Four Guilford County housing programs are getting $9 million of North Carolina’s $49 million cut from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program.
Meanwhile, the feds are sending $2.8 million to North Carolina for senior nutrition programs, but as of now it’s unclear how much of that money would flow into Guilford County.
At the risk of sounding like I’m criticizing senior nutrition programs, I’ll highlight comments by Area Agency on Aging assistant director Blair Barton-Percival that accurately describes the inherent problem with the massive government spending related to “economic recovery”:
“It’s great. This is obviously a good thing,” Barton-Percival said. But he cautioned that the one-time money could cause complications.
If you create more nutrition sites or add more routes for Meals on Wheels, what happens when the money runs out, he asked.
“Once people develop that reliance and come to expect it, then when you take it away it becomes disruptive,” he said.
Exactly — and the fear among conservatives is that it —- whatever ‘it’ is — a worthy program like senior nutrition or a house-flipping deal like the Neighborhood Stabilization Program —- will just continue on in perpetuity.
Here’s the real scary thought — say the economic ‘stimulus’ plan doesn’t work, and we’re ready to run Obama out of Washington in four years. Who would possibly be able undo what he and his buddies in Congress have done in two very long months?
