Elizabeth Harrington of the Washington Free Beacon delivers a good response to those who blame Baltimore’s woes on a lack of government spending.

The city of Baltimore received over $1.8 billion from President Barack Obama’s stimulus law, including $467.1 million to invest in education and $26.5 million for crime prevention.

President Obama claimed last Tuesday that if the Republican-controlled Congress would implement his policies to make “massive investments in urban communities,” they could “make a difference right now” in the city, currently in upheaval following the death of Freddie Gray.

However, a Washington Free Beacon analysis found that the Obama administration and Democratically-controlled Congress did make a “massive” investment into Baltimore, appropriating $1,831,768,487 though the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), commonly known as the stimulus.

According to Recovery.gov, one of Baltimore’s central ZIP codes, 21201, received the most stimulus funding in the city, a total of $837,955,866. The amount included funding for 276 awards, and the website reports that the spending had created 290 jobs in the fourth quarter in 2013.

Of this amount, $467.1 million went to education; $206.1 million to the environment; $24 million to “family”; $16.1 million to infrastructure; $15.2 million to transportation; $11.9 million to housing; and $3.1 million to job training.

ZIP code 21202 received $425,170,937, including a $136 million grant to “improve teaching and learning for students most at risk of failing to meet State academic achievement standards.”

Twenty-nine other ZIP codes listed in Baltimore city received a total of $568,641,684. …

… Following the violent riots on Monday evening that resulted in over 235 arrests, 15 torched buildings, 144 destroyed vehicles, and 20 injured police officers, President Obama spoke on the issue.

Obama called for more early education programs, criminal justice reform, and “making investments so that [youth] can get the training they need to find jobs.”

“There’s a bunch of my agenda that would make a difference right now in that,” he said.

The president then proceeded to blame the Republican-controlled Congress for not implementing his agenda.

“I’m under no illusion that under this Congress we’re going to get massive investments in urban communities,” Obama said.