Where Is Obama’s Stimulus Money Going?
By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
It's little wonder that congressional approval ratings are in the basement.
Congress went hog wild in a frenzy of increased spending, supposedly to stimulate the economy, but the U.S. unemployment rate has continued to rise. And the cost of the pork continues to add up, the latest example being the $18 million—half of which is being paid out up front with the remainder coming in payments over several years—to redesign the website that is supposed to help the American people see where all the stimulus money is going.
Not design the website—redesign it, since whoever was in charge of it apparently could not get it done right the first time.
It's an appropriate metaphor for what is happening in Washington. Major legislation is being pushed unread to President Obama's desk by the Democrats who control the House and Senate. Legislation that is signed, again one can believe unread, by the president and left for the bureaucracy to implement. No one, least of all the American people—whose money it is that is being spent—seems to know what is going on.
Of course there are rumors among Capitol Hill Republicans like the one about .64 cents of every stimulus dollar going to a county that voted for Obama in 2008 vs. .36 cents to every county that McCain won, so maybe the lack of transparency in the stimulus spending is no accident. It's certainly true that each item that appears to dribble out produces further embarrassment for the congressional leadership.
For example, as the Washington Times reported Thursday, the Obama administration announced that as much as $16.1 million in stimulus funds are "going to save the San Francisco Bay area habitat of, among other things, the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse." And though her office rejects the notion that this spending results from any special favors or pulling of strings, and says that the money was competitively awarded, it is undeniable that some of this money goes into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's congressional district, which abuts the Bay.
House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio was quick to denounce the project, saying, "The stimulus isn't creating jobs for American workers, but it is making sure American harvest mice have nice comfortable homes in the midst of the recession."
Pelosi's mouse, not to be confused with the one who lives in Southern California near Anaheim, is yet another symbol of pork barrel spending run amok, regardless of how the program to save its habitat was approved. No wonder the latest Rasmussen poll shows voters now trusting the Republicans more than the Democrats to handle key issues including, "for the second straight month," the economy. The Democrats have abused the privilege.
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Tags: Barack Obama | economic stimulus
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Reader Comments
Mr Malcom is wrong
Money simply changing hands does not stimulate an economy in a meaningful way.
Malcom's point is that if you used all of the stimulus money to create video games... trillions of dollars worth, it would still stimulate the economy.
The problem is, that wealth that is put into, say, video games, actually has to be taken OUT of some OTHER economic activity.
So just because money is spent, meaningful stimulation does not happen.
Take another example, trillions could be spent to hire each and every american to roll 50 lb boulders around in a circle in their back yard, at $100 an hour pay.
Mr. Malcom's position is that this would stimulate the economy because money was moving... but in fact, clearly it is not stimulating anything. Moving rocks does not allow for Americans to enjoy a good standard of living with an expanding economy.
The reason is that a healthy economy always produces wealth... created from the physical world (the only source of wealth). Rolling rocks around does not do that.
So WHAT you spend money on is critical in terms of actual stimulus.
The fact that basically all stimulus dollars are going to government is horrific because it is taking money OUT of the productive private sector in the form of taxes and inflation, diverting it out of productive use... and into government expendatures which are essentially all non-productive. (Government does not create anything).
This actually depresses the economy over time.
If this were NOT true, than one would expect that the government could take all wealth from the people, spend it ALL on government, and the result would be a thriving economy. Clearly, the opposite is true.
What SHOULD have happened to stimulate the economy instantly would have been to suspend all employee and employer payments to social security and medicare, guaranteed for at least a year.
This would have placed trillions more into the private sector (again, where all wealth creation happens), and done so instantly, and further, with essentially no administration costs of any kind.
The trillians borrowed for the stimulus (or printed out of thin air) could then go to paying for social security and medicare for that year.
Growing goverment was all about political power and greed.
That the democrats would use a financial disruption (largely created by government) in order to take money FROM Americans and pump it into government is a horrific display of political power madness and greed.
This will cause our economy to experience a long and painful climb out of this mess... whereas had the democrats been honest and thoughtful, the economy would have certainly still had problems to recover from, but not nearly so deep, and not for nearly as long.
stimulus money
American citizens should have been allowed to vote on whether any stimulus money could be allowed. After all, it is taxpayers' money. Also, what can we do when we don't have any faith whatsoever after 100+ experts have agreed there is no global warming, thus what about the humongous money for an energy bill. When volcanoes erupt, how do they handle that? Mother Nature gives off more pollution than humans do. Ozone is always changing, there have always been holes in the ozone. So much insanity is going on. How does one administration and liberals change this nation from capitalism to socialism/fascism/communism? There need to be laws so that this can never happen again. Obama spends so much time on TV, how is he running the country - oops, someone else must be - Emmanuel, Pelosi? Enough is enough. Why aren't Repub politicians angry & pounding their fists to save us??
The Problem With Stimulus
The problem with a stimulus package in our current economic state is that here in the US we invest so much in foreign production. For example, the reason GM's stimulus didn't work is because the majority of their costs were foreign labor, e.g. parts and architecture designed in Europe.
Until we can find a way to keep that money IN COUNTRY, there's really no point in putting out a stimulus. Actually, I blog for a site that tries to state point, counterpoint and our view. If you're interested, take a look. http://clearfrontmarketing.com
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