Obama Stimulus At Work : $111,000,000 = 55 jobs created

[valvano]

Change We Can Believe In......Results That Fail...:D

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/63228/20100917/american-recovery-and-reinvestment-act-arra-los-angeles-stimulus-wendy-greuel.htm

Any defense from the liberals / progressives here??

[kaiser soze]

Looks like the people who are running Los Angeles are at fault with this gross misappropriation of stimulus funds and someone should be held responsible to the point of losing their job. Just like the bailouts this shit is proving a major opportunity for pigs to exploit while the citizens get burned further.

You seem to only be concerned about the waste coming from one political party. Why aren't you concerned about waste coming from all angles?

We have never seen you bitch about anything related to This (http://www.frumforum.com/homeland-securitys-wasted-billions)

[travesty]

Waste does come from all angles.... that's the problem.
More government= more waste.
More programs= more waste.
More mandatory charity= more waste.
In fact, wasting money and showing poor results per dollar invested is the only thing the government is efficient at doing.

More oversight just creates more waste, more backroom deals, and more political pork. It's a vicious cycle of fucking the taxpayer.

[RobMoney$]

You seem to only be concerned about the waste coming from one political party. Why aren't you concerned about waste coming from all angles?


Oh, the irony...
Quickly, link us to one issue you've criticized a democrat for.

[valvano]

this article truly proves that we are not being taxed enough.....

[Dorothy Wood]

well where did all the money go?

and valvano, or anyone here: how much extra tax are you really paying? is it changing your standard of living?

i've stated before that i'm not in favor of stimulus or bailouts. so i'm just as concerned as "conservatives" about where the money's going and how it's spent. continually pitting sides against each other doesn't accomplish anything.

[RobMoney$]

continually pitting sides against each other doesn't accomplish anything.


Agreed.

And continually pointing to Bush's failures when someone raises the issue of Obama's failures also doesn't accomplish anything.

[yeahwho]

Obama will have been President for 19 months next week. The wars and economic mess he's created in this vacuum blows my mind.

I sure hope the next President will not be so stupid.

[kaiser soze]

my bet is 1 to 1,000,000,000 they are just as stupid

with our luck it'll be Snooki

[kaiser soze]

Oh, the irony...
Quickly, link us to one issue you've criticized a democrat for.

why should I bother you and dumbnuts take care of that

wait....what are you doOoOoing here??!

Are you the ghost of Robmoney past?!?

p.s.

where have been your objective criticisms these many years?

oh there they are - no where!!!

[Dorothy Wood]

Agreed.

And continually pointing to Bush's failures when someone raises the issue of Obama's failures also doesn't accomplish anything.

i don't blame bush, i very rarely mention the man. i just think he was a puppet for many of the same people who are still somewhat running a lot of things behind the scenes.

[valvano]

well where did all the money go?

and valvano, or anyone here: how much extra tax are you really paying? is it changing your standard of living?

i've stated before that i'm not in favor of stimulus or bailouts. so i'm just as concerned as "conservatives" about where the money's going and how it's spent. continually pitting sides against each other doesn't accomplish anything.

so on the one hand, you are critical of people are complaining about how much they pay in taxes by saying to get over it, yet you express concern about how our tax money is being wasted by govt officials on crap like this??? talking out of both sides of your mouth i see....

[Dorothy Wood]

so on the one hand, you are critical of people are complaining about how much they pay in taxes by saying to get over it, yet you express concern about how our tax money is being wasted by govt officials on crap like this??? talking out of both sides of your mouth i see....

no, asshole. I approve of higher taxes as long as the money is used effectively.

so, what happened to the money? all you're concerned about is that the plan failed, so you can chalk one up for "your side". i'm concerned with why it failed and who had a hand in the waste. you have to understand why something fails before you can come up with a better solution.

everyone needs to work together to solve this mess, it has nothing to do with politics at this point. just figure out what's gonna be good for all of us to be happy so we can all fucking relax, man.

[yeahwho]

no, asshole. I approve of higher taxes as long as the money is used effectively.

so, what happened to the money? all you're concerned about is that the plan failed, so you can chalk one up for "your side". i'm concerned with why it failed and who had a hand in the waste. you have to understand why something fails before you can come up with a better solution.

everyone needs to work together to solve this mess, it has nothing to do with politics at this point. just figure out what's gonna be good for all of us to be happy so we can all fucking relax, man.

I "heart" this post, so good I'll probably start saying the same thing to a few of my republican counterparts. Perfect call out and so true of so many people who just point their stupid ideology at people and expect some sort of "gee I'm sorry" reply.

