Stimulus Added 1,000+ Jobs to DE Economy
One of the robotic spam attacks of the Rethuglican drones David Anderson and Mike Protack is that the ARRA (the stimulus bill) failed completely in all aspects, and in fact the spending hurt the economy. Like all things said by Republicans, it was false. Not only did the stimulus help grow our economy by 2-3% percent, which resulted in a 3.5% third quarter growth of our national economy, thus ending the recession officially for the time being, but it also brought jobs to Delaware.
The federal stimulus program has created or retained between 1,055 and 3,065 jobs in Delaware, according to a report being released today by Lt. Gov. Matt Denn. As many as 50 percent more jobs have been created through tax breaks and income subsidies included in the stimulus, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Congress passed the $787 billion act in February in an effort to bring the nation out of one of the worst economic recessions in decades.
The ARRA requires that every state report by Friday on the impact of the stimulus on jobs, state budgets and the state economy. Denn is just ahead of the game by one day. The ARRA also requires disclosure of data on over 131,000 federal contracts, grants and loans provided by the stimulus through the end of the 3rd quarter. That will be interesting reading next week.
So how interesting is that? An activist government that has helped save us from Depression and collapse all the while being transparent at the same time.
GDP rises at higher-than expected 3.5 percent pace in third quarter, showing that the economy appears back on its feet after the worst recession since the 1930s. Thank you Obama and the dems with the courage to realize doing nothing would have led to another depression. Instead, they rescued the economy and the nation.
Great news! What a pity that some Republicans and Libertarians will greet this news with sadness and skepticism. Let their hand-wringing begin!
…waiting for the Protackian explanation “what’s good is actually bad.”
i am skeptical of any information released by the government. the operative words in here are ‘or retained’. so could the consideration of state layoffs which didnt come about be considered ‘retained’? which sectors, besides government, created jobs? who were the people who were going to lose their jobs that were retained?
AP IMPACT: Stimulus jobs overstated by thousands October 29, 2009
By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON – A Colorado company said it created 4,231 jobs with the help of President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan. The real number: fewer than 1,000. A child care center in Florida said it saved 129 jobs with the help of stimulus money. Instead, it gave pay raises to its existing employees. Elsewhere in the U.S., some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two, three, four or even more times.
Although all of us mistrust, with good reason, “gov-speak” and federal statistics, can we all agree that things are moving in the opposite direction of travel experienced during the Bush years? Just because Cheney’s income from no-bid civilian contracts raised the average per capita income does not mean that we all benefited.
Edmunds.com says Cash for Clunkers was a lemon.
I say no way. It gave Obamites a GDP talking point for a quarter. And right before election time, too.
As someone who worked for a bank that specialized in auto loans, it seemed to me that we couldn’t forcast our way out of a wet paper bag. The auto industry is in such disarray with the reporting of numbers and the inability to correctly forecast, any numbers Edmunds comes up with (positive or negative) should be viewed with skepticism.
“any numbers Edmunds comes up with (positive or negative) should be viewed with skepticism.” but any numbers release by the government should be taken as pure, unadulterated fact?
The Delaware gov’t put out two numbers, and to DD’s credit, he took the smallest amount put out there.
uh, he put out the news journals headline.
The Edmunds “analysis” falls pretty flat on a whole lot of fronts, but since this “study” is being pushed by the usual innumerate wingnuts and a media utterly incapable of evaluating any study this is what you get:
* The total of this “study” does not appear anywhere on line. All I can find is the press release summary.
* Even there, they do an interesting bit of prestidigitation by comparing 09 Forecasted Car Sales without CFC with 09 actuals. Spot the problem? 09 was already forecasted as a year where car sales would be quite low. Including the actual figures from a benchmark year would have been educational.
*There is no break out of what was spent for the $24,000 — as in how much was government overhead, how much was in the junking of the cars.
*There is no breakout as to the components of the velocity of those sales — as in job savings, increased commissions that got spent, additional sales of car features that may not have been made, state and local taxes paid, reduction in carrying inventory costs for car dealers, increase in production of new cars to replace inventory. There’s likely more than this.
*This is the real kicker — Edmunds decided that of the 690,000 cars sold in August, 565,000 would have been sold anyway. So they want you to think that taxpayers paid for the 125,000 units sold over the forecast. RIGHT. And you can’t check their forecasts to see how they got there. And those forecasts are for a known bad buying year. Meaning that the real comparison ought to be to an average buying year.
But the Bureau of Labor Statistics still reports that Delaware was down by 9500 jobs as of September, so the number reported by your lieutenant governor doesn’t really present the whole picture. Indeed, the statistics show that as of the end of September we were down over 2.7 million jobs since the stimulus was passed. Sounds to me like it is an EPIC FAIL on the part of the Obama Administration, given that were supposed to see a net increase in jobs from the stimulus.
