How in the hell does a website cost that kind of money? Are they using the Microsoft model of product development?
Well, Recovery.gov (or is it Recvoery.gov?) needs more than nifty diagrams of money that may or may not have already been spent, so the tech-savviest administration ever went looking for a vendor. It succeeded in getting one to redesign the site for a mere $18 million:
The new Web site promises to give taxpayers more information about where their money is going than the current version of the site.
“Recovery.gov 2.0 will use innovative and interactive technologies to help taxpayers see where their dollars are being spent,” James A. Williams, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, says in a press release announcing the contract awarded to Maryland-based Smartronix Inc. “Armed with easy access to this information, taxpayers can make government more accountable for its decisions.”
The contract calls for spending $9.5 million through January, and as much as $18 million through 2014, according to the GSA press release. […]Maybe someday we can pay $13 million for a site that will track the $18 million-dollar tracking site redesign, a year after the fact.
[…]The changes to the site are necessary to live up to the promises Obama made about transparency when passing the stimulus.
[…]Of course, because the necessary changes will be taking place after more than $100 billion has been spent, and during a summer when the administration has promised to increase the speed of spending (Although who knows by how much? Not the White House!), there’s no way to tell how much of that money has been lost to waste or fraud and how much has been spent wisely.Or, is there? At Recovery.org, a site run by a private company whose job it is to track government spending and contract processes, there’s real-time tracking of stimulus spending. They normally collect and sell such information to businesses looking for government contracts, but decided to chart the stimulus because they realized they could deliver what Obama had promised.
So the government isn’t buying Recovery.org because…?
Oh, but Uncle Dave. This article is in The Weekly Standard. We all know that this is a conservative rag so we must discount the facts.
A very weak and impotent $18 million website for citizens.
Search Results:
Los Angeles: Your search yielded no results
San Francisco: One result to upgrade earthquake networks
Chicago: Two results – a public listening session (huh?) and a VP Biden announcement to help children and prevent disease (the Messiah is going to save us all).
The majority of the money will be used to purchase vaccines.
And to get more info on how the Obama administration is going to prevent diseases, they refer you to another link for another organization down the rabbit hole.
Government bailout? All I have witnessed are the trillion + dollars being given away to banks, companies, and special interests with no real accountability. In the public interest – what a sick joke on the American people. Failed companies still giving out multi-million dollar bonuses to their top executives (AIG is one). How in the name of sanity can you expect the same criminals that got us into this mess to fix it? Based on what I see their only interest in lining their pockets. Government by special interests for special interests. What about the average citizen – losing jobs, homes, life’s savings? I guess we don’t count for anything. Just keep playing those play stations and bling bling.
As for the “leadership”. Both government and corporate, it is hard for someone to understand a problem when their livelihood depends on their not understanding the problem.
What a bunch of retards!
Change we can believe in.
And these same idiots what to take over H.C. to make it more efficient? What idiots believes they can do that?
In comparison… $18m is about
~ the cost of one AH-64 Apache
~ the cost of four M1A2 Abrams
~ 1/5 of the cost of a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II
~ 1/78 of the cost for the Halliburton overcharges classified by the Pentagon as Unreasonable and Unsupported
~ 1/100 of the cost for a SSN-774 (Virginia) class submarine
~ 1/555 of the money mismanaged & wasted in Iraq, per Feb 2007 Congressional hearings
~ the same cost as 66 minutes of war in Iraq (2008 cost)
But then again… Republican presidents are known as fiscal conservatives.
#7 – Right, because that comparison even makes sense. I’ll show you where you can have that wesbsite redesigned for 1/10th the price (probably less) and you show me where we can save on military weapons.
#8 – Chris – … and you show me where we can save on military weapons.
Manufacture them in China. Isn’t that the wet dream of all Republicans? Cheap = high profit.
And you think that you told lies and fibs to the boss at work ?
And to think that some people want these idiots running medical care for everyone.
The reason it will cost (at least) $18 million is because it will be done according to government development and procurement rules.
So before a programmer or web designer can write a single line of a page, a sub-group will write a 300-page report about the page, which will be considered by a sub-committee which will produce a 500-page report in response.
Then the procurement department will produce a 3,000 page RFP based on the sub-committee report. Successful applications will have to produce reports (in triplicate) before establishing a guidance committee which oversees the project.