(y)

[valvano]

no, asshole. I approve of higher taxes as long as the money is used effectively.

so, what happened to the money? all you're concerned about is that the plan failed, so you can chalk one up for "your side". i'm concerned with why it failed and who had a hand in the waste. you have to understand why something fails before you can come up with a better solution.

everyone needs to work together to solve this mess, it has nothing to do with politics at this point. just figure out what's gonna be good for all of us to be happy so we can all fucking relax, man.

so you approve of higher taxes as long as the money is used effectively, even if what it is being used effectively on is not needed?

have you signed up yet to have your taxes raised so that the govt can use the money the money you earned effectively yet?

[yeahwho]

so you approve of higher taxes as long as the money is used effectively, even if what it is being used effectively on is not needed?

have you signed up yet to have your taxes raised so that the govt can use the money the money you earned effectively yet?

Why don't you explain to us the current tax structure and how last years taxes under Obama changed the amount of money you were taxed.

A fundamental problem with the above assertion is that the tax rate is higher than the previous administrations, so please show the rates that have been raised for us all to see.

[Echewta]

Why Obama isn't in Los Angeles to micromanage this is beyond me. This is crazy.

Anyways:

According to the report, the Los Angeles Department of Public Works generated only 45.46 jobs (the fraction of a job created or retained correlates to the number of actual hours of work) after receiving $70.65 million, while the target was 238 jobs.

Similarly, the city’s department of transportation, armed with a $40.8 million fund, created only 9 jobs in place of an expected 26 jobs.


238 goes into 70 million 294,117.64 times, does it not? What kind of jobs are they making? You could hire a decent workforce for $60,000 plus EB. WTF? 26 goes into 40 million 1,538,661 times. I need to go downtown to look for a job if they are paying that kinda coin.

Communism, capitalism, and socialism are excellent ways to use to run a goverment as long as those people running it from top to bottom are honest. This article and facts don't slam Obama what so ever. His idea was sound. You slammed the city of Los Angeles who didn't execute his vision. Good work.

[Dorothy Wood]

so you approve of higher taxes as long as the money is used effectively, even if what it is being used effectively on is not needed?


if something isn't needed, then the money can't be spent on it effectively! the money is wasted.

again, I am very much against wasted and/or misused funds. I think everyone is, everyone except the people lining their pockets with cash they didn't earn.
I'll pay higher taxes as long as they're being used for things that are important.

recently a neighborhood in my city got some cash ($1.3 mil) to put towards capital projects. one of the projects was a series of 12 murals to go under railway underpasses. as part of a new plan of "participatory budgeting" they let everyone vote on the designs (only 1% of people participated in the vote), but not on how much should be spent on them. they're paying each artist $5,500. that's $66,000 + the money they paid people to organize the project. too much money to spend on paintings that will probably have to come down in a few years. and that money is supposed to be used on things that will last 30 years.

they coulda just had some college kids do them for a grand a pop or something...or paid one awesome artist $30,000 to do all of it (with helpers).

i'm just saying, this nickel and dime shit is NOT effective. politicians are given these mountains of money, and they just spend it because they have it. because a use it or lose it situation is in effect, which is ridiculous. sure $66,000 is a drop in the budgetary bucket, but those drops add up and pretty soon the bucket's empty.

[Dorothy Wood]

Why don't you explain to us the current tax structure and how last years taxes under Obama changed the amount of money you were taxed.

A fundamental problem with the above assertion is that the tax rate is higher than the previous administrations, so please show the rates that have been raised for us all to see.

also yes, please respond to this, valvano

[Sir SkratchaLot]

so on the one hand, you are critical of people are complaining about how much they pay in taxes by saying to get over it, yet you express concern about how our tax money is being wasted by govt officials on crap like this??? talking out of both sides of your mouth i see....

See, I tend to agree with you that we should just throw this federalism shit out the door. The States just can't get it right. They're wasting our tax dollars. This is why we need a larger federal government to control the States! I'm with you!!

[kaiser soze]

See, I tend to agree with you that we should just throw this federalism shit out the door. The States just can't get it right. They're wasting our tax dollars. This is why we need more lobbyists to control the federal gov't! I'm with you!!

if less taxes, then at least let the lobbies pay more!

Let the corporations pay for the wars and tag our tanks and jets with their corporate emblems.....considering those are the entities our soldiers are truly dying for.

This is what I'm getting from vulvano - less taxation on corporations and more lobbying power - so if that's the case: more lobby money, less taxes.

