A short glimpse into the state of the nation as we close the book on summer 2011 finds a country mired in a zero-growth economy with just over 9% of the eligible workforce sitting on the sidelines. Add to that a dismal housing forecast which predicts record numbers of homes entering the foreclosure stage and you’ve got yourself a reason to feel slightly uneasy about not only your future but the future of those retirement plans you’ve been funneling into that diminishing 401K for the last few years.
In a nutshell, times are hard, things are bad and man, we could really use a knight in shining armor to come riding into town with a message of “Hey, don’t you worry, things are gonna be alright!”
Well, thank God for the United States Government because here they come, right on cue and wow, do they have a plan for us.
You may have heard whispers in the wind about a Jobs Bill which the president put to congress last week. Might have seen that stirring speech he gave as part of the pre-game hype before the NFL kicked off last week? To recap that all you gotta know is if congress passes this bill we can all look forward to a reborn economy and brighter days ahead.
Sounded good to me and being of the sort who likes to offer an even chance to back a claim I thought the bill might be worth reading to see how this brighter tomorrow is to come about. 451 sections of legalese spread over 199 pages later I think I can offer an insight as to what this bill means, how it’s supposed to work and who it’s going to benefit. So let’s dive in and see what the latest version of an American Stimulus Package is all about.
First off, the thing is a spending bill. It plans on dropping over $450,000,000,000 into the American economy in the hope 1.9 million people will find gainful employment as a result. And if the bill does nothing else I will admit its free use of all those zeros at the end of every expenditure do an effective job of placing some hard to swallow reality to the thing. A billion dollars really is an extremely impressive amount of money.
So we’ll spend $450,000,000,000 to fix the economy. Okay, sounds like a plan. Anybody who has looked around the country over the last decade can certainly reel off a list of projects that could use some cash and I wonder what kind of pride and unity could be gained from a bold idea like “Let’s go to the moon!” or “Let’s build a railroad from New York to LA which takes six hours to get there!” could do so yeah, I’m intrigued.
But for anyone out there who thinks this “Jobs” bill is about setting a bold national plan to rebuild the country and have physical testaments to what we’ve done along the lines of 1930’s depression projects like the Hoover Dam or the citizen labor brigades of the Civilian Conservation Corps is going to be sadly disappointed. Because unless you work for the government, or were recently laid off by the government, this plan is most likely not going to touch you in the slightest.
There are jobs in the bill, don’t forget that. It’s just the jobs they’re primarily talking about are the ones cops, firemen and teachers hold. Public sector jobs. And I’m all in favor of teachers, cops and firemen but I do kinda wonder if we really and truly need all the cops we currently have. I mean, I see at least two cops (at good hourly wages) working highway roadwork details as I do for every cop doing something (anything) else. And when we’re as strapped as we are do we need to spend those types of wages on what, in all reality, is not much more than a work zone flagman?
I’m just saying, we’re in a very serious national state of peril right now and as such, could we maybe look around for areas to streamline instead of jacking up the status quo?
Okay though, what else is in there? Surely there’s a plan to put people to work, isn’t there? Get some things lined out, identify some areas where improvements are needed and set some systems to attack the issue?
Well, one doesn’t need to look farther than America’s decaying infrastructure to locate some areas where immediate improvements are needed. Our highways, bridges, levees, rural roads, etc…are in dire need of repair or outright rebuild. The congressional study sighted by the bill itself says we’ll need to spend $2,200,000,000,000 (that’s trillion) over the next five years alone just to raise our infrastructure to an “adequate” level. So there’s $27,000,000,000 set aside for highway spending, $2,000,000,000 on airports and $2,000,000,000 on Amtrak. Good start, right? Well, aside from the Amtrak thing. We did that already with Stimulus One and travel by rail in America is still 3rd Class anyway you look at it.
But take a look into the highway plan. That’s a lot of money so somebody should be in control of how it’s spent and where it goes, right? Well, this is where the government of The United States of America truly displays its excellence. What will we do?
Create another layer of bureaucracy, of course!
So let me introduce you to the American Infrastructure Finance Authority. There’s going to be a board of directors, a CEO, full slate of senior management and office space in DC. Now I will say, these are a few of the actual jobs which the bill will manage to create but again, I don’t think these jobs are for the average Joe American. They’re presidentially appointed and subject only to a Senatorial consent.
It will be under this authority where the money will be distributed. They’ll be in charge of a huge budget and will make loans of that money to those they feel worthy. Not such a terrible idea but then, remember the $550,000,000 given to that solar company out in California with Stimulus One? The company that was supposed to lead the way in a new field of Amer-I-CAN technology?
Yeah, that money’s gone. Company went bankrupt two weeks ago.
Government bureaucracy just doesn’t have a great track record so my confidence is less than stellar when it comes to this latest government plan.