Another republican talking point is that none of our present problems were the fault of the Bush administration, it,s a good thing that several books are now out detailing the deregulation lack of oversite by the republicans dug the deep whole we find ourselves.
“And you can’t check their forecasts to see how they got there.”
They compared the data to sales of other makes, models and segments that weren’t part of the program. Sound reasoning as far as I can tell.
The program’s real success was in artificially boosting GDP for a quarter, combined with the pending expiration of the housing tax credit.
Long live gimmickry, and it’s kissing cousin, 10% unemployment!
And right up until today the economy has been all Bush’s fault.
Now that there is good news, the economy is all Obama’s.
Can’t wait to see what you guys do when next quarter’s numbers crash.
Isn’t all the good economic news because of the work of Ronald Reagan? Didn’t we just have to wait a full generation before we got the benefit?
Or this is just the marvelous effect of trickle down economics?
Perhaps all the good news is the result of Bush’s tax cuts?
Now that there is good news, we can just look back at all these wonderful Republican solutions to economic problems, and give these Republicans the credit.
Some credit probably goes to Herbert Hoover, too. After all, he knew that if he just gave the free market enough time, it would right itself. 70 years sounds just about right.
It’s too bad we didn’t let the Republicans privatize Social Security, too. Imagine how wonderful it would be!
RWR: Bush was the architect of the TARP bailout ($700 billion) and the auto bailout ($13.5 billion). The democrats in Congress approved them. Truthfully, as much as there is to criticize GWB for, the bailouts are not part of it. Bush realized the entire US economy was at risk. It was the right thing to do, even with its faults. He deserves some credit for being smarter than his overall record would indicate. Same with the stimulus package. It saved an economic implosion and created jobs, though maybe not as quickly as everyone would have liked. An economy the size of this one does not reverse course overnight. The money for cash for Clunkers and the home purchasing credits were just what the doctor ordered. The economic stimulus money for roads, education and green energy will benefit this country for DECADES. I think most would agree that aggressive monetary action helped prevent a major global economic crisis and stabilize both the US and world economy. So while not perfect, the Obama Administration and the democrats also deserve credit for helping stabilize the economy.
While we are surely not out of the woods, it does appear we are headed in the right direction.
Someone should thank John McCain for backing Obama on getting rid of the pork in the military budget and trimming all that inefficiency, waste and fraud.
Oh, you mean the road crew stimulus jobs that were roads repaired in the state, but were imported contractors from Pennsylvania? I hope those who repaired Rt 13 in Seaford/Laurel and Rt 20 in Laurel weren’t considered in this report… American Infrastructure.
“It is not by coincidence that we are ranked as one of Pennsylvania’s Best Places to Work..”
Or the funding given to Court One, who has a Delaware address INSIDE Dover AFB. Tell me that wasn’t some Defense contractor giveaway.
Or the half a million given to Argo System, LLC, who saved Zero jobs.
and the $1.4 Million given to HydroGeologic, Inc that saved ZERO jobs.
or the $1.2 Million given to Clean Harbors Environmental Services which saved… wait for it.. zero jobs.
All within Delaware, by the way.
All from http://www.recovery.gov/transparency/pages/home.aspx?State=DE&datasource=recipient
Quit your bitching, Brian. I hear we’re getting a new boardwalk!
1.This quarter’s turnaround is in no small part due to government stimulus measures, and is therefore most likely artificially inflated and unsustainable.
2. Stimulus packages are designed to kick-start stalled economies, not to fuel sustained economic growth.
3. Government initiatives such as Cash for Clunkers and the tax credit for first-time home buyers contributed to the respective 1 percent and 0.5 percent portion of the total GDP increase attributable to increased motor vehicle sales and residential fixed investment. As these programs end, of course, so will the contribution to the economy. From Stratfor
4.On Inauguration Day, the Debt stood at $10.626 trillion. The latest posting from the Treasury Department shows that as of July 31st, the debt hit $11.669 trillion. CBS News
5. Bernie Madoff had a better command of math and economics and in the end will be more respected.
Mike Protack
JE Dunn Construction Company… $12.1 Million.. zero jobs.
LMAO Skateworld, Inc, in Laurel received a $225k loan from stimulus money. SKATEWORLD! It is a roller skating rink. You have got to be kidding me.
Chandler Heights in Seaford, a Section 8 apartment project, received a $194k GRANT.
America’s Best Value Inn in Delmar received an $820k loan.
DelTech in Georgetown received a $1.4 Million Grant.
Three loan amounts in Fenwick/Bethany area with no information except for “Very Low and Low income housing” in beach areas?!? Total $1.58 Million.
