Stimulus Fail

Thank God Joe Biden was policing all of this, or it might have been worse. That is the administrations usual claim when met with bad press.

If you were going to start a business and had an $8.32 million budget with which to begin, how many jobs do you suppose you could create? You could just employ yourself to play golf, or fish everyday, living off the interest, and do about as well as New Hampshire did.

It's nice work if you can get it. But you'd have to be in New Hampshire government to qualify.

You read that right.  The stimulus package in New Hampshire has created 50 temp jobs, apparently all of them bureaucrat positions, and none of them permanent.  The Office of Economic Stimulus (OES) employs five of those people, and when the governor appoints the director, that position will pay a $110,000 salary, plus benefits.

Roughly speaking, those 50 jobs cost the American taxpayer $8.32 million per position.  If we calculate part-time positions as one-half of a full-time job, the cost per full-time job would be $9.9 million.  At that rate, the $787 billion Porkulus package should generate about 79,495 jobs across America — or about what we lose today by 1:37 pm in new unemployment claims. And of course, all of those would last only as long as the stimulus money kept coming to fund them.

Comments

[mark l.]

i can't see how the wh can ever envision going out and claiming credit for jobs that have recently been created.

the above 50 temp jobs, in the face of a 350k job loss for a month, along with the 8 million plus per job prcie tag is going to make it look like they are plugging "employment powerball".

your odds of hitting the jackpot are infinitely small, but if you do get one, the govt will have had to sink millions for it.

I seem to remeber bush traveling to plants that were hiring in previous downturns, but I think obama is still watiing for one to occur.

The "genius" of his policy?
given the fact that companies have been moving overseas for marginal advantages over the past 20 years, he assumes that there will be no impact on reducing marginal advantages even further.

[SacTownMan]

He could care less about creating or saving anyone's job that doesn't work for SEIU, ACORN or a labor union!

His policies, that's right trolls, HIS policies will destroy small business and contiue HIS recession for years to come.

The only jobs his plans will create will be in a bigger and more intrusive government!

Feeling all Hopey, Changey there yet America!!!

[Lala]

McDonald's is moving its European headquarters out of the UK over to Switzerland because of the UK's high taxes. Other companies are going to Ireland. Can US companies be far behind?

[IslamoLlama]

"-- McDonald's is moving its European headquarters out of the UK over to Switzerland because of the UK's high taxes. Other companies are going to Ireland. Can US companies be far behind? --"

Problem: Domestic companies are engaging in legal tax evasion by moving their headquarters to foreign countries in order to skirt requirements.

Solution: Rather than tightening up the tax code to prevent businesses from operating in US while paying Irish tax figures, we should get in a race-to-the-bottom with everyone from Luxembourg to Sri Lanka.

It's funny to note how the US tax rates have either remained the same or declined over the last fifteen years, and yet US businesses are STILL leaving the country for foreign tax shelters. If eight years of Bush and six years of a Republican-dominated legislature can't keep domestic industry in the country within six months of a Democratic President, one begins to wonder if the "business-friendly" legislation they'd spent all of 2000 thru 2006 passing was even that effective?

Which of the Bush Admin tax or business policies have been rolled back under Obama? Why flee the country now, when they'd all made a killing under Clinton? Do you really think a drastic reduction 10-15% in the corporate tax rate - spiking a debt you've been actively screaming about every since January 6th, 2009 - is going to keep US businesses here so long as they can head out to Ireland or Switzerland or Dubai and pay almost nothing at all?

If a US company can make income in the states, export the wealth to a foreign tax haven, and pay a fraction of their owed income for their troubles, how low does the tax rate have to come down to keep business here? 11%? 5%? Should we abandon the corporate tax altogether? What's the point of fighting to keep the businesses around, then?

[jaime]

For the last eight years the Republican/Conservative line was:

"You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don't matter,"
- Dick Cheney

A year ago the Republican/Conservative chant was that there was no recession:

"We're not in a recession, and I don't think we will go in a recession"
- George W. Bush

Up until the stimulus passed, the Republican/Conservative line was that Obama and the Democrats were exaggerating the dismal state of the economy:

"To wit, Phil Gramm was right: We are in a mental recession, not an actual recession. And the low-tax, free-trade, free-market, capitalist economy is a whole lot more resilient and durable than the pessimistas and declinists would have us believe."
- Larry Kudlow

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2008/08/20/media-call-obamas-economic-disaster-exaggeration-sharpened-attack

Now it's the worst economy EVAH and Obama singlehandedly destroyed it over the course of 5 months with projected deficit spending from imaginary budgets pulled out of Rush Limbaugh's pilonidal cyst.

