Posted by
RME KRNL on Monday, June 01, 2009 12:23:25 AM
Since President Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus plan in February, going on four months have passed and the states most in need of stimulus plan funds, those where unemployment is the highest, haven't seen most of the contracts worth only a comparatively paltry $4 billion in U.S. stimulus funds so far awarded. Four billion dollars is only .005 percent of $787 billion, and the states most in need haven't even seen much of that.
The so-called America Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was intended, and tenaciously touted by Team Obama, to help turn the economy around by using federal money to create jobs, especially in states most severely affected by the recession. Most of the money is for state projects such as highway and infrastructure work, but federal agencies also are expected to spend billions on federal projects as well.
It seems the first so-called "shovel ready" project contracts were awarded unevenly for several reasons. Some federal agencies more quickly signed contracts than others, while some contracts were awarded to projects either already under way or to companies with a history of doing government work.
In other words, it seems that haste, rather than targeting (remember transparent, targeted and temporary?) was the byword. "Just get some of it out the door, so we can say we've done something. Don't worry about where it's going or for what." Which, in a strangely twisted way, seems almost appropriate for legislation: (a) for a massive amount of taxpayer money, (b) which was hastily cobbled together by the Democrat majorities in the House and Senate, while refusing input from Republicans (Bipartisanship, wherefore didst thou goest?), (c) which wasn't even read before it was voted on and passed by Democrat majorities in House and Senate, and (d) which was equally hastily signed into law by the Democratic president (without Obama's promised online 5-day transparency review by the American people -- oh my! But, I guess if the Congress which voted on it didn't read it and the president who signed it didn't read it, then Obama probably thought, why should we? Well, maybe because it's our money? Just a thought.).
Team Obama spokeswoman Liz Oxhorn said that the stimulus plan is "providing unprecedented assistance at a record pace to benefit as many Americans as possible." Well, Liz, there's only three things wrong with that statement: (a) "providing unprecedented assistance..." -- not yet; (b) "....at a record pace..." -- definitely not yet; and (c) "...to benefit as many Americans as possible." -- tell that again to the unemployed in the hardest hit states.
Maybe Liz and other liberal Democrats, and especially President Obama himself, should remember that just saying something is so doesn't make it so. And, one might argue, saying something which is patently not so, is, well, euphemistically speaking, disingenuous, but in plainer words, just plain lying.
In addition to the comparatively measly $4 billion in contracts it has awarded so far, the federal government has also asked companies to bid on thousands of projects worth more than $30 billion. Once that is done, whenever it does get done, that would total $34 billion contracted, out of the $787 billion in the stimulus plan. Even that's only .04 percent. But, oh, somebody is already spending at least several hundred thousands of federal or state dollars on roadside signs which advertise the projects which are coming. (Hey, no jobs yet, but this is where they'll be, whenever there are some.) Must be the new, "nuanced" definition of "shovel ready."
Economists say that this recession actually started almost a year ago and that, historically, recessions in this country usually last about two years. So, it would seem the recession had a better chance of curing itself, if the federal government had mainly just stayed out of the way, than Obama's so-called "stimulus plan," which so far has "stimulated" little -- and in the wrong places, to boot.