I'm still trying to figure something out.
The big news out of Washington is this so-called stimulus package, which is billed as a far-reaching, broad-based effort to crank up the economy and create jobs. That's how it's promoted, anyway.
OK. What we have here is a package that costs a lot (estimates start at $800 billion) and is, according to the Obama administration, expected to generate up to two million jobs. Assuming it's that many jobs actually created and the package rounds out at $850 billion, that's $425,000 spent per job created. But that's OK. It's only funny money, and the bill won't come due until future generations pay the taxes.
The Senate is expected to vote on this bill this week, probably Tuesday. Already some states and municipalities have their hands out for a slab of that pie.
Later with the golden parachutes companies offer. This is the golden trough.
In North Charleston (just a duck snort up the road from its more famous namesake), Mayor Keith Summey says he's eyeballing a wish list of almost $315 million in stimulation from the federal government. He's looking at $100 million for a light rail system, $50 million for various street projects, $40 million to continue redeveloping the Navy base, and more than $37 million for a new City Hall. OK, that last one smells particularly porky to me, but commuter rail sounds interesting and I'm impressed with a lot of the work already done on the mothballed Navy base.
Maybe I just don't have much of an imagination, but I don't see where many of these projects can create jobs. But then, maybe it's a shortfall of imagination on my part. It's possible I'm failing to see that many jobs because, well, I swore off the hard drugs decades ago. Yeah, maybe that's it.
Instead of jobs, I'm seeing a lot of pork. I'm seeing a lot of political favors being called and packaged into this thing that our legislators have the gall to call a "stimulus plan."
Perhaps the more solid aspect of this stimulus plan is in some of the infrastructure improvements here and there. But even that is a touchy subject. When you're talking infrastructure you start getting everything from the essential to the screwball, and the only thing linking the projects is that they're all expensive. Folks old enough to remember the Depression (and it's a shame there are fewer and fewer of those) will tell you about the make-work programs that came up in the 1930s to put people to work. Maybe the Works Progress Administration (WPA) did some good things, but most of the Depression-era stories I'd heard were of people leaning on their shovels. We Poke Along, that's what WPA meant to some.
And what better "thanks for the support" letter can be sent anywhere than a new stretch of highway, or a bridge, or a military installation? That's pork at its finest. Alaska Governor and recent vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin drew kudos for her opposition to her state's Bridge To Nowhere. Now, think of a thousand bridges to nowhere. If you look, you'll probably see that in the stimulus plan.
[What do you think? Is this stimulus plan more pork than progress? Are you applying to the federal government for a little economic stimulation yourself? Use the comment section for any ideas and/or diatribes.]
The big news out of Washington is this so-called stimulus package, which is billed as a far-reaching, broad-based effort to crank up the economy and create jobs. That's how it's promoted, anyway.
OK. What we have here is a package that costs a lot (estimates start at $800 billion) and is, according to the Obama administration, expected to generate up to two million jobs. Assuming it's that many jobs actually created and the package rounds out at $850 billion, that's $425,000 spent per job created. But that's OK. It's only funny money, and the bill won't come due until future generations pay the taxes.
The Senate is expected to vote on this bill this week, probably Tuesday. Already some states and municipalities have their hands out for a slab of that pie.
Later with the golden parachutes companies offer. This is the golden trough.
In North Charleston (just a duck snort up the road from its more famous namesake), Mayor Keith Summey says he's eyeballing a wish list of almost $315 million in stimulation from the federal government. He's looking at $100 million for a light rail system, $50 million for various street projects, $40 million to continue redeveloping the Navy base, and more than $37 million for a new City Hall. OK, that last one smells particularly porky to me, but commuter rail sounds interesting and I'm impressed with a lot of the work already done on the mothballed Navy base.
Maybe I just don't have much of an imagination, but I don't see where many of these projects can create jobs. But then, maybe it's a shortfall of imagination on my part. It's possible I'm failing to see that many jobs because, well, I swore off the hard drugs decades ago. Yeah, maybe that's it.
Instead of jobs, I'm seeing a lot of pork. I'm seeing a lot of political favors being called and packaged into this thing that our legislators have the gall to call a "stimulus plan."
Perhaps the more solid aspect of this stimulus plan is in some of the infrastructure improvements here and there. But even that is a touchy subject. When you're talking infrastructure you start getting everything from the essential to the screwball, and the only thing linking the projects is that they're all expensive. Folks old enough to remember the Depression (and it's a shame there are fewer and fewer of those) will tell you about the make-work programs that came up in the 1930s to put people to work. Maybe the Works Progress Administration (WPA) did some good things, but most of the Depression-era stories I'd heard were of people leaning on their shovels. We Poke Along, that's what WPA meant to some.
And what better "thanks for the support" letter can be sent anywhere than a new stretch of highway, or a bridge, or a military installation? That's pork at its finest. Alaska Governor and recent vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin drew kudos for her opposition to her state's Bridge To Nowhere. Now, think of a thousand bridges to nowhere. If you look, you'll probably see that in the stimulus plan.
[What do you think? Is this stimulus plan more pork than progress? Are you applying to the federal government for a little economic stimulation yourself? Use the comment section for any ideas and/or diatribes.]
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