Vast Right Wing Says Stimulus A Bust

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

Big Dog

Gunline

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8 Responses to “Vast Right Wing Says Stimulus A Bust”

  1. Adam says:

    “In other words, the stimulus did not work. Say it again children, the stimulus did not work.”

    The study was looking at transportation spending, 7% of that nearly $800 billion package, not the entire stimulus. Your distortion is a nice try though.

    “Democrats have run the economy into the ground with the stimulus…”

    This is of course something you can’t back up. The markets are up, unemployment has leveled off for the most part, and the National Bureau of Economic Research will report the recession ended in 2009. So which part of the economy is in the ground?

    You can just keep pretending everything is bad with the economy, the stimulus has made it worse, and it’s all Obama’s fault. Or you could come back to reality and realize that the economy is moving toward recovery.

    The economy could fall apart again but until it does you’ll be lying when you sit there and write about how the economy has been run into the ground by the stimulus.

    • Big Dog says:

      Unemployment is around 17% but the people who have quit looking are not included and the government is dropping people earlier than is customary to make it look better.

      The market reacts and a lot of the increase is Wall Street injecting TARP money to make money for their banks.

      • Adam says:

        The 17% figure is bogus. I would like you to cite something good that explains how it was generated.

        “…government is dropping people earlier than is customary.”

        Prove it. The article you cited last week didn’t really prove much.

        • Blake says:

          The 17% is fairly accurate, if you take into account the people who have grown discouraged of looking for jobs that do not exist except in O’bama’s mind. Liberals are such prevaricators- you all just play “Spin the Voter”-
          The big O is real close to being actually treasonous- he is certainly not being faithful to the Constitution, or any concepts of “limited” government.
          The day is coming when his feet WILL be held to the fire, and he will have to account for his transgressions, stomping on the Constitution as he has done.

      • Darrel says:

        Bigd: “Unemployment is around 17% but the people who have quit looking are not included”>>

        DAR
        Wasn’t it just yesterday you were saying something about not being dishonest? That didn’t last long.

        If you include those who have quit looking, AND the under employed, some calculations give around 17%, but that would using a nonstandard measurement (moving the goal posts). The way you state it above is entirely dishonest.

        D.

    • Darrel says:

      ADM: “The markets are up…”>>

      DAR
      Way WAY up. Four thousand point gain in less than a year?! I think Obama’s market increase from it’s lows may be the fastest and largest increase ever. And as one fellow noted, this represents the market anticipating the future…

      D.

      • Big Dog says:

        It is from the infusion of taxpayer money by the Wall Street companies. They are making money off our taxes.

        The market is not up because of every day people investing.

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