Because your ******* moronic Messiah pissed it away. Idiot.
And... for the record.... research doesn't 'show', it suggests.
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An editorial in a Twin Cities Suburban newspaper:
Stimulus dollars creating jobs in Minnesota PDF Print
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
by Don Heinzman
A central question for Minnesotans is the effectiveness of spending American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus) dollars in Minnesota.
Up to now, a little over $3 billion of the $5 billion allocated to state agencies has been allocated, with the program due to expire in 2012.
Most economists agree that were it not for the stimulus money, which is credited for saving or preserving two million jobs, the national unemployment rate would be 11 percent.
In Minnesota, the unemployment rate in June was 6.8 percent, according to the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). That report shows 2.65 million Minnesotans were employed while 202,000 were unemployed.
This compares to a year ago when the unemployment rate in June was 8.4 percent, a recession high. DEED officials report that MinnesotaÂ’s unemployment rate, from a year ago to now, has dropped the most of any state in the nation.
Tom Stinson, MinnesotaÂ’s State Economist and a professor from the University of Minnesota, said that up to now since the program began last July, 20,000 jobs were directly or indirectly created in Minnesota. ItÂ’s projected that when the final results are in at the end of 2012, the federal stimulus money either will have saved on created 40,000 jobs for Minnesotans.
Critics of the program contend the stimulus money hasnÂ’t created enough jobs and many of the jobs are government jobs. The Minnesota Department of Transportation is awarding grants of $586.1 million for infrastructure and most of that money is flowing to private sector jobs.
The Department of Finance and Administration reports that $910 million of stimulus money has been spent on job creation so far.
It has reported that based on 40-hour full-time equivalent jobs created and saved, 11,852 jobs were reported Sept. 29 of last year, 10,300 were reported in January and 8,961 were reported March 31. (The federal government reported that jobs from all grants for March 31 for a three-month period were 11,414).
The public, however, according to polls, is skeptical of results from spending stimulus money.
One observer noted that the public doesnÂ’t realize how bad things were economically and how much worse the state and nation would be without these pump-priming dollars.
WhatÂ’s not well known and clouding the picture is that well over half of the money spent by state agencies has not been spent for job creation. Instead, well over half has been spent to pay unemployment compensation the state could not afford and for Medicaid, the stateÂ’s health care system.
In Minnesota, $1.245 billion in stimulus funds was paid in unemployment benefits and $1.402 billion for Medicaid the stateÂ’s health care system. Without those federal dollars, the state would have had to cut expenses or raise revenues.
In addition, without the stimulus money match of $785,265 for education, $2 billion in state funding for K-12 and higher education faced cuts, since the Legislature was not about to raise taxes.
In K-12 education, special education was awarded $189.8 million, Title I to reduce the achievement gap, $94.7 million and K-12 operations, $447.4 million.
With another two years to go, itÂ’s too early to evaluate how many new and saved jobs will be created in Minnesota, but considering the tough economic conditions, Minnesota amazingly is on track to achieve the 40,000 jobs projection.
EditorÂ’s note: Don Heinzman is editorial writer for ECM Publishers Inc.[/SIZE]