Stimulus Job Creation = Bigger Government
by Veronique de RugyOn Friday, in the name of holy transparency, the White House released the list of jobs created or saved with the stimulus funds. Now, let’s assume that the government can create jobs even though it can’t. Let’s assume that “job saved” is not the lamest excuse for government spending I have heard in my life time as a budget analyst. And let’s look at what this data means.
The White House claims that 640,329 were created or saved. That, by the way, is way less than what Christina Romer claimed would be created. Last week, she mentioned 1.4 million during a Joint Committee hearing. Remember.
First, $159 billion has been spent so far. That’s $248,273 per job.
However, when you look at some specific contracts that were awarded you find that some jobs were created or saved at an insane cost to taxpayers. For instance, $1,359,633,501 were awarded to CH2M WG IDAHO LLC, in WA to create 2,183 jobs. That’s $622,827 per job. That’s not as bad though as the $258,646,800 awarded to the Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC in NY, to create 25 jobs. That’s over $10.3 million per job.
I would be happy with one of these jobs.
Second, while the administration is promising good and in time reporting, we can see that it’s far from being the case. Agencies report having spent $207.3Billion and yet only $36,688,660,161 were reported by states. That’s a big gap, isn’t it?
Third, some 85 percent of the money went to 4 agencies: HHS, Labor, Education and Social Security. That money wasn’t spent on shovel ready projects. For instance, some of the HHS funds went to some rural high school and college students from Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee to conduct medical research this summer with a team of leading scientists at Vanderbilt University. The Department of Labor spent $11,058,877 in unemployment insurance (UI) modernization incentive funds to the state of West Virginia. And the Department of Education is mainly spending its money to keep union protected school teachers in their jobs. Not really shovel ready projects, are they?
But the most relevant information on Recovery.gov is that most of the jobs created or saved are in the public sector. For instance, according to Vice President Biden, out of the 640,329 jobs, 325,000 went to education and 80,000 to construction jobs. The difference we will soon find out is going to other government jobs.
You need more evidence? 13,080 grants went to the private sector, and 116,625 went to feral agencies.
So even if we assume that the government could create jobs by spending our money, we can see that what this money is being spent on is big government. Or bigger government I should say.
So when you think that, on top of everything, the government can’t create jobs (here and here), this data is transparently depressing.
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59 Comments
What a deal!
Great, just what I needed… my taxes paying burgeoning hoards of government employees telling me what to do everyday!!
Hope and Change Opie, Hope and Change.
Well, you're absolutely right, Veronique de Rugy . Let's do absolutely nothing.
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These numbers of jobs created and jobs saved are nothing but a con-job by the Obama administration to fool the public. The simple premise of the the numbers is subjective at best and can be twisted in any manner the administration wants so it makes the stimulus program and Obama look good.
Many of these jobs are "potential" jobs" yet are lumped in with the numbers to make the stimulus program look better than it is. Other claims are greatly inflated. It is subjective to say X amount of money from the government saved or created10 jobs when in reality 5 or 6 of those jobs weren't going anyplace to start with. It's all how the numbers are reported, cherry picked, formulated and used.
The numbers for this jobs created and saved are little more than statistics. British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli nailed down exactly what statistics were. The saying later was attributed by many to Mark Twain who popularized it. "Lies, damned lies and statistics". These jobs created and saved numbers are exactly that.
How do govt. jobs get taxed? do their paychecks, which are tax money, get taxed? so our taxes pay their salary and then that money is taxed? so someones makin some money off these govt. jobs. Obamas so smart yet he dosent know that the govt. produces nothing, so all the govt. jobs produced nothing. AMAZING
Ok zippy,
I'll try another tact, since beating you about the face and head doesn't seem to work, or deter you, you're on. YOU have the floor. WE'll all shut up and listen to you now for a bit. YOU, tell US your plan, what are YOUR ideas? You and your ilk can piss and moan about capitalism, and everything else near and dear to this country and put it down at every turn, so tell US.
We'll wait…………………..
this website form does not allow for registered users to post front page dissenting views on the level of Veronique de Rugy.
So unfortunately i must simply be the voice of reason and loyal opposition.
In reality, everyone should quit.
Quit your jobs. Don't even call your employer to give them notice. Just up and quit, commencing tomorrow. This only is applicable to the private sector. All government employees must work. The following day, everyone that is unemployed will be immeditaely hired at newly created government jobs, at a starting salary of 125k, plus Health Care and full bennies. Consequently, we will ALL work for the government, never get laid off, and suckle at the government teat until we die. Life will be swell, and we'll be in high cotton.
