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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

The “Economic Stimulus” Package Is Like Yelling “Sue-wee” For the Pigs to Come Eat

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  December 30th, 2008 at 04:07 PM  | 

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I am getting a first hand sense of what the coming “economic stimulus” package is going to be. In short, nothing but a hand out to municipalities around the country.

In my role as city councilman here in Macon, I received a letter from the local congressman about the economic stimulus package that gives away the game. You can read the letter here [2.4 MB PDF].

Here’s the highlight:

As you know, Congress and the Obama Transition Team are currently contemplating a massive economic recovery stimulus bill to help jumpstart our economy. Although negotiations are in a constant state of flux, I expect this bill will create funding opportunities for local projects. In further expect emphasis will be placed on projects that are 1) ready to go immediately and 2) otherwise eligible for federal funding through existing federal agencies and programs such as Federal Transit Administration road, bridge, sidewalk and park projects or STAG water and wastewater infrastructure projects . . . . Enclosed is an excerpt of projects the United States Conference of Mayors has recommended.

The letter then includes a lengthy attachment with all sorts of projects the United States Conference of Mayors wants funded as part of the “economic stimulus.”

As explained to members of City Council by someone in the mayor’s office:

To help us bring in a prosperous New Year, Washington is offering Macon the chance to recommend local public works projects for consideration under the proposed economic stimulus bill we’ve been hearing about in the news. . . .The point – and opportunity – is to get local workers drawing paychecks ASAP.

That’s it then. We will return to the New Deal and the Works Progress Administration. Among the things the Conference of Mayors wants out of the economic stimulus package is $120,000,000.00 for road resurfacing in Atlanta; $210,000.00 for a citywide asset inventory in College Park, GA; $142,600.00 for “community outreach officers” in Marietta, GA; $1,062,500 for new signage in Savannah so people can “engage in a pedestrian experience”; and $1,139,693.00 for new cabinets and countertops and a central HVAC system at Patterson Terrace in Savannah, GA.

This is an economic stimulus?

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COMMENTS

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  • zuiko

    The WPA, as wasteful and ineffective as it was, actually managed to build a few useful things that have stood the test of time. We aren’t going to see any of that here. It will be all frittered away on junk. The city of Duluth (not a big city) managed to come up with a half billion dollar wish list all by itself, filled with critical infrastructure needs like snowmaking equipment.

  • Achance

    and make you do a Project Labor Agreement with a union in order to get the federal money.

  • NightTwister

    $500,000 per job. Heck of a deal, don’t you think?

  • JustLeaveMeAlone

    I’ll work for half that, and put in 20 hours a week.

    OK?

  • Aaron Gardner

    won’t qualify for the big tax break Obama promised?…;^)

  • zuiko

    Jobs created or saved. That’s a neat trick since there’s no way to measure jobs that would have been lost without the “stimulus.” So the math works out even worse than that, I’m sure.

  • RepMom

    aquatic facility in our community – I better place a call to our city manager so that we can get a little high on the hog too!!!

  • zuiko
  • Next93

    (I was going to title this comment: “What Obama doesn’t understand”, but that list would be too long for the internet)

    Back in FDR’s day, a large portion of the population was working at unskilled factory jobs or on farms, and itwas reasonable to expect that they could transition to manual labor on construction projects, which at the time featured more muscle power than power tools.

    The demographics today are a little different; I’m 52 years old, and if I had to go to work feeding my family by digging ditches, odds are pretty good that I’d be dead within a month. And I’m on the tail-end of the Boomer generation.

    Second, there’s no way that digging ditches is going to keep my family out of bankruptcy. It wouldn’t even approach my mortgage payments, let alone student loans (my own grad work plus the loans I’ve co-signed for my daughter), car payments, utilities, gas, and groceries. My family would be better off if I had a massive coronary while digging said ditch (see #1) so they could collect my life insurance.

