WASHINGTON (TND) — It is a sign of the times as lawmakers call out government waste and this time it’s literally because of some actual road signs on the side of the road.
Recently, the Biden administration started rolling out roadway signs touting projects paid through by the bipartisan and factual infrastructure law from 2021.
Senator Joni Ernst is calling for an investigation to see how much it’s costing you.
Open the Books CEO Adam Andrzejewski joined The National Desk Friday morning to discuss the issue.
“Although we don’t know the cost currently on these sites during the Biden administration, we can look to a little bit of history,” he said. “During the Obama years in 2009, this was an expensive program. The same program many people remember, the shovel-ready job projects, the roadway signs during the Obama administration that cost taxpayers $200 million, which is $300 million when you adjust that figure for inflation today. Each sign was expensive up to $1,200 per sign.”
The issue is reminiscent of what happened in 2009 with the Obama administration and the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on similar road signs. Lawmakers say, “This is an absolute waste.”
“Now, that program allowed states to opt-out. It’s unclear if states can opt out this time,” Andrzejewski said. “The signs were so expensive during the Obama years that many states did opt out.”