By then, Walmart will have baby delivery rooms out front, and funeral parlors out back. We will have everything we ever needed, all courtesy of the Nanny State. Womb to the Tomb coverage, all courtesy of Unkle Sambo.
Nothing sure would be cheaper
And it would preserve capital where it would help the most, in taxpayers pocket, thereby creating jobs as people go about their lives as citizens.
So yeah, when it comes to stimulus, so nothing!
125k is a rip off man! each stimulous job cost 250K so entry level should be 250k! I demand justice!
See how ya are?
I was trying to find you a new good job, where you could get paid and not work. You would have got 125k, and Unkle could have kept 125k. A 50/50 split used to be fair and equitable, wasn't it?
Program cancelled. People not happy. Blame it on Liberty666………….
(For you slow folks, that was all parody…….)
No Justice! No Piece!
You cant do that were Unionized bucko, we will work full time (30hrs a week) plus double pay for any overtime, 500k max per year.
from the office of Madame Pelosi
Oh. Ok.
Please don't go on strike.
Will you be happier if you work two, ten hour days, and get paid for forty? Plus you can have every other month off with full pay, and everyone gets a plane.
Imagine this. In the midst of all the gloom and doom, there is a bright spot, but it is in the PRIVATE SECTOR.
The only auto manufacturer not in BANKRUPTCY, and not owned, controlled and operated by the GOVERNMENT has turned a profit. Congratulations to FORD, the American Dream still lives on. Freedom and Capitalism have not completely been socialized out of existence……….
and 116,625 went to feral agencies.
Don't correct this part, feral agencies sounds about right
s_Z, the government doing absolutely nothing would by far be the best case scenario. Definitely far better than the government spending insane amounts of money on "stimulus" packages that nobody reads. Lets be realistic here, the private sector is not going to be screwed in the long term when the dollar is worth even less than squat as a result of the government printing and using money like it's toilet paper. At this point, I'm almost completely convinced that the Obama administration would rather wipe their ass with the money they print and spend, rather than let the private sector have a shot at rebounding without being kicked in the balls every 5 minutes with new regulations and taxes.
very insightful. thanks for the comment.
only because they got their latest round of financing from LARGE BANKS that were *not allowed to fail*, just before the global credit freeze.
and yeah, it was BUSH that bought them out
http://www.freep.com/article/20081219/BUSINESS01/8121909... target=”_blank”>http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:_0Akc5lbs0wJ:...” target=”_blank”>http://www.freep.com/article/20081219/BUSINESS01/8121909...
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"let’s assume that the government can create jobs even though it can’t"
—
I think this is why nobody likes Republican politicians any more- they themselves don't believe that they are doing a job. Jokes aside, what do you call it what those people who work for military, or in science (national labs, NASA), have?
…or teachers in public schools…
this website form does not allow for registered users to post front page dissenting views…
What? This site is neither a bulletin board nor a forum, it is an online publication. Ms. de Rugy is an article contributor, she has not "posted a new topic." An editorial staff picks what articles they want to publish, as this is their publication to so manage. You are whining about not having the same "privilege" as being able to mandate your "dissenting views" be published on the front page of the New York Post or any other paper.
Opposition, yes. Loyal, if "loyal" is synonymous with "brainwashed," yup. Reason, not quite.
And to think, for under a trillion they could have just cut every citizen a check for $3000. Do not even worry about "income eligibility," just send the money right out the door. That would have saved a bunch of mortgages, gone towards lots of new vehicles, plus many banks would have been awash in such substantial amounts of new deposits they would have increased lending. Along with, of course, all the extra consumer spending helping save many jobs, even considering that much of it would go into savings and been spent later as the economy smoothed out.
Instead, for what will be five times or more that amount when totaling everything up, we have gotten…
This is all part of a longer term Progressive startegy to capture 50% of the voters with entitlements, union and govet jobs — entitlements for millions of voters requiring help like sect 8 housing, food stamps, welfare, SSI, disability, etc place more citizens under the thumb of dependance…..while 15 million union members, such as AFL-CIO, SEIU, UFCW, NEA, ATF, etc etc now targeted to recruit another 10 million in next 4 years…..then add in alkl the govt employees that will have to be loyal to the party in power…..multi-millions more…..
you see where this is all headed……more than 50% of the voters totally dependant on govt for sustenance…..and paying virtually nothing in income taxes……so that all of us in the private sector paying 95% of the income tax will be sucked dry….
and for small businesses like mine, soon paying 60% tax (FED, State, and local)…we shall choose to sell or retire, and say screw it…..why should I work 70 hours a week to pay for all these stupid govt programs that reward those that do nothing, or have job descriptions that say they can do nothing and get paid for it.
[...] Stimulus Job Creation = Bigger Government [...]
scott_z
So in other words, you have zilch!