    Third, the world of construction work is a tad different than it was in FDR’s day. Back then, you could put a dozen men on unskilled labor and make budget; these days they use specialized power tools and heavy equipment. It doesn’t take a LOT of training, but it’s not something you assign to a kid fresh off the farm.

    From what I’ve been hearing so far, Obama’s stimulus package is going to be a major boon to a handful of construction and roadwork companies that already have thier mouths firmly affixed to the public teat. For the rest of us, it’s going to mean either a huge tax bill or massive inflation.

    Welcome back, Carter.

  • zuiko

    I suppose we are to believe a laid off investment banker is now supposed to run a backhoe for a living. Well, until that government project is done, anyway. Then I guess we will need to pass another stimulus package or he will be out on the street.

  • Achance

    This is a very exclusive club that unfortunately Republicans helped fatten with our spending orgy on transportation projects.

    Even in the right to work states, if the price of the money is a project labor agreement, the work will be union and we’ll see how many of the workers exercise their “right” to not pay dues.

  • RepMom

    water park for the littlest ones who can’t swim yet. It is going to be situated in a 5 acre park with a planned community center. The city was hoping to break ground this year for completion next year, but looks like we will break ground next year and complete in 2010.

  • 10ksnooker

    … Everyone here has read up on their history and know that the failed Presidency of FDR did nothing to fix the economy. The WPA and all the other make work FDR programs had the same end point, the unemployment line.

    If it weren’t for WWII we might still be in the depression.

    Here is it direct from FDR?s Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, in which he said:

    ?We are spending more than we have ever spent before, and it does not work. We have never made good on our promises . . . I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started . . . And an enormous debt to boot!?

    Save a lot of time, wasted money and grief for the nation … Next!

  • MikeO

    This is how he’s going to raise his domestic security force.

    The mayors’ wishlist projects are nothing more than excuses to create empty org charts so that he can put his armies of ACORN thugs on the federal payroll.

    It’s bad enough that, as you correctly observe, skillsets and workforce won’t match for a new WPA. What’s even worse is that our new community agitator overlords, just like Obama himself, have never done an honest day’s work in their entire worthless lives.

    Stockpile whiskey, beans, and bullets.

  • davo119

    You sit on the park bench and there are no pidgins. Throw out a couple of pieces of bread and within a few seconds a bird or two shows up. Within five minutes there are pidgins everywhere, dozens and dozens. They’re all over the place. Where did they come from???. Help!

  • $peciallist

    just like Aanold is trying to do…

  • Joe S.

    1) This would be an absolute economic failure as it would not drive sustainable growth and would contribute to crushing debt and massive inflation in a couple of years (weak global demand will keep inflation down over the next year.)

    2) Such a massive infusion of cash in such a short of period of time is going to result (as pointed out in the original post) in the distribution of tens of millions, if not billions, of dollars into countless worthless projects. The Obama administration will be unable to control them with proper oversight due to the timing (or lack there of), size, and number of these projects. Consequently, Illinois style corruption will dominate the nation as many of these contracts are used to repay the debts politicians owe to donors and special interest groups.

  • garhow

    Have any of those GA projects been approved for funding? Will they be? Do you have some crystal ball to forecast that?

    “The letter then includes a lengthy attachment with all sorts of projects the United States Conference of Mayors wants funded as part of the ?economic stimulus.?”

    The operative word here is “wants”.

  • Scope

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis-Bacon_Act

    Having worked for 2 non-union companies several years ago that did Government Contract work, I assure you that this is exactly where Obama is headed. As stated above in the Wiki definition, it was created mainly for the Construction Industry, as in Roads, Bridges, Highways and etc. The Davis Bacon Act addresses the rates, ie prevailing wages, that will be paid (mandated) for any who are awarded Government Contracts State or Federal. One of the companies I worked for was a concrete contractor. I assure you the corruption that takes place with many who are awarded the “bids” is astounding. You push the envelope a little, and you get away with it, then you push a little further and you get away with it again, and eventually you realize that, as in any government program, there is no one watching over your shoulder, and then total greed takes over. Unfortunately, not many get Blagovitched.

    I worked for a non-union company,and in short, you must name the number and wage category of every employee that will work on that contract. Non-union companies do not have to pay prevailing wage rates to any not physically working at the contract location, for example the administration. Achance can tell you about unionized companies, as that is his area of expertise. The prevailing wage rates are adjusted by geographical location. In addition every contract employee must be paid a “fringe benefit” which is adjusted by the employer’s payment towards the employee’s health insurance costs. For example, if the fringe benefit rate is $2.00 per hour for every hour worked, you would receive (for 40 hours worked) $80. minus the weekly amount the employer paid for health insurance. That fringe benefit must be paid in cash to the employee, or it must be deposited into a Government approved company who collects Davis Baconpension benefits. It is the employers choice, not the employees.

    My first hand witnessing of corruption- A group was asked to work on Saturday which was overtime, but they were told to take off Monday and to record the 8 hours for Monday, which were paid at regular time. In concrete work, if the wooden frame for sidewalks went over 6 inches, the framers were to be paid a higher rate (typical government stupidity) no one was there to measure the frame, they were paid the lower rate. The employees did not complain or report the incidents, as if they did, they would not have a job, and would most likely not be hired by any other concrete contractors because they were considered “rats.”

    Is Obama going to award the states monies to award State Government Contracts or will he turn all Government Contracts into Federal Government contracts that he and the Libs can more easily control. And, what will happen with the Health Insurance benefits when he nationalizes Healthcare. For me, they are the only questions that remain.

  • Achance

    You must have been working in a Red state, probably even a right to work state for there to have been any non-union contractors on a government job at all.

    Here’s the way it works in a Blue state or even a highly unionized Red state like mine: The federal money comes with its own terms and conditions and this lot may be agressive enough to put Project Labor Agreements in as a condition of even getting the money. But, it won’t matter much if they don’t, at least not in the union states.

    So, the federal money for the project goes to the state and then is either appropriated by the Legislature to the State itself or to a political subdivision of the State. If they have the power and they usually do, the unions will insist that the Project Labor Agreements be a part of the funding bill. This insures that the work will be union and at Davis-Bacon or better wages. If they can’t get the PLA at the state level, they go to the polisubs where they hold up the funding and all the permitting until they get it. They often act in concert with the greenies who can find all sorts of permitting objections to any public works project. Anyone with a vote on the funding or permitting has a hand on their leg at all times and in most places money, sex, entertainment, etc. changes hands until everybody understands how it is supposed to go down.

    This “stimulus” won’t be a social program like WPA which tries to put a bunch of farm boys on the dumb end of a shovel and give them a wage for it. This will be a massive raid on the Treasury by an exclusive little club already engorged by a decade plus of Republican largesse to “transportation” and other public works projects. ALL of this money will go to the exclusive club of Union Contractors and Union Labor. Thus are debts paid.

  • Next93

    If you see a seagull wearing a ballcap turned backwards and to the side, cross the street.

  • Scope

    I have no knowledge about unionized companies doing Government Contract work. The concrete company was in PA, and they are at this moment are a Right to Work state, but Big Labor is looking to repeal that in 2009. Given that Murtha’s constituients were called redneck racists, and they still voted for him, I expect Big Labor will win out.

    The other non-union company I worked for had Federal Contracts, and was also in PA. The owner was a License Veterinarian and he had one contract with the CDC to procure, care for and maintain the animals used for research (uggghhh). Another contract was to care for and maintain the military dogs at a military base. Both contracts were relatively new, as was he with Government Contract work. I did not find any corruption there. It did seem that the Federal Contracts were more closely monitored, or he hadn’t found a way around them yet.

    So, because you don’t think Obama will do a Works Project Act kind of plan, times have sure changed since then, do you see only those companies who are unionized or are forced to unionize in getting the bucks? What the he!! happens to us old folks who would drop dead trying to spread concrete or black top, or lay bricks? Don’t answer that, I know the answer. Drop dead!