[North Dallas Thirty]

LOL....jaime, we now understand the issue with you and IslamoLlama.

"Obama also said Chicago's dropout rate "has gone downevery year he's been in charge." Though that's technically true, the committee says it's still unacceptably high: About half of Chicago students drop out of the city's non-selective-enrollment high schools. And more than 70% of 11th-graders fail to meet state standards, a trend that "has remained essentially flat" over the past several years.

Even among those who graduate, it says, skills are poor: An analysis of students entering the Chicago City Colleges in fall 2006 showed that 69% were not prepared for college-level reading, 79% were not prepared for writing, and 95% were not prepared for math."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-07-12-chicagoschools13_N.htm?csp=34

That nicely explains why you don't know the difference between a deficit measured in billions and one measured in trillions, you can't accurately quote people, and you can't express yourself.

That leads us to IslamoLlama:

"Solution: Rather than tightening up the tax code to prevent businesses from operating in US while paying Irish tax figures, we should get in a race-to-the-bottom with everyone from Luxembourg to Sri Lanka."

Feel free to force businesses to operate outside the United States as well. I'm sure plenty of businesses won't mind moving their headquarters and jobs elsewhere while leaving little more than retail outlets here in the United States.

The funny part is watching these Marxist Machiavellis like Obama and Islamo try to force businesses out of existence so that they can get everyone onto welfare. You wonder if they've ever thought through what happens once everyone is on welfare and not paying taxes.

[North Dallas Thirty]

This has to be the finest example of the complete lack of intelligence of the Obama Party and Barack Obama.

"What's the point of fighting to keep the businesses around, then?"

Oh, I don't know. Let's see:

1) They provide jobs to hundreds of millions of Americans
a) Those hundreds of millions of Americans pay taxes

2) They produce an enormous amount of goods and services
b) Those goods and services can be exchanged with other countries for
currency and capital

According to Barack Obama and his puppet Islamo, businesses and corporations are of no use to the United States unless they can be heavily taxed.

[JustOneMan]

When will this nonsense end!

"Fed policymakers to consider options for loan forbearance to help the unemployed-- allowing borrowers to delay, defer or skip payments --"

The people like myself who are self employed and bust their ass to make ends meet and pay our bills on time once again have to pay for those who fail!

Will someone.... anyone...stop the madness!

[JustOneMan]

Oh my god!!! I click from here to Drudge and this is the first thing I see from the Wall Street Journal...

A group of minority broadcasters asked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Monday for financial assistance akin to the aid that has been extended to the financial and auto industries.

WHEN WILL THIS END!!!!!!!!!!

[mark l.]

"With one very revealing exception. Mr. Rangel does propose to cut the corporate tax rate, of all things, to 30.5% from 35% today. He'd "pay" for this by reducing business credits and deductions. This is revealing because it is a tacit admission that tax rates really do matter to investment choices."

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010781

sorry lama. even rangel thinks corporate tax is too high.

go ahead and tax american corporations. those who have the money to fund/run a corporation would be better served investing in another companies corporation in another country.

here's a chart...

http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/1466.html

special interest?
the us has the second highest corporate rate. please also note how many other countries have changed their corporate rates from 2000 to 2006.

[DaveinPhoenix]

From the RSC: "For those concerned about stimulus spending, the General Services Administration sends word tonight that $18 million in additional funds are being spent to redesign the Recovery.gov Web site. The new Web site promises to give taxpayers more information about where their money is going than the current version of the site. (ABC News, 7/8/09)

-Wow. $18 million. Seems high. It leaves the less tech-savvy amongst us to ask, what is the going rate for a professional web design these days?

While GoDaddy.com offers a deal for premium web-building at $10 a month, it’s understandable that the administration would want the best of the best for American taxpayers. So let’s get a professional quote.

A quick cost estimate from www.DesignQuote.net offers us a curious calculation. According to the site, the top-end estimate for a premium web design from a professional firm flush with all the bells and whistles, flash pages, search functions, digital graphics, and 500 pages of content comes in at a whopping….$192,740.

Interesting. That would leave some $17.8 million left for the web team to play with. So what will information-seeking taxpayers get for all the rest of their cash? "

[mark l.]