[saz]

(y)

This article and facts don't slam Obama what so ever. His idea was sound. You slammed the city of Los Angeles who didn't execute his vision. Good work.

economists.......facts.......reality :D


Stimulus added millions of jobs in Q2 (http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USTRE67N55X20100824)

Tue, Aug 24 2010
By Andy Sullivan

Washington (Reuters) - The massive U.S. stimulus package put millions of people to work and boosted national output by hundreds of billions of dollars in the second quarter, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday.

CBO's latest estimate indicates that the stimulus effort, which remains a political hot potato ahead of the November congressional elections, may have prevented the sluggish U.S. economy from contracting between April and June.

CBO said President Barack Obama's stimulus boosted real GDP in the quarter by between 1.7 percent and 4.5 percent, adding at least $200 billion in economic activity.

During that time the economy was growing at an anemic pace.

Gross domestic product rose just 0.6 percent during that period, according to preliminary Commerce Department data which economists expect will be revised sharply lower when new figures are released on Friday.

The massive package of tax cuts, construction spending and enhanced safety-net benefits was passed in February 2009 in the midst of the deepest recession since the 1930s.

It raised employment by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs during the second quarter of this year, CBO estimated.

Measured another way, CBO said the stimulus increased the number of full-time equivalent jobs by up to 4.8 million, as part-time workers shifted to full-time work or employers offered more overtime work.

CBO said the package, officially known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, would cost $814 billion, down from its previous estimate of $862 billion. The lower figure was thanks largely to health-care subsidies that cost less than anticipated. CBO initially estimated the bill would worsen budget deficits by $787 billion.

Other than that, the estimate varies only slightly from the budget office's forecast released in May.

With both the House of Representatives and the Senate up for grabs in November, Democrats hope voters will give them credit for breathing some life into the economy, which had begun to weaken while Republican George W. Bush was still president.

"The Recovery Act is working to rescue the economy from eight years of failed economic policy and rebuild it even stronger than before," Vice President Joe Biden said in a prepared statement. "It's impossible for even the most cynical, bent-on-rooting-for-failure critics to deny."

Republicans, who almost universally opposed the stimulus, have criticized it as wasteful and ineffective.

Some 67 percent of those surveyed in a Reuters/Ipsos poll last month said Obama is not focusing enough on job creation. Voters in that survey said the economy and jobs are the most pressing issues facing the country.

CBO said it expects the effects of the stimulus to gradually diminish over the remainder of the year.



Exclusive: Obama stimulus reduced our pain, experts say (http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-01-25-usa-today-economic-survey-obama-stimulus_N.htm)

By Paul Wiseman and Barbara Hansen, USA Today
Updated 4/23/2010 3:47 PM

President Obama's stimulus package saved jobs — but the government still needs to do more to breathe life into the economy, according to USA Today's quarterly survey of 50 economists.

Unemployment would have hit 10.8% — higher than December's 10% rate — without Obama's $787 billion stimulus program, according to the economists' median estimate. The difference would translate into another 1.2 million lost jobs.

But almost two-thirds of the economists said the government should do more to spur job growth. Suggestions included suspending payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, increasing spending on infrastructure, enacting a flat tax on income and extending jobless benefits.

The economists expect the jobless rate to remain in double digits until the third quarter.

David Berson, chief economist at PMI Group, worries that the housing market and the economy will suffer when the government's tax credit to first-time home buyers expires in April and the Fed stops supporting the housing market by purchasing mortgage-backed securities by March 31.

Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services, is relatively optimistic. He sees unemployment falling to 8.9% by the fourth quarter of this year. Cheney says other economists are "nervous Nellies," shell-shocked by the length and depth of this downturn. They've forgotten that "the deeper the recession, the faster you come out of it."

But Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, says creating jobs is tougher than it was the last time unemployment passed 10% in the early '80s. The reason: The 1981-82 recession was engineered by the Federal Reserve to tame inflation through high interest rates. The Fed brought the economy back simply by reversing course and cutting rates.

This time, the Fed has pushed short-term rates to near zero and has flooded markets with money. But the financial system is so damaged by the Wall Street meltdown that it isn't converting easy money into loans and economic growth: "It's like the Fed is dropping money from a helicopter and it's getting caught in the trees," Swonk says.

The economists don't expect Fed chief Ben Bernanke to take his foot off the accelerator — and push rates up — until the third quarter. So they don't expect any change in the Fed's zero-interest-rate policy when its Open Market Committee meets Tuesday and Wednesday.

"Bernanke and his colleagues are very committed to doing the right thing," Cheney says. They learned from Japan's long 1990s slump, during which policymakers kept declaring premature victory and raising rates and taxes: "It's really important not to snuff out a recovery before it gets going."