The money could have done a lot of things in a lot of places. Well, they do and they don't. They spend most of it in their own self-interest. AIDS reaches epidemic proportions. School buildings built decades ago crumble and need to be replaced.
People lose jobs and health care benefits because of economic trends they have nothing to do with.
It's hard enough to respond to the problems we know about, let alone the unforeseen future. And yet we have leaders who try to have it both ways, working to shrink government's capacity to do what needs to be done and then lashing out at how it uses its dwindling resources. A version of this NJPP commentary appeared in The Asbury Park Press.