"WHEN WILL THIS END"?

as soon as american lose faith in the economic policies of the dems and get a chance to vote.

the first part has already been achieved, thru no effort of the gop-

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/trust_on_issues

gop leading in 8 of 10 categories.

taxes? 52-36
economy? 46-41
social security!!!! 42-36. (old people: even if they have crapped in their pants, they still vote in midterms)

with the acception of the 465 who trust the dems on healthcare, they don't have a single trust number over 41% on the other nine issues.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/trust_on_issues

note to libs: please keep spending, borrowing, printing, and taxing like there is never going to be another election. the gop is incapable of winning without your help.

[Rob Crawford]

"If a US company can make income in the states, export the wealth to a foreign tax haven..."

WTF? Are you really this stupid?

[seekeronos]

"--- how low does the tax rate have to come down to keep business here? 11%? 5%? Should we abandon the corporate tax altogether? ---"

Stop ALL income taxes, both corporate and private.

Ya know, Llama... you just might have had the first bright idea in a very long time. I'll admit that this might be a tad unrealistic though, and I'll gladly settle for a top bracket of 5% for personal income tax, and 1% for corporate taxes, with a matched reduction in governmental "services", starting with a cancellation of all forthcoming "stimulus" expenses.

The biggest and most direct stimulus - and perhaps less crooked - would be immediate relief from taxes.

Mark:

"--- note to libs: please keep spending, borrowing, printing, and taxing like there is never going to be another election. ---"

Ever stop to consider that this might be their goal - to reach appoint where elections are things of the past?

I do - and the thought is quite discomforting. Powermongers of Obama's stripe would love more than nothing else to do away with those pesky election thingies that happen every few years.

Or at the very least, pull off what Uncle Joe Stalin or Lil' Kim-Il Jong did, and have the elections anyway, but with only his name on the ballot.

[anon]

The problem with comparing the tax rate from 30, 40 or even 70 years ago and then saying 'OMG the top tax rate was so much higher then, what are you complaining about' is that it not only fails to take into consideration that just like today, the richest rarely pay the top 'income' tax rate because they can shelter and diversity their assets, but worse than that, it fails to take into consideration all of the costly government regulations, bureuacracies, hidden fees, hidden taxes and so forth that have come into being since the 1930s or 1960s.

As far as 'preventing businesses from allegedly not paying their fare share of taxes' this is exactly the mindset that causes business to leave, looking at business as the evil enemy and trying to come up with as many rules and regulations as possible to ensure that their profits are drained off by the state...it isn't much of an incentive for a company to stick around, is it?

[mark l.]

"Ever stop to consider that this might be their goal - to reach appoint where elections are things of the past?"

actually, yes.

I imagine that obama would want to delay the ouster of the house dems in 2010, or his own potential ouster in 2012, until the vote would go his way. The zeleya thing told me a lot about what principles the dems would disown to keep friends in power.

upon even the briefest suspensions of elections-house or presidential, obama would cease being the legitimate president. my only dream is that he would rally his acorn supporters, give them weapons, and try and organize a domestic army willing to defend him.

[JustOneMan]

Nooooooooooooooooooooo.....

Todays scamulus update...

U.S. government officials are weighing a plan that would let borrowers who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments avoid eviction by renting their homes instead, sources familiar with the administration's thinking said on Tuesday.

Next it will be cars, motorhomes, boats, motorcycles...

Cant Barry just shut up with these foolish ideas!!!

[Anon]

I actually think that is a good idea, since the people who "bought" their homes for zero money down are really renters anyway, that way the bank gets some money and the deadbeats don't get any equity in the house, they go back to what they should have been all along: renters.

[JustOneMan]

Anon....

If the rent doesnt cover the mortgage then what genius? more government subsidies?

[seekeronos]

Sounds like a good idea on the surface - but are these banks really in a position to become landlords, which would include maintaining a house under a very diverse arrangement of zoning and building codes (not all residential zones permit rentals in areas zoned for single-family owned houses)...

... to say nothing of replacing furnaces or washing machines and the like when their lifecycles come to an end, or garbage collection and paying heat/gas/electric bills? While not all rental arrangements cover these sort of expenses, again, this can also depend upon local ordiances delineating what landlords are responsible for.

And lastly, there's the issue of how many of these owners-turned - renters are actually Section 8 welfare cases, who require yet another layer of compliance assurance with a bewildering array of rules, which welfare milkers make a side career out of manipulating to their advantage.