PJ Media

On Wednesday, the MSM picked up on a story that PJM reported on June 28. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, demanding an investigation into the use of stimulus funds to purchase signage Issa termed “propaganda.”

Issa was particularly incensed by a sign at Dulles International Airport that cost $10,000.

On July 5, PJM reported that Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) was preparing to bring a measure to the floor of the House which would force a vote on cutting funding to all stimulus signs. Schock termed the signs “the height of narcissism.” Schock has already been on Greta Van Susteren’s program touting Eric Cantor’s YouCut program, in which five proposals are posted on the YouCut website each week and the top vote-getter is brought to the House floor in a procedure which forces a vote on whether or not to debate the measure.

ABC News ran the story after Schock indeed forced that vote — which predictably failed. Said Schock:

I’m happy we were able to force a vote on this bill but concerned so many Democrats voted against this measure. I think they will have a tough time explaining this vote to taxpayers. This spending on stimulus signs is so egregious the media can’t help but pay attention.

They even asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about it: Schock and Issa claim the cost of these signs is at least $20 million dollars; Gibbs derisively put the figure at closer to $5 million. Issa sticks to the higher figure, and says that no matter the amount, the money has been wasted. Issa wrote via email Thursday:

The American people are tired of the Obama administration’s attempts to re-sell a broken plan that has never lived up to the original sales pitch — that it would keep unemployment under eight percent. Much like the White House’s fraudulent jobs “saved-or-created” campaign that included phantom congressional districts, people see these signs as a desperate attempt to by the White House to sell an $862 billion program they know isn’t working. Americans want to see jobs and our economy turn around, not tens of millions of dollars wasted on stimulus signs.