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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (91258)	9/18/2010 9:59:25 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	3 Recommendations Respond to of 224718

Sloooow Trickle Posted 09/17/2010 07:32 PM ET Stimulus: They're making a bundle inside the Beltway, while across the country it takes $2 million to create a pothole-filling job. Never has Washington spent so much to get so little real work. When the Democrats are in charge, the rich just get richer. Wait — isn't that what we're supposed to say about Republicans? Not so when federal stimulus funds are being spent. Washington has taken trickle-down economics to a whole new level of inefficiency. Those closest — literally — to the seat of federal power get the most. By the time the funds make their long journey to paychecks for people doing productive work, there's not a whole lot left. Take the example, revealed this past week, of how $111 million in stimulus money has so far funded a paltry 55 public-works jobs in Los Angeles. City Controller Wendy Gruel says two municipal departments, Public Works and Transportation, plan eventually to create or retain 264 jobs with that money, but the contracting process is so slow that most of the money is still waiting to be spent. So the price tag per job is $2 million at this point. Even if the city departments meet their target of 264, it will drop to only $420,000. This is still several times what workers will actually get paid. So where does all the money go in cases such as this? In part it goes to the capital costs and profit of the contractors. But much of it also gets absorbed into the normal process of government contracting, in which public employees are paid to ensure (ideally) that the taxpayers are getting the most for their money and aren't being cheated by favoritism. Of course, bureaucrats typically feel no need to rush things along. They don't get paid any less if a street gets repaved a few months late. L.A. may be worse than most at getting people to work, but its low return on stimulus spending is certainly not unique. Even projects touted by the Obama administration have this problem. Vice President Joe Biden on Friday cited one in which the New York City Department of Transportation is spending $175 million to renovate bridges and a parking lot, putting all of 120 people to work. That's $1.46 million per job. Another job on Biden's list, a highway project in Ohio, has created 300 jobs and costs $138 million — $460,000 per worker. The one area where stimulus spending unquestionably has created jobs — and quite a few — is in and around Washington. Unemployment there at last report (as of July) was 6.3%, well below the national average. Year over year, employment increased by 41,800 jobs, the largest total for any metro area. Los Angeles, by contrast, has an unemployment rate of 12.5% and has lost 23,500 jobs over the previous year. What's pumping up the D.C. job numbers is no secret. No doubt some folks are being put to work filