STATES HIT HARDEST BY RECESSION GET LEAST STIMULUS MONEY

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The stimulus bill "includes help for those hardest hit by our economic crisis," President Obama promised when he signed the bill into law on Feb. 17. "As a whole, this plan will help poor and working Americans."

But an analyis of where the money's gone shows that States with higher bankruptcy, foreclosure and unemployment rates got less money than higher income states having the least problems are large:

• With a spread of almost $38,000 in per-person income between the top and bottom states, this has a sizable impact.
• High-income states get considerably more stimulus money; states with higher bankruptcy rates got a lot less, not more, money -- roughly $86 less per person for each percentage point increase in the state's bankruptcy rate.
• States with higher foreclosure rates were treated very similarly, losing $82 per person for each one percentage point more of the people suffering foreclosures.

The spending data come from two reliable sources: the Wall Street Journal and the Federal government's Recovery.gov.

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image toon = mny grn = Oby's south poll stimulus truck