Finally 3 programmers will get together in room, argue about whether to use JSP, .ASP, PHP or Perl and eventually produce a web-page.
But, by then, an investigation will have to launched by the Justice department to determine why Microsoft’s implementation of Javascript sucks so badly.
#7 #9
Let it go Jägermeister. Every time waste is pointed out by the Obama administration you immediately point to the Republicans.
In case you haven’t noticed this is a Democrat ballgame now. No one to blame but Obama and his Democrat congress of fools.
No Web site cost 9 to 18 million dollars. This can only be another wealth transfer scheme by your beloved Kenyan leader.
Although I think there are a lot of costs being associated with this web site that would have to be absorbed somewhere, this is still a very high price.
It probably rates up there with a Statue of Liberty fly past in the AF 1. Someone’s job should be on the line.
Lets see.
1 site OVER BUILT, and over paid for.
$18 million for WHAT..I looked at the site.
I would HOPE there is something there, beyond what we are seeing, as well as a contract to keep the site updated for AT LEAST 10 years.
http://www.recovery.gov/?q=node/668
$600 toilet seats, $18million website – RHINOs are just as dumb as liberals with taxpayer monies.
All the more reason that NO-ONE in Washington should be involved in our daily lives, including medical care.
Interesting.
I went to dotgov site and saw a poorly designed site that makes my eyes glaze over with govspeak and abbreviations, a map that doesn’t tell much. I could probably spend all afternoon looking on the site and never find out anything about what is going on in my county that would be meaningful/understandable.
I went to dotorg site and got a map that you can drill down to your state and even your county. In three mouse clicks I learned of 6 projects using stimulus money. Two were for computers/office equipment in a local school district, three were for water/sewer improvements, and the last was to replace some of the regional mass transit buses with hybrid buses as well as solar-powered bus shelters.
The privately run site is immeasurably more efficient at producing a measure of “transparency” than the government site.
Heck, just redirect the dotgov site to the dotorg site and save $18 million.
#13 – allstar
And I’m sure sure you whined when Dubya pissed away the first 100 billion dollars on the war in Iraq, right? No? Why not?
And since when is Obama Kenyan?
#18
Hey Jägermeister – are you mentally retarded?
Dubya gone – Obama screwing us.
What’s so difficult to understand?
#19 – allstar
Wow… intelligent comeback. All your fellow Republican futards are standing in awe.
Since when does our government know where the money goes? Democrats or Rebublicans it just does not matter. Looks liberals can spend money just as well as conservatives.
#20-Jägermeister-All your fellow Republican futards are standing in awe.
Not likely since it takes more to impress Republicans than Democrat sheeple.
Place a guy who can read a teleprompter in front of a democrat and you’re all nose up the ass impressed. Pathetic.
#22 – allstar – Place a guy who can read a teleprompter in front of a democrat and you’re all nose up the ass impressed.
Like this guy? A charming cocaine head and alcoholic who became the President of the USA, because his power base was an army of stupid people – like you – couldn’t see through his folksy image. His incompetence cost thousands of lives on September 11, 2001 and many more in the wars that followed.
# 20, Jag,
Wow… intelligent comeback.
And some wonder why I use the term “right wing nut” so often.
#23-Jägermeister-A charming cocaine head and alcoholic who became the President of the USA
Yeah that’s right the charming coke-head who lied his way into the White House that the stupid democrat sheeple selected to be their lord and master.
The guy who couldn’t find a thought unless prompted by a – you got it – a teleprompter. You know, your basic dick with ears.
allstar said “A charming cocaine head and alcoholic who became the President of the USA”
You’re talking about George W. Bush, right?
# 21 jescott418 said, “Looks like liberals can spend money just as well as conservatives.”
Where do you think Repubs learned the craft?
Anyway, all this spending is for nothing, just like the Bush era. Most Americans now realize this as evidenced by the O’Mama’s sliding poll numbers…
#24 – Mr. Fusion
LOL – They’re the Fox News educated generation. Pure simpletons.
#25 – allstar
Dubya was a great speaker and a real class act.
This is a sort of, kind of a tech blog, right? Doesn’t anyone care that *cough* IBM *cough* has their mitts all over this?
#28-Jägermeister-Dubya was a great speaker and a real class act.
I see your Alzheimer’s is kicking in. Let me repeat again.
Dubya is gone – Obama is the one screwing us.
Try to keep up.