Moving on though we see a little organization called Project Rebuild which will get $15,000,000,000 to spend on urban clean up. 66% of this 15 bill is going to the HUD who is tasked to fill the ranks with low income labor to ‘clean up’ urban blight. Correct me if I’m wrong but haven’t we been doing this for like, what forty years? Been downtown lately? Still looks kinda grim, don’t it?
But there is some positivity in this part too. There’s $1,500,000,000 in grant money available to those who wish to train the labor force. But unless you can prove you’re only going to train low income people you won’t see any of this cash. The 2 Billion set aside to subsidize labor is restricted to hiring either the unemployed or low income adults.
A few years ago I worked construction in the low income neighborhoods of Richmond, Virginia. Worked for a crew on an HUD contract and we employed some of the ‘low income’ types the government speaks so fondly of. We’d have plenty of work to do but the ‘hand out’ labor force we were assigned weren’t eager to work or proud to do so. They refused to invest in tools (hammer, tape measure), failed to listen to instruction and were not of the sort who could be counted on to show up for work five days in a row. And a nine am start time for us meant 10:30 to them.
I’m not saying the lower income population should be left out in the cold and ignored, I’m just saying when we’re tasked with rebuilding the economy we might have better success if we set our sites a little higher and looked to employ those who actually want to work as opposed to those who are more than content not to.
I mean, the 99 week extension of unemployment benefits the bill provides should be enough to cover them anyway, right? I still scratch my head at the irony of a Jobs Bill which sets aside billions to keep people unemployed but then there is much to this world which I fail to comprehend.
Anyway, I could go on but I would imagine of the thirty or so people who began to read this there’s probably less than half of you left. So let’s hit a conclusion and see what happens from here.
Is this a good bill? No, it won’t do a thing to fix the economy. About all you’ll ever see of this government waste will be those pretty road construction signs saying “Your tax dollars at work! American Jobs Act of 2011!” Other than that you can kiss this cash goodbye.
But should it be passed into law? Yes, it should. Because at its root this bill is nothing but a political toy, a campaign chip. Obama and The Left put this ridiculous scam together with the belief it will be held up by a republican congress. When the republicans miss the boat on this (as they will) the Obama re-election crew can give us 14 months of speeches about how they had a plan to fix the economy but the republicans refused to ‘help the American people…”
So pass the sunuvabitch and put it back on the clowns in charge. Expect another year of 9% unemployment and let this administration hang itself with its own rope.
And remember this, your own indifference and refusal to look into what our government does is how we got to where we are. And as long as they can rely upon ignorance and apathy we can expect nothing less than more of the same…
In a nutshell, times are hard, things are bad and man, we could really use a knight in shining armor to come riding into town with a message of “Hey, don’t you worry, things are gonna be alright!”
Well, thank God for the United States Government because here they come, right on cue and wow, do they have a plan for us.
You may have heard whispers in the wind about a Jobs Bill which the president put to congress last week. Might have seen that stirring speech he gave as part of the pre-game hype before the NFL kicked off last week? To recap that all you gotta know is if congress passes this bill we can all look forward to a reborn economy and brighter days ahead.
Sounded good to me and being of the sort who likes to offer an even chance to back a claim I thought the bill might be worth reading to see how this brighter tomorrow is to come about. 451 sections of legalese spread over 199 pages later I think I can offer an insight as to what this bill means, how it’s supposed to work and who it’s going to benefit. So let’s dive in and see what the latest version of an American Stimulus Package is all about.
First off, the thing is a spending bill. It plans on dropping over $450,000,000,000 into the American economy in the hope 1.9 million people will find gainful employment as a result. And if the bill does nothing else I will admit its free use of all those zeros at the end of every expenditure do an effective job of placing some hard to swallow reality to the thing. A billion dollars really is an extremely impressive amount of money.
So we’ll spend $450,000,000,000 to fix the economy. Okay, sounds like a plan. Anybody who has looked around the country over the last decade can certainly reel off a list of projects that could use some cash and I wonder what kind of pride and unity could be gained from a bold idea like “Let’s go to the moon!” or “Let’s build a railroad from New York to LA which takes six hours to get there!” could do so yeah, I’m intrigued.
But for anyone out there who thinks this “Jobs” bill is about setting a bold national plan to rebuild the country and have physical testaments to what we’ve done along the lines of 1930’s depression projects like the Hoover Dam or the citizen labor brigades of the Civilian Conservation Corps is going to be sadly disappointed. Because unless you work for the government, or were recently laid off by the government, this plan is most likely not going to touch you in the slightest.
