$7.42 per person in shovel ready stimulus projects

[red states rule]

We all heard the Obama talking points how this "stimulus" package was designed to target shovel ready projects.

Well a break down on initial projects by state was released by usatoday.com. shovel ready projects in the 8 states with unemployment over 10% averaged $7.42 per person in spending

Turns out, the stimulus spending wasn't really designed to stimulate anything other than the size of government.

How is that hope and chnage doin' for you? Are you feeling stimulated yet?


Stimulus projects bypass hard-hit states
By Brad Heath, USA TODAY

snip

The first waves of that money flowed unevenly in large part because some federal agencies have moved more swiftly than others to sign contracts for projects funded by the stimulus. In many cases, those first contracts went to projects that began years ago or to companies that have long track records of doing government work.

For example, about $3 billion of the government's first contracts were to speed cleanup of some of the nation's worst nuclear waste sites, scattered over a handful of states. That has created hundreds of additional jobs at the companies that manage the sites, says Matt Rogers, a senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, but the impact has been limited to only a few parts of the country.

Liz Oxhorn, a spokeswoman for the White House stimulus effort, said any examination of federal contracts provides "an incomplete picture" of a law that is "providing unprecedented assistance at a record pace to benefit as many Americans as possible." Obama said Wednesday that the stimulus had created or saved 150,000 jobs in its first 100 days. Overall, however, the economy shed more than 1.2 million jobs in March and April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In addition to the contracts it has awarded, the government has asked companies to bid on thousands of additional projects worth upward of $30 billion, according to Onvia, a firm that tracks government purchasing.

Even so, the first contracts have amounted to only about $7.42 per person on average in the eight states with unemployment rates higher than 10% last month. By comparison, government records show it has awarded about $26 worth of contracts per person in North Dakota, whose unemployment rate is the nation's lowest.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...ontracts_N.htm

[CSM]

Unskilled labor doing jobs that can be done by machine ... $7.42 an hour sounds about right for a part time ditch digger that can't operate anything more complex than a shovel.

[red states rule]

Unskilled labor doing jobs that can be done by machine ... $7.42 an hour sounds about right for a part time ditch digger that can't operate anything more complex than a shovel.

The mega pork bill was never about stimulus - it was about political payback Chicago style

Check out some of the "job creators" for yourself

http://www.stimuluswatch.org/

and what happens when these temp jobs are no longer needed? Oh, we are talking about government funded jobs- they will stay on the payroll anyway

[glockmail]

OK where's my Big Mac, Super Size fries, one of those apple pie things that burns the roof of your mouth and since I'm watching my weight a quart-and-a-half diet coke in a flimsy foam vessel that tales two hand to pick up safely with enough ice to fill my cooler afterward.

[PostmodernProphet]

you won't be getting a Big Mac here in Michigan.....news reports yesterday told us that this state with the highest unemployment rate in the nation received $.21 per person....."buddy can you spare a dime?"........or two?....and a penny?......

[Insein]

Unskilled labor doing jobs that can be done by machine ... $7.42 an hour sounds about right for a part time ditch digger that can't operate anything more complex than a shovel.

Note that that doesn't say $7.42/hr. It just says $7.42 per person. So for the whole job to be done, the ditch digger would get $7.42.

[PostmodernProphet]

Note that that doesn't say $7.42/hr. It just says $7.42 per person. So for the whole job to be done, the ditch digger would get $7.42.

uh, no.....the ditch digger will get paid for what he works......but if he will PAY $7.42....some of which will stay in the hands of Washington bureaucrats....and some of which will stay in his state capital.....and a big chuck will go to the guy who owns the company he works for......and more will go to some corporation who sells cement......just the sort of thing Joe Steel loves so much.....

[Insein]

uh, no.....the ditch digger will get paid for what he works......but if he will PAY $7.42....some of which will stay in the hands of Washington bureaucrats....and some of which will stay in his state capital.....and a big chuck will go to the guy who owns the company he works for......and more will go to some corporation who sells cement......just the sort of thing Joe Steel loves so much.....

True. I misspoke the way I explained it. Obviously the Ditch Digger will get what he gets but the project was only allocated that much per person out of the Trillions of dollars that were thrown out for everything else under the sun.

[red states rule]

We will be seeing over the coming years about how tens of billions of the stimulus money wasted will make "$800 toilet seats" and "$500 hammers" look like good fiscal management

[PostmodernProphet]

Trillions of dollars that were thrown out for everything else under the sun.

unfortunately, it's still cloudy in Michigan.....

[red states rule]

I have a liberal friend and co worker who when every number that comes out that shows signs of hope, he attributes to the stimulus

And every number that comes out that is negative, he blames it on Pres Bush and his "failed Policies"

He and most libs are saying not expect to see any real recovery until he is in Obama's second term. He is already given Obama a pass on his first term as the hole Bush dug was too deep to get out of within 4 years.\

That is the liberal spin on the Obama "stimulus" plan

[PostmodernProphet]

Did anyone else watch Hannity's Waste 101 special Friday night?......Brilliant!

[red states rule]

Did anyone else watch Hannity's Waste 101 special Friday night?......Brilliant!

I did. it was great and shows the "stimulus" was mostly pork and funded bigger government

<embed type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://foxnews1.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/foxnews1-foxnews-pub01-live/current/videolandingpage/fncLargePlayer/client/embedded/embedded.swf' id='mediumFlashEmbedded' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer' bgcolor='#000000' allowScriptAccess='always' allowFullScreen='true' quality='high' name='FOX News' play='false' scale='noscale' menu='false' salign='LT' scriptAccess='always' wmode='false' height='275' width='305' flashvars='playerId=videolandingpage&playerTemplat eId=fncLargePlayer&categoryTitle=undefined&referra lObject=5472689' />


<embed type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://foxnews1.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/foxnews1-foxnews-pub01-live/current/videolandingpage/fncLargePlayer/client/embedded/embedded.swf' id='mediumFlashEmbedded' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer' bgcolor='#000000' allowScriptAccess='always' allowFullScreen='true' quality='high' name='FOX News' play='false' scale='noscale' menu='false' salign='LT' scriptAccess='always' wmode='false' height='275' width='305' flashvars='playerId=videolandingpage&playerTemplat eId=fncLargePlayer&categoryTitle=undefined&referra lObject=5473404' />

[red states rule]

and check out this pork that John "the troops killed in cold blood" Murtha saw fit to have you pay for


<embed type='application/x-shockwave-flash' src='http://foxnews1.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/foxnews1-foxnews-pub01-live/current/videolandingpage/fncLargePlayer/client/embedded/embedded.swf' id='mediumFlashEmbedded' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer' bgcolor='#000000' allowScriptAccess='always' allowFullScreen='true' quality='high' name='FOX News' play='false' scale='noscale' menu='false' salign='LT' scriptAccess='always' wmode='false' height='275' width='305' flashvars='playerId=videolandingpage&playerTemplat eId=fncLargePlayer&categoryTitle=undefined&referra lObject=5471776' />