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