There are jobs in the bill, don’t forget that. It’s just the jobs they’re primarily talking about are the ones cops, firemen and teachers hold. Public sector jobs. And I’m all in favor of teachers, cops and firemen but I do kinda wonder if we really and truly need all the cops we currently have. I mean, I see at least two cops (at good hourly wages) working highway roadwork details as I do for every cop doing something (anything) else. And when we’re as strapped as we are do we need to spend those types of wages on what, in all reality, is not much more than a work zone flagman?
I’m just saying, we’re in a very serious national state of peril right now and as such, could we maybe look around for areas to streamline instead of jacking up the status quo?
Okay though, what else is in there? Surely there’s a plan to put people to work, isn’t there? Get some things lined out, identify some areas where improvements are needed and set some systems to attack the issue?
Well, one doesn’t need to look farther than America’s decaying infrastructure to locate some areas where immediate improvements are needed. Our highways, bridges, levees, rural roads, etc…are in dire need of repair or outright rebuild. The congressional study sighted by the bill itself says we’ll need to spend $2,200,000,000,000 (that’s trillion) over the next five years alone just to raise our infrastructure to an “adequate” level. So there’s $27,000,000,000 set aside for highway spending, $2,000,000,000 on airports and $2,000,000,000 on Amtrak. Good start, right? Well, aside from the Amtrak thing. We did that already with Stimulus One and travel by rail in America is still 3rd Class anyway you look at it.
But take a look into the highway plan. That’s a lot of money so somebody should be in control of how it’s spent and where it goes, right? Well, this is where the government of The United States of America truly displays its excellence. What will we do?
Create another layer of bureaucracy, of course!
So let me introduce you to the American Infrastructure Finance Authority. There’s going to be a board of directors, a CEO, full slate of senior management and office space in DC. Now I will say, these are a few of the actual jobs which the bill will manage to create but again, I don’t think these jobs are for the average Joe American. They’re presidentially appointed and subject only to a Senatorial consent.
It will be under this authority where the money will be distributed. They’ll be in charge of a huge budget and will make loans of that money to those they feel worthy. Not such a terrible idea but then, remember the $550,000,000 given to that solar company out in California with Stimulus One? The company that was supposed to lead the way in a new field of Amer-I-CAN technology?
Yeah, that money’s gone. Company went bankrupt two weeks ago.
Government bureaucracy just doesn’t have a great track record so my confidence is less than stellar when it comes to this latest government plan.
Moving on though we see a little organization called Project Rebuild which will get $15,000,000,000 to spend on urban clean up. 66% of this 15 bill is going to the HUD who is tasked to fill the ranks with low income labor to ‘clean up’ urban blight. Correct me if I’m wrong but haven’t we been doing this for like, what forty years? Been downtown lately? Still looks kinda grim, don’t it?
But there is some positivity in this part too. There’s $1,500,000,000 in grant money available to those who wish to train the labor force. But unless you can prove you’re only going to train low income people you won’t see any of this cash. The 2 Billion set aside to subsidize labor is restricted to hiring either the unemployed or low income adults.
A few years ago I worked construction in the low income neighborhoods of Richmond, Virginia. Worked for a crew on an HUD contract and we employed some of the ‘low income’ types the government speaks so fondly of. We’d have plenty of work to do but the ‘hand out’ labor force we were assigned weren’t eager to work or proud to do so. They refused to invest in tools (hammer, tape measure), failed to listen to instruction and were not of the sort who could be counted on to show up for work five days in a row. And a nine am start time for us meant 10:30 to them.
I’m not saying the lower income population should be left out in the cold and ignored, I’m just saying when we’re tasked with rebuilding the economy we might have better success if we set our sites a little higher and looked to employ those who actually want to work as opposed to those who are more than content not to.
I mean, the 99 week extension of unemployment benefits the bill provides should be enough to cover them anyway, right? I still scratch my head at the irony of a Jobs Bill which sets aside billions to keep people unemployed but then there is much to this world which I fail to comprehend.
Anyway, I could go on but I would imagine of the thirty or so people who began to read this there’s probably less than half of you left. So let’s hit a conclusion and see what happens from here.
Is this a good bill? No, it won’t do a thing to fix the economy. About all you’ll ever see of this government waste will be those pretty road construction signs saying “Your tax dollars at work! American Jobs Act of 2011!” Other than that you can kiss this cash goodbye.
But should it be passed into law? Yes, it should. Because at its root this bill is nothing but a political toy, a campaign chip. Obama and The Left put this ridiculous scam together with the belief it will be held up by a republican congress. When the republicans miss the boat on this (as they will) the Obama re-election crew can give us 14 months of speeches about how they had a plan to fix the economy but the republicans refused to ‘help the American people…”
So pass the sunuvabitch and put it back on the clowns in charge. Expect another year of 9% unemployment and let this administration hang itself with its own rope.
And remember this, your own indifference and refusal to look into what our government does is how we got to where we are. And as long as they can rely upon ignorance and apathy we can expect nothing less than more of the same…
