States and local governments strike deals with corporations all the time – deals that normal people like you and I would have a hard time getting and deals that often deprive our governments of revenue even as promises of job creation often disappoint. These tax breaks, publicly funded cash incentives, free buildings, and worker training are done in the name of keeping or wooing businesses. Until relatively recently, the public mostly knew about these subsidies on an anecdotal basis.

After posting “Emergency Unemployment Benefits Are Not Forgotten” on our blog on Feb. 26, the Center for Effective Government received close to 100,000 page views and over 1,500 comments. Many of those who posted comments were people who had seen their emergency unemployment benefits cut and who are struggling to keep their lives together.

There is still a jobs crisis in this country, and the individuals who wrote to us are on its front lines.

During the recent bitter cold snap that gripped much of the country, civic leaders in Washington D.C.'s Department of Human Services extended the hours at existing homeless shelters, opened additional warming stations, and then got creative. The department partnered with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to borrow Metro buses to use as mobile warming shelters.

Making movies costs a lot of money, but the average taxpayer, while tuning into the Oscars, isn’t likely to expect a thank you. Imagine how that would sound: