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| Economy |
| A Verdict on Obama's "Stimulus" Plan |
| 2011-05-17 |
| Economists Timothy Conley and Bill Dupor have studied the effects of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the purported stimulus bill) with great rigor. Earlier this week, they reported their findings in a paper titled "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Public Sector Jobs Saved, Private Sector Jobs Forestalled." The paper is dense and rather lengthy, and requires considerable study. Here, however, is the bottom line: Our benchmark results suggest that the ARRA created/saved approximately 450 thousand state and local government jobs and destroyed/forestalled roughly one million private sector jobs. State and local government jobs were saved because ARRA funds were largely used to offset state revenue shortfalls and Medicaid increases rather than boost private sector employment. The majority of destroyed/forestalled jobs were in growth industries including health, education, professional and business services. So the American people borrowed and spent close to a trillion dollars to destroy a net of more than one-half million jobs. Does President Obama understand this? I very much doubt it. When he expressed puzzlement at the idea that the stimulus money may not have been well-spent, and said that "spending equals stimulus," he betrayed a shocking level of economic ignorance. |
| Posted by:Beavis |
| #5 hey be thankful you didn't get pink batts installed in everyone's roof in a big junket that ended in the electrocution deaths of about 9 people, plus a solar rebate scheme the country can't afford... and the piece-de-resistance in this year's Budget? A free digital set-top box for each pensioner, paid for by Le Government, so they can watch digital TV from their old piece of junk. Cost per pensioner? about $350. Cost of a new TV that gets digital? $150. |
| Posted by: anon1 2011-05-17 08:09 |
| #4 The entire purpose of the so-called stimulus was to prop up pay, pensions, and COLA increases for the public sector work force and rent-seeking "private" businesses as a thank you for 2008 - long enough to keep them loyal voters and campaign workers in order to hold the House and keep a veto-proof Senate along party lines in the 2010 elections. Period. It was a quid pro quo for public sector support at the polls in 2008, and a promise for the future if they stumped hard in 2010, all paid for by the private sector and two future generations of Americans in the private sector as well. Creating a government which engages in activities and policies which will allow the private sector economy to grow is completely unimportant to 2011 Democrats. It's all about paying those who get a public sector paycheck with job security in return for support of Democrat politicians to stay in office. The loss of the House and party-line veto (yes, I'm aware that RINOs can't always be counted upon) was not anticipated, so the strategy was both not successfully functionally as well as being devastating to the economy. As the gen-Y kids say, epic fail. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2011-05-17 05:58 |
| #3 And what happens when the funding for the 'saved public jobs' is gone? After the Stimulus is spent? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2011-05-17 00:58 |
| #2 When he expressed puzzlement at the idea that the stimulus money may not have been well-spent, and said that "spending equals stimulus," he betrayed a shocking level of economic ignorance. Shocking to some possibly. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2011-05-17 00:46 |
| #1 "spending equals stimulus," Stimulus for unionized government jobs, maybe temporarily. But every dollar tied up in this POS government is one not working for most people in the economy that actually pays for the government. |
| Posted by: newc 2011-05-17 00:36 |