and possibly inaccurate?"

No, you are not reading The Onion.

It was John Maynard Keynes who famously said that paying unemployed men simply to dig up bottles filled with cash and buried in abandoned coal mines would be "better than nothing" as economic stimulus.

. . . .the bureaucratic trappings are slowing some spending. For example, officials must wait until July, while Washington writes the guidelines, to apply for the $2 billion that states and cities can use to purchase and renovate foreclosed homes.

A Keynesian is a Reaganite who mutters "damnfool regulations" when it is government, as opposed to big business being restrained by rules. I mean, WTF? Waiting a few months for guidelines on handing out taxpayer money? Harrumph, the friggin' nerve of those Washington bureaucrats restraining the unmarketplace!

In 1933, President Roosevelt created two agencies to get people back to work . . . The PWA did pull off some big projects . . . but it lagged behind the CWA, where Hopkins put people directly on the federal payroll and stressed speed over prudence.

Nothing like speed over prudence, and that is why the Great Depression ended in 1933.

Alec MacGillis is a reporter on the national staff of The Washington Post.

Ah, yes, nothing like information being filtered by someone who believes concern over government waste is a barrier to national health.