Vast Right Wing Says Stimulus A Bust
Jan 12, 2010 Political
OK, it was really the Associated Press which is so far left it is holding up the walls on that side. The AP has found, by comparing 700 counties that received stimulus money to 700 that did not, that the stimulus had no effect on the unemployment rate.
In other words, the stimulus did not work. Say it again children, the stimulus did not work.
A federal spending surge of more than $20 billion for roads and bridges in President Barack Obama’s first stimulus has had no effect on local unemployment rates, raising questions about his argument for billions more to address an “urgent need to accelerate job growth.”
An Associated Press analysis of stimulus spending found that it didn’t matter if a lot of money was spent on highways or none at all: Local unemployment rates rose and fell regardless. And the stimulus spending only barely helped the beleaguered construction industry, the analysis showed.
With the nation’s unemployment rate at 10 percent and expected to rise, Obama wants a second stimulus bill from Congress including billions of additional dollars for roads and bridges — projects the president says are “at the heart of our effort to accelerate job growth.” AP
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood defended the stimulus plan and the government is considering another but the AP reports:
But AP’s analysis, which was reviewed by independent economists at five universities, showed the strategy of pumping transportation money into counties hasn’t affected local unemployment rates so far.
“There seems to me to be very little evidence that it’s making a difference,” said Todd Steen, an economics professor at Hope College in Michigan who reviewed the AP analysis.
And there’s concern about relying on transportation spending a second time.
“My bottom line is, I’d be skeptical about putting too much more money into a second stimulus until we’ve seen broader effects from the first stimulus,” said Aaron Jackson, a Bentley University economist who also reviewed AP’s analysis.
The stimulus had no effect on employment.
Of course, not all of the money was spent. It is being held in reserve so the government can release it before the next election in hope of changing things prior to the November elections. But if spending the billions now had no effect, will spending more later do any good?
Democrats have run the economy into the ground with the stimulus with promises that it would curb unemployment (it is higher than they said it would be) but the whole thing has been a bust.
But at least they were able to use money borrowed from China (that will be repaid by taxpayers) to pay supporters for political favors.
Others:
Gateway Pundit
Ace of Spades
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Tags: ap, bust, Obama, stimulus, unemployment