Cowboy Logic
I want that job. Sign me up.
ps. my plane needs a bedroom with a queen size bed, ok.
ps.ps. I don't want to have to pay for the plane fuel, needs to be part of the package.
Cowboy Logic
The Unions are working on changing that ASAP.
[...] Whole thing, worth reading, here. [...]
i have yet to find a single right wing conservative website that welcomes dissenting points of view and allows equal editorial time.
that's very telling. check this place out:
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/
yeah, bush, along with huge congressional support.
Bush- guilty. Congress- guilty. They both suck.
I caught that too. Think it was intentional.
Riddle me this: How are TARP and ARRA the same?
Answer: They were both sold as one thing and delivered as another:
TARP was supposed to relieve banks of troubled assets and allow them to get back in the game of debt. ARRA was supposed to create green jobs through smart targeted investments in our crumbling infrastructure.
In practice, TARP provides ongoing life support for a broadly defined "financial system." ARRA provides ongoing life support for bankrupt state and local agencies.
The idea is that you keep the dole going long enough until the private sector — a phenomenon Sec. Geithner has read about on both a Blackberry and an iPhone — rains wealth on all the biggest spenders.
So it's important not to ask of the stimulus "Is it stimulating anything?" If that was ever the purpose of the Stimulus, it no longer is.
For that, we must deploy Stimulus II, Electronic Boondoggle-oo.
Consider it done.
Queen Pelosi
[...] Whole thing, worth reading, here. [...]
True the President cannot create jobs in the private sector. But that is the duty of the corporate world. So even with Bush tax breaks implemented in 2003, why are we having record unemployment? One) , tax cuts preserve wealth, especially amongst the wealthy. There is no law that says anyone has to invest in a business with their tax savings. Tax cuts only stimulate spending from the lower income levels because the lower income levels have the most needs. But having low income, which could still be 125k a year, means that spending still cannot exceed a certain amount of the personal budget.Two) companies have sending jobs over seas since the 1970's. This has saved some consumer dollars in the short run and added company profits. But a whole lot of companies have taken to this practice and it has drained the consumer and economic base. There is no need to reward companies with tax breaks if they are negatively impacting the countries economy. Tax breaks now have to be centered on small businesses to grow so than can compete with the internationals and tax breaks need to be given to companies that create jobs in the US.
3) Tax breaks do not create jobs as stated by politicians. How? Try to get a business loan and tell the bank you expect so much money from your tax return. They are not going to take you seriously. You first need sales in order to be taxed. Then you need demand for some service or product to get sales. Only when a company has a high demand for a product or high potential for profit will jobs be created. Jobs have never been created to put people to work out of concern for the person. It is all about profit and income. Taxes and any effect of taxes are secondary to that.
[...] Big Government » Blog Archive » Stimulus Job Creation = Bigger … Tags: conduct-medical, summer You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS [...]
For all those that say government jobs do not rpoduce anything, why not tell a police officer that? What does a policeman produce? But he or she is a government worker. So what does a policeman's pay check do? It pays taxes to the state and local government. But it also pays the rent, the mortgage. It also buys food, clothing, personal care products, groomging product. Yes a government paid employees check does all that. And guess who has work and makes money because of that check? The grocer, the landlord, the bank, the retail store, the drug store, the mechanic, the plumber, the fast food restaurant and countless others. No, a police officer produces nothing. But his or her check does help to keep other people employed. A service is a production for those who really don't get it.
Liberty666
Thank you, mom will be so pleased.
That is every Tuesday and Thursday noon till three, right?
Hope and Change
We HOPE we will have any money left when the government is done taking our money
and CHANGE is what we will have left when they are done.
I demand you tele-commute, keep your own hours from home. If you need to get in touch with me, i'll be at my plastic surgeons.
Queen Pelosi
[...] government can’t create jobs (here and here), this data is transparently depressing." Big Government Blog Archive Stimulus Job Creation = Bigger Government HANDING DEMOCRATS THE KEYS TO THE ECONOMY IS LIKE HANDING THE KEYS TO A DRUNK DRIVER. How can they [...]
Liberty666
Deal!
[...] much of the money has been spent to close budget gaps in the states, which often means keeping union-protected school teachers in [...]
[...] much of the money has been spent to close budget gaps in the states, which often means keeping union-protected school teachers in [...]
Nice post. Didn’t know that about federal grant.
The $260 million to Brookhaven Science Associates is being put to use. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw83OUwRthA
I agree with you!
There wont be money left if we keep going like this. We where hoping for a better republic. The only chance I believe we have is to go back the nation was in the 20's without the race issue.
Read was interesting, stay in touch……
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