Robert Brodsky at Government Executive reports: “[T]he rich are getting richer. During the past five months, 17 of the largest government contractors have won more than $1.6 billion in Recovery Act contracts—more than all small businesses combined.”

His analysis shows that 17 companies among the top 100 recipients of government contracts in fiscal 2008 won more than $1.62 billion in stimulus funds.  The 1,137 small businesses that have received stimulus funds have received less: $1.45 billion in contracts.

Just under $7 billion has been spent so far. That’s about $70 per U.S. family, or $22.50 per person.

There is a logic to this, of course. It’s easier to spend big money with big companies, and it’s easier to spend money on existing contracts than to create new ones.

But it also illustrates that Recovery Act spending is hitting targets that the government usually hits, while other segments of the economy have to recover on their own.

Kudos to Brodsky and Government Executive for doing this research.  It seems like another example where people other than the government are doing a better job of tracking where the money goes.

Seeing this report gave me some ideas, and I spoke to the Brodsky briefly about collecting more data in the future and mapping it like we’re doing with earmarks. To be continued!