It looks obvious

She knew that no train schedules could be maintained any longer, no promises kept, no contract observed, that regular trains were canceled at a moment’s notice and transformed into emergency specials sent by unexplained orders to unexpected destinations - and that the orders came from Cuffy Meigs, sole judge of emergencies and of the public welfare.

Atlas Shrugged, P 914

"Nobody understands it. I don’t understand it," said J. Gregory Greco, a business specialist who works out of the USDA’s Rural Development office in Harrisburg, Pa. "You may find one area of town is eligible and another isn’t. It can be by street: One side is eligible and another is not. I defy you to give the logic of it."

All told, the USDA has handed out more than $70 billion in grants, loans and loan guarantees since 2001 as part of its sprawling but little-known Rural Development program. More than half of that money has gone to metropolitan regions or communities within easy commuting distance of a midsize city, including beach resorts and suburban developments, a Washington Post investigation found.

More than three times as much money went to metropolitan areas with populations of 50,000 or more ($30.3 billion) as to poor or shrinking rural counties ($8.6 billion). Recreational or retirement communities alone got $8.8 billion.

Among the recipients were electric companies awarded almost $1 billion in low-interest loans to serve the booming suburbs of Atlanta and Tampa. Beach towns from Cape Cod to New Jersey to Florida collected federal money for water and sewer systems, town halls, and boardwalks. An Internet provider in Houston got $23 million in loans to wire affluent subdivisions, including one that boasts million-dollar houses and an equestrian center.