Uncovering Obama's Stimulus Sham

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Yep, I agree with the poster who says this article is garbage and that Roff is somehow an inpartial jounalist. He is so anti everything this Democratic administration offers or stands for that one can not take him seriously. Roff needs to stop pretending and just say he is a Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity wanna be.

Ann J of SC 4:27PM November 30, 2009

Odama he be a dummy yes..otay he be scammin every days.Lord is thywitness.

buckwheat say 1:27PM November 22, 2009

I can help the Administration with this problem - send some stimulus my way. I'll look good on their list - I'm real.

Brad of TX 1:26PM November 19, 2009

Ron Smith: The point is, Obama was all, "Unemployment won't rise above 8 percent! Rah rah rah! Pass my stimulus!" and people bought it. Lo and behold: Unemployment over 10 percent, and another major Obama lie exposed.

TD of MA 4:24PM November 18, 2009

Fortunately, there's a solution -- and it can be modeled on lessons learned from what the SEC failed to do with respect to why recovery.gov was required in the first place, i.e. adopting unstructured disclosure for asset-backed securities instead of structured disclosure. See this post on original plans for recovery.gov back in February:
http://paulwilkinson.com/2009/02/26/administration-memo-on-reccoverygov-falls-short/
It can also be modeled on the success of the SEC's subsequent approach, i.e. requiring structured disclosure using an industry standard computer language for public company inancial disclosure. There continues to be an obsession with "Web sites." What is much more important for governments to produce (just like public companies must now do via XBRL) is quality data. Building good UI's is key to driving the demand for more quality data, but the key is structuring data using a global standard to tag it and exchange it -- and, most pertinent in this thread, to support validation and get the government out of "spreadsheet hell." If it's good enough for every U.S. public company, it's good enough for the the U.S. government.
Recall, also, this thread:
http://www.thenationaldialogue.org/ideas/data-quality-and-data-standards-are-key-to-gaining-public-trust
The enormous success of the SEC's public company XBRL filing program since then should only underscore the advantages of creating and implementing an XBRL taxonomy for government reporting ASAP. Ideally, it would not be a national U.S. standard, but a global standard. After all, we are competing in a global economy with other governments to use government's share of the economy as efficiently as possible. What better way to accomplish this than with a common global reporting standard?

Paul Wilkinson of CA 3:46PM November 18, 2009

Ah, Peter Roff yet again spreading cheer from the Right. Let's not be fooled by what is intended to distract from a major question not often enough asked: What country of size, past or present, has been able to recover from a disastrous economic downturn in fewer than three, four or more years?
Go ahead, name the country.
Stumped?
If you're not stumped, you'd better be ready with the only correct answer: no country. Not one.
Ten months into the Obama presidency, we have the expectable result of efforts to turn eight years of the Bush presidency around--the need for at LEAST a couple of years more. Don't say it was Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd who caused the collapse, not Bush. It was Bush who touted the "Ownership Society," having bought into the bad policy of lending to risky borrowers, and it was Bush who furthered de-regulation of lenders and securities firms. And, lest we forget, it was Bush who, having inherited a big surplus, left Obama with a big deficit.
Peter Roff is correct in seeing mis-steps by the Obama administration. He's incorrect in insinuating failure, though.
Given the mess inherited, much time and many more corrective attempts by Obama and his people MUST be expected. Also to be expected is that Obama's every move will be from a Liberal perspective, not a conservative one.
And there's the rub for Roff and other ever-cheerful and persistent harpies on the Right. Liberal moves just might work and end up setting the conservative cause back a couple of decades. Now wouldn't that be awful?

Ron W. Smith of UT 3:43PM November 18, 2009

What's even worse is when the economy slips into a 2nd recession because it's been propped up by all this so-called stimulus money - which money the government doesn't have by the way - and when the stimulas disappears the programs that have begun won't be able to sustain themselves when the states affected don't have the dunds to continue the ludicrous plans

Al of WI 3:41PM November 18, 2009

Stick to the blog's subject! I for one reside in a rural area of Wisconsin. There was highway construction product right at my front door that was claimed to have created 450 jobs when in fact the 11 mile project never had more than 19 workers!!! I've checked with family and friends all over the country and they report the very same egregious claims...AND...if you pay attention to the news Obama himself admitted just two days ago the reports were "at least" 60,000 people out of whack! Personally as ludicrous as the Libral claims have been I'd say they're due for a major chock come the next election...when we can all say..."We told you so!"

Al Steadman of WI 3:39PM November 18, 2009

This article is complete garbage. It is just assumed intent without actual proof of corrupt action. This is just the same as the Glenn Beck garbage of "I'm not saying that they totally lied about the numbers and that there might just be reporting errors due to oversight limitations, but I'm just asking questions".
Anyone actually believing the supposed impartiality of Peter Roff is stupid. His bio is clearly even misleading, since it states that Let Freedom Ring is a "non-partisan public policy organization", but when you go to their website and go to the "About" section, you quickly see that they are clearly a conservative ideological group with a mission that perfectly lines up with the current Republican mission statement. Just saying that you are "non-partisan" does not actually make you "non-partisan".
I used to respect conservatives for at least understanding basic market economics, but today I am just consistently saddened by their complete lack of intelligence. Get some book learnin under your belts that is not just the Bible and start helping us fix our dang country before the whole thing falls down.

Alethus of PA 2:01PM November 18, 2009

An Obama stimulus sham? Certainly. The stimulus money went to "Destinations" devised by the Democratic Party officials with the intend: a) Make a splash in the headlines that the economic slowdown was pumped up with an infusion of money that will create jobs. b) The infusion of the money -subsequently- will increase spending -by those receiving the funds- which, in turn, will re-vitalize the slumping economy. c) If the economy showed to turn around during the stimulus spending, investors might have thought that the economy had hit the bottom, and it was in the upswing. And that would have brought investors into the market to buy shares at their lowest -and depressed value, and thus flood the wall street with money, which then would
have turned the economy around for good!
Good spending theory, but a waste in the way it was handled. The national unemployment rate was 8.6% before the stimulus package, and by the time the stimulus money was spend, instead of having gone down, it had risen to 10.2%. And that proves that the "stimulus money was a sham," because the officials at institution that received it, had spent it on salary raises for themselves, or on petty projects that didn't help the local economy, and, worst of all, the money could not be accounted for! Then came the ultimate insult to the intelligence of the taxpayers: Those that couldn't account where the money went "blamed it on bad record keeping!" Could it have gone to relatives, or associates on paper projects only, with "wink, Wink" kickbacks schemes on later schedules? Who knows? We all know that the spending didn't help the unemployed, nor it helped the economy in any way. It has just lined the pockets of the well-connected, while the rest of us will have to empty our pockets to refill the "black hole" it has opened in our federal budget deficit! And, to add insult to injury, we are supposed to be thankful for! Nikos Retsos, retired professor

Nikos Retsos of IL 12:41PM November 18, 2009