Did you know that $169,000,000 in federal stimulus funding was spent in the 10th Congressional District (where I live) this year? Wow, that's a lot of taxpayer money.
Guess how many full time jobs were created by this incredible sum of money . . .
158
More than $1,000,000 per job. But, its even worse than that. So much of the stimulus was spent resurfacing roads in the 10th District that once the roads are resurfaced and the Government money runs out, those jobs are gone. So, we spent $1,000,000 per job, for a temporary full time job. Stunningly ineffective . . . But the roads are so smooth now . . . at least we've got that going for us.
If you care about fiscal sanity, vote GOP this Fall. Bob Dold in the 10th, Joel Pollak in the 9th.
Woldy
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Jim,
ReplyDeleteCan you direct me to the source of your data because recovery.illinois.gov reports data significantly different than yours.
If McCain or any other Republican had won the election rather than Obama, we would have had a similar stimulus; perhaps the allocations would have been different but the emphasis on middle class tax cuts and state fiscal spending would have been the same. Simple Keynesian economics.
A vote across the board for Republicans is unfortunately a vote for the Tea Party and extremism. That's not an option for even a fiscal conservative like me.
The prior administration got us into this mess; Obama should have the chance to get us out. He'll prove to be as much a fiscal conservative as any moderate Republican ever was.
Vote Democratic in November.
Recovery.gov is the source.
ReplyDeleteBut, if you check out the 10th District by zip code, you will find things like this; in Highland Park, there has been $10.5 Million spent and 2.58 jobs created. Wonderful use of taxpayer money.
I am not sure anyone can say what would have happened if McCain had won. With a Democratic controlled Congress moderated by the veto pen of a GOP President, we may very well have been in a much different position. There are all sorts of things this Administration has done that have killed jobs, not created them. Increasing regulation in many different parts of our economy, uncertainty over major economic policies (i.e. taxes) for an extended period (all year), uncertainty over the actual impact of the health care law (who can say with certainty what the thousands of pages of regulations will cost businesses . . . in the real world, this is preventing companies from hiring . . . they have no idea what it will cost them).
All these things add up to the need to vote GOP in this election cycle. We need the WH to be forced to negotiate policies with a GOP Congress. Allowing Pelosi, Reid and Obama to determine our fate is resulting in our country spinning recklessly.
Neither party is perfect and both contain fringe elements that are off the mainstream. Tea Party activists are not really the fringe. They are just pissed off Americans. A lot of people can relate to that feeling.
Later . . .
It's funny (to me) how Republicans blame the Obama Administration for the huge deficits (created no less by the Republicans) and then scream about the expiration of the Bush taxes which will add trillions more to the deficit over 10 years. Just more hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteThe uncertainty that you refer to is overstated, really, a bunch of nonsense. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that taxes must go up to pay for these unnecessary wars and other spending. And there are always uncertainty associated with large legislative bills like the health and financial bills. We are after all trying to fix some very large, broken systems. Most well-managed companies can deal with it.
Companies are not expanding or hiring today because of the slow economy. Get used to it, low growth will be with us for years to come. And the tired Republican mantra of low taxes for the wealthy, low regulatory environment, etc. isn't the fix. Simply look at the last 10 years for proof.
I'll start listening to Republicans again when they start talking about how they are going to address the structural deficits that really matter and how they are going to reduce all of this wasteful defense spending. Until then, The Tea Party is the Democratic ticket's best friend; it most certainly will prevent the Republicans from taking over the Senate and likely will limit their gains in the House.
My support for GOP this cycle is tactical. I am not a GOP true believer and agree that they mucked things up pretty badly when they were in total control.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I urge people to vote GOP is to provide balance in Washington. We could also do with some house cleaning.
Tea Party activists, in my view, are really nothing but a reflection of the mood of the electorate. They are not the Boogeyman that the press likes to paint them.