A Loan for the Long Neck Car Wash (which isn’t open by the way) totaling $817,000. A CAR WASH!
Do I need to move onto Kent County? Do you get the picture here?
Quit your bitching, Brian. I hear we’re getting a new boardwalk!
Oh yeah, so we can sustain the jobs to low paid summer hires who barely speak English, get taken advantage of by their employers, and take their money out of the country back to Latvia or wherever.
Yay for Stimulus!
given that were supposed to see a net increase in jobs from the stimulus.
No.
There was not a promise of a net increase and you can provide links to that if true.
There was an expectation that there would be savings of some jobs and additions of others. The stimulus was not expected to cure the entire crash — especially since it was pared back. It was expected to fill part of the hole in the GDP left by BushCo — but there was not a promise of a net increase in jobs.
Bitter republicans. They can’t stand the fact the economy is turning around due to aggressive economic policy by the Fed and the Obama Admin. I love have Protack admits Bush ran up a $10.6 trillion debt then whines Obama raised it to $11.6. Yo Mike. Bush ran up the debt at a higher rate than Obama, not to mention he went through $4 trillion of the Clinton surplus. LOL!!!!!
Bush was a disaster.
This stimulus was a bill of goods, designed to be the savior of the economy directing money to shovel ready projects to preserve jobs and stimulate by injecting cash into an economy that was suffering.
The reality is that the “recovery” you are seeing now is the equivalent of someone eating for the first time after they puked after overstuffing themselves into projectile vomiting.
That is the reality. It was a correction and now we are holding flat, slowing to a growth.
This stimulus was nothing but a pet project giveaway, sold as snake oil.
The real recovery credit goes to millions of americans who suffered through broken promises, job losses, foreclosures, and downsizing. The citizens who took second and third jobs, cut back their budget, sacrificed, scrimped, saved, moved in with other family members, and started.. for the first time in probably a full decade… living within their means.
The fucking stimulus did not turn this economy around. We all did it with fucking American stubbornness and because we had to. We couldn’t wait for some magic bill from Congress that was going to save us. We can’t pin our hopes on some promises in Washington DC. It would be foolish to do so. Some freaking talking head in the White House preaching Hope to Americans who need stamina to get through their double shift, go home and hope they can sleep through the sound of the washing machine because they have no home time to spare.. because they come home from their desk job, and go sling some fried chicken to get the credit card companies to stop calling, to hopefully save the house… to hopefully get Jimmy to the dentist because he chipped a tooth in the playground.
Fuck the stimulus. Americans did this. One day at a time.
I think I swore too many times, and my comment is stuck in moderation, lol. Fuckity fuckfuckfuck.
“5. Bernie Madoff had a better command of math and economics and in the end will be more respected.
Mike Protack”
I didn’t want this bit of wisdom to get lost in this thread.
No matter what your feelings are about the outcome of the stimulus and the huge deficit Bush created (from a surplus) during his reign, this comment is breathtaking.
Nah, Progressive Mom. What is breathtaking is that we allow someone so stupid to fly planes.
Nah, there are many types of smarts (common sense, books-smart, street-smart, etc.), my hope is that Protack is plane-smart.
We know he’s not plain smart.
Hey, he hasn’t fallen asleep and overshot the landing strip!
can’t wait to hear the excuses when inflation hits…
As long as it includes wage inflation we’ll be fine.
Remember “raises?”
Cash for Clunkers MASSIVELY distorted GDP.
Cash for Clunkers MASSIVELY distorted GDP.
You mean turned it from “negative” to “positive?” It was supposed to do that.
Indeed. CFC ended up boosting the GDP 30-40%. But it would still leave a net boost from non-durable goods, services, residential investments and so on.
CAN NOT WAIT for the Wailing of the Wingnuts when Cash for Clunker Appliances gets going (Delaware always has something like that going now) or Cash for Job Creation gets started.
It’s sometimes hard to believe how much Republicans hate America. They want us to have negative GDP for political reasons. Cash for Clunkers was a STIMULUS. That means it was a temporary boost in spending, and it worked just as it was intended and now they’re wailing about it? Republicans are just sorry they didn’t think of it first!
I’m planning on taking advantage of the Cash for Clunker Appliances soon to get a new solar water heater.
Anyway, here’s the assessment of job creation directly by jobs that were created from stimulus projects (nationwide):
I also know that for a fact that some jobs were saved. My brother’s job at MTSU was going to be cut until stimulus money came into the state and allowed his job to be saved.
This is what I don’t understand — the big compaint about CFC seems to be that it was only a temporary help. Well, that’s what it was designed to be! All of the stimulus programs are supposed to be a temporary pick-me-up or safety net for the economy (kind of like a big unemployment insurance). They’re just supposed to help get us back to normal, they’re not designed to be a permanent altering of the economy (except for the secondary effects of improvements to infrastructure and such). So complaining that CFC only gave a temporary boost to the economy is like me complaining that my dinner last night only kept me full for a few hours.
This is also why a lot of the stimulus stuff is being phases in over time, and was not a big, one time thing. Now, if we’re still doing temporary fixes 2 or 3 years from now, that’s a whole different story.
C’mon, some of the examples Brian cited don’t leave liberals scratching their heads?
I think parts of the stimulus were poorly aimed. The bail outs (remember this was under Bush) were extremely poorly executed, IMO.
I think Brian’s point is that most of the stimulus was poorly aimed.
Geezer, it is really hard to know where to start with Brian’s rants that wouldn’t be cured by reading Calculated Risk for a quarter.
The economy isn’t quite yet turned around and Americans (individuals and businesses) cutting back on spending and deleveraging is one of the reasons why this recession — not a correction — is so very deep. You do not heal a consumer-driven economy by cutting back on spending. (Which is not an exhortation to get people to buy more stuff, but this is the high-wire act of an economy that relies on us to spendspendspend.)
Spending stimulates the economy as long as it generates a paycheck for someone. It doesn’t have to be smart or efficient spending. The classic Econ example is digging in a ditch and filling it in again.
Of course, stimulus doesn’t HAVE to be stupid. It is always better if it also accomplishes something else useful. Look at all the great WPA projects that still exist. But if you are in need of emergency stimulus, better to spend on anything than nothing. That is what distinguishes “stimulus” from “investment.” Investment spending can come later.
But you want that spending to be as smart and efficient as you can get it — so that that money gets spent multiple times in the economy. Which is why people like construction projects so much for stimulus — you pay a contractor who pays workers and suppliers who pay more workers and suppliers and so on.
Yes, even poorly-aimed stimulus is better than no stimulus at all. Remember, we already tried the cut spending route – it caused the Great Depression. The problems we’re seeing today took a long time to come and they’re going to take a long time to dig out of. It’s been 30 years of Reaganomics – redistribution of wealth upwards, rewarding wealth over work, weakening of unions and removal of regulations that have gotten us into this mess. It’s not going to turn around overnight unfortunately and we have a lot to make up – we’ve pretty much outsourced all of our manufacturing to other countries.
Brian is angry but he needs to direct his anger to the right direction. Both Republicans and Democrats need to do more to help regular people, I agree with that (like mortgage cramdown). But I direct my anger at politicians who still try to make people believe we can get something for nothing or who have endless pots of money to make war overseas but tell Americans they are on their own for things like healthcare.
What I’m not getting is why Brian seems to feel that the work of everyday Americans and the work of the stimulus are in conflict. Shutting down spending just doesn’t get an economy rolling. I also think that any Delawarean hoping for people to “live within their means” hasn’t looked at our state economy, recently. If Americans decide to live within their means, give up chicken and skip those beach vacations we’d better hope that punditry pays better than I think, because the Delaware economy would be GONE.
Studies have shown that some of the biggest stimulus comes from expanding programs like WIC – because people are spending the money right away.
Brian is trying to judge the stimulus using investment criteria. Wrong.
Not picking on Brian, lots of Obama critics make the same mistake.
CBS Says White House Is Fudging Stimulus Jobs Numbers
NewsBusters ^ | 10-30-09 | Noel Sheppard
When Katie Couric and the folks at CBS start doubting what the Administration says about how effective February’s economic stimulus package was, you know President Obama is in trouble. “Well, Katie, that report is going to claim that the stimulus has already created or saved hundreds of thousands of jobs, but if the administration`s first effort at counting stimulus jobs is any guide, tomorrow`s numbers could be hard to believe.”
looks like CBS will be joining FOX News, AP and Edmunds on Obama’s media enemies list
People are saying Noel Sheppard fucks puppies. Who knew?
if that’s supposed to be straight news, liz, then the alleged puppy rapist Noel’s first sentence is a travesty.
It seems a lot of people here are perfectly comfortable option-ARM-mortgaging the next generation’s quality of life in exchange for today’s headlines. Combine that with 10% unemployment and the fact that nothing’s been done to prevent another similar catastrophe at the end of the next business cycle, and I’m wondering what the point was. Why Obama hasn’t pulled a TR on the too-big-to-fail crowd is beyond me.
Government spending boosts GDP because government spending is a component of GDP. But it is still the personal or business money of Americans being taken from them and used (inefficiently) by the government. The only way anyone could say the stimulus “worked” is to say that private entities would have done worse with that money.
And Romer says we’ve seen most of the effect, but we haven’t spent but a fraction of the money allocated?