The dirty little secret is only 7% of Obama’s 787 boillion stimulus went to shovel ready infrastructure projects with the rest going to fund unemployment comp and distributed to states to pay their state and municipal workers.
And further this from AP
“Analysis of the economy 10 months into President Obama’s first economic stimulus plan, cited in a January 12, 2010 Associated Press article, found that, “A federal spending surge of more than $20 billion for roads and bridges in President Obama’s first stimulus has had no effect on local unemployment rates…, it didn’t matter if a lot of money was spent on highways or none at all: Local unemployment rates rose and fell regardless. And the stimulus spending only barely helped the beleaguered construction industry.”
Also, that extra $1.2 trillion has never been removed from the budget. Thats how he ran up $10 trillion in additional debt.
In my opinion, a good case can be made that the Obama Stimulus actually turned the financial crisis into a depression. I saw it happen as a contractor involved in big construction.
When the stimulus program was introduced, the Democrats went to all the states (especially those like California) and asked for lists of projects that could be added to a stimulus package going before congress.
I was involved in managing a major country project in California near half a billion in size. While it continued, a lot of related and nearby road projects, giant water projects and all sorts of state, county and public body projects were stopped by the states and counties while this chance to get on the gravy train was analyzed for six to nine months. This was concurrent with casinos, hotels and shopping centers loosing their financial backing and going on hold or being abandoned.
THAT caused the great layoffs in construction, material supply and equipment usage that caused the huge downturn in 2009 after the 2008 stock market fiasco.
true. our local fire department got a ton of money. They went out and staffed up to the max. The money dried up and the city had to find new taxation opportunities because you know we can’t cut the FD.