so, dont you think they should have actually read the damned thing so they KNEW what was happening?
Here's what was wrong with the stimulus...
EDITORIAL: Con games and stimulus cash - Opinion - ReviewJournal.com
As it turns out, most of that money is going where government always puts most of its money -- into fat paychecks for social service bureaucrats.
"Most of the roughly $300 billion coming directly to the states is being funneled through existing government programs for health care, education, unemployment benefits, food stamps and other social services," The Associated Press reported this week.
Two-thirds of recovery money that flows directly to states will go toward health care. Not hiring new doctors or nurses, mind you. Just paying medical bills for poor people -- and the salaries of those who handle this redistribution of your hard-earned cash.
By comparison, about 15 percent of the stimulus money will end up going for transportation -- including airports, highways and rail projects -- according to Federal Funds Information for States, a service of the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Overall, two-thirds of the stimulus funds will go to subsidize state budgets and unemployment compensation -- paying people not to work. Much smaller pieces of the pie will be allocated for weatherization, affordable housing and other projects designed to create jobs, The AP reports.
"We all talked about 'shovel-ready' since September and assumed it was a whole lot of paving and building when, in fact, that's not the case," explains Chris Whatley, the Washington director of the Council of State Governments, a trade group for states. He estimates states will get three times more money to prop up payrolls in the government schools than for transportation.
John Husing, a Southern California economist, agrees keeping teachers and cops employed could help prevent the recession from getting worse. But he says the stimulus package would have improved communities' ability to grow over the long haul if it had dedicated more money to public works -- as promised.
If the aim of the stimulus package was to jolt the economy, the government could have concentrated more of the money on areas that have suffered the steepest declines during the recession -- housing, autos, retail and restaurants -- says Edward Leamer, an economist with the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Instead, in Georgia for instance, two-thirds of the $3.9 billion in "stimulus" funds the state expects to receive over the next 16 months will go to support existing social programs. Mississippi expects to spend only about 13 percent of its $2.8 billion in federal "stimulus" money on highways and bridges. The rest will be spent, as it is in other states, to preserve existing government programs and jobs.
No wonder unemployment is at 10% and our government is going to have very little to show for 787 billion dollars.
