-- Seven months into the massive federal stimulus program, the vast majority of government grants, contracts and loans in Michigan so far have created or retained virtually no jobs, a Free Press analysis shows.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091115/NEWS15/31115000...
Detroit Free Press: Stimulus plan created or saved virtually no jobs in Michigan
By cogitate - Posted on November 17th, 2009
Tagged:
Lies, all lies I tell ya. Barack Obama has saved or created over 600 million jobs just in this country alone. This president has brought hope to countless billions of people not just here but around the world. Stop picking on him. He's doing the best he can. Really, he is doing the best he can.
Here's to the crazy ones, the rebels, the troublemakers, the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
It seems that he's creating and saving jobs-in imaginary districts!! http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jobs-saved-created-congressional-district...
More than a few Toledo police are back from the stimulus funds.
A few things – The stimulus was way too small.
We’ve also spent what like 25-30% of the funds. The biggest portion that we have implemented has been in tax cuts. I guess tax cuts don’t stimulate the economy.
Oh so it's tax cuts that are the problem. I should have known. When Bush cut taxes the libs screamed that they were killing our economy. What was the unemployment rate then? Under 7%?
We’ve also spent what like 25-30% of the funds. Why sit on the rest? Wasn't this the "biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression". Suddenly we've become frugal with other people's money?
The rest of that money needs to be given back to the people. For all the administrations talk of how Bush was only helping the super rich I've noticed that the super rich are the only one's who've benefitted.
BAILOUT THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER!
MikeyA
No doubt, economists said from the get-go that the stimulus was far too small. Obama needs to go big or go home
Pink Slip
Pink, economists don't work for the middle class. They work for institutions ... academia, government, corporations. So of course they don't think the extraordinary largesse of the "stimulus" wasn't enough. IT WAS OUR MONEY, and every economist on some institution's payroll will naturally have the opinion that they need more of OUR MONEY.
The size of the federal budget deficit this year is the size of the ENTIRE federal budget just 7 years ago. Catch a clue, man: WE'RE BREAKING OURSELVES.
If you made $40K income and then spent it all in 2002, and then in 2009 you run up $40K in new debt alone, any sane man would say you're in big financial trouble. You can't defend the "stimulus".
"If you made $40K income and then spent it all in 2002, and then in 2009 you run up $40K in new debt alone, any sane man would say you're in big financial trouble. You can't defend the "stimulus".
It depends. If I go into debt by spending $40K on beer and cigs, then I would be in financial trouble.
If I opened my own business with this debt, and subsequently increased my income as a result--then I would be potentially better off. As would the employees I hired, customers I services, vendors, etc...
When consumers aren't spending and investors aren't investing, then the only option is government spending. Assuming of course you DON'T want another depression. If you believe another depression is best for Americans, then by all means---let's go all Hoover
Pink Slip
MOre than you know, my friend...tack on an additional "sin-tax" health care penalty for tobacco and alcohol use!
Pink, sentiments like yours just don't come any more steeped in fear and ignorance.
Consider that you clearly think that it's a problem for consumers to not spend. Why? Ask yourself why that is.
The answer is that you don't value self-capitalization. Consumers who aren't spending are generally saving money. And by doing so, they are securing their future prosperity.
As it stands, we NEED the Second Great Depression, since things have gone ridiculously too far. Too much debt exists, and we cannot possibly restructure it all without resorting to outright Socialism. We need to have a general economic crash to ensure that those who were foolish with money, suffered for their stupidity.
The government is not productive. Always remember that. So we can't sanely count on the government to "take up the slack" in whatever economic shortfall that you imagine is occurring. But it's not even a shortfall ... this SGD is performing a necessary liquidation process. Bad investments need to FAIL, not get BAILOUTS.
Listen to yourself. You're putting an ideology ahead of the general welfare of the people. It ain't natural. The general consensus is that the Great Depression was an awful experience, and we should try to AVOID another occurrence. You are advocating for pain and suffering, so that capitalism can make it's rightful "corrections".
You can't sell "liquidation" as a proper course of action in a democracy.
Pink Slip
"we NEED the Second Great Depression, "
From our failures we learn our lessons. If we do not learn from or avoid our failures we do not learn the lesson.
MikeyA
It's not that the stimulus was too small--it's that it was mispent.
Among the stimulus awards: A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film. Thank God for this! Will Ferrell and the other multi-millionare actors in Hollywood would have been out of work!
Oh, yes...we sprung for
$448 million to build a Department of Homeland Security headquarters, and an additional
$248 million to furnish the digs. You mean to tell me that they couldn't work out some other office space?
Then there was the $75 million payout
for "smoking cessation activities." (Just how many jobs does quitting smoking create? Think of all the tobacco farmers out of work!)
Then there is my absolute favorite. I know someone who benefitted from the $1.2 billion for "youth activities," including youth summer job programs in Northwest Ohio. She sat downtown in a computer lab Monday through Friday where she earned $11/hour helping the one man who came in to use a computer each week. It was the same man. Did I mention that she bragged about what a gravy job this was?
Then, we have the downright ridiculous,
the $1.25 million grant awarded to Malcolm MacIver, a neurobiology and engineering professor at Northwestern University who is using electric fish from the Amazon to study how animals take in sensory information that determines which direction they move.
According to an article about the stimulus figures that were released Nov 9, (http://www.propublica.org/ion/stimulus/item/stimulus-for-cotton-candy-ta...)
Lincoln Center in New York City will host a "Tango Salon" with its stimulus money. This while eight million children continue to go without health care? This while the parents of those eight million kids have to pay for their cell phones and texting?! What kind of country do we live in?
Three Chicago Shakespeare Theater actors will take the stage and a paycheck for performing Richard III, thanks to Robin Hood's generosity.
I've got nothing against Richard III--any Shakespeare play where the villan is sodomized with a red-hot poker as punishment is a must-see, but not on my dime.
And apparently, some New Jersey theater was able to add six stunning performances of “Little House on the Prairie – the Musical,” starring Melissa Gilbert, who played "half-pint" Laura Ingalls on the TV show.
And then there is the low-income health clinic that opened in Oklahoma. Our tax dollars paid for
“snow cone and cotton candy machine for open house picnic.” Couldn't that money be better spent on medical supplies for the patients?
On another post, purnhrt polled, asking Should Americans Take Back America?
My answer: Americans with American ideals, financial saavy, and common sense (this is not a Palin plug), should take back control of America from these dingbats who we've elected.
I like your second choice pink slip-and home he'll go after the next election!
That's hope and change I can believe in!
I guess my sarcasm with the poll went right over your head. Should Americans take back America? Take it back from who/whom? From the Americans? Which Americans? Aren't we all Americans? Or are some of us more American than others? Is Sarah Palin more American that you or I am? Are the native Americans more American that the American whose ancestors immigrated from other countries. Are *conservatives* more American than what you call a liberal? If you have a job are you more American than a person without a job? Are you more American if you attend school. Are you less American if you are in prison? Are you more American if you kill dogs and less American if you believe in abortion? What about the death penalty, are you more or less American if you are for or against? If you smoke are you more or less American, what if you pollute?
Which American are you and which American should you take America back from?
See how silly that sounds?
Hrm...But Marcy said it....that makes it ok then right?
Gee, I guess that sharp-edged sarcasm did go right over my head! What in the world is wrong with me! I'd better start reading more analytically and carefully, else I make a fool of myself here in public space.
In the post to which I refer, you wrote:
"Should Americans take back America" [sic]
and gave us the options: yes, no, and maybe
and I failed to read the obvious sarcasm.
I'll try harder next time.
just regular. :)