Recovery.org: 2 Pound Frozen Ham Sliced = $2.5 Million

Has the Drudge Report uncovered the ultimate smoking gun in America’s economic recovery efforts? It certainly looks that way at first glance.

On Monday, the popular breaking news website published a list of products purchased by the Recovery.org website along with their corresponding costs.

Here is a look at the list…

The United States Department of Agriculture was sufficiently perturbed by the report so as to issue a response. In it, the agency states:

The references to “2 pound frozen ham sliced” are to the sizes of the packaging. Press reports suggesting that the Recovery Act spent $1.191 million to buy “2 pounds of ham” are wrong. In fact, the contract in question purchased 760,000 pounds of ham for $1.191 million, at a cost of approximately $1.50 per pound. In terms of the dairy purchase referenced, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) purchased 837,936 pounds of mozzarella cheese and 4,039,200 pounds of processed cheese. The canned pork purchase was 8,424,000 pounds at a cost of $16,784,000, or approximately $1.99 per pound.

In fairness, one can see how the figures were taken out of context over at the Drudge Report. Still, it does shine a bright light on what exactly is happening with your tax dollars…especially when you consider that one can usually find some ham over at the Food Lion for about $0.79 per pound, NOT $1.50…

NOTE: We were GOING to post a link here to the Food Lion website, the same link that appears on the home page of the Drudge Report, showing that they are selling ham for $0.79 per pound…

Now, however, that page has mysteriously gone dead and the ham is no longer there. You’ll have to excuse us, the black helicopters are now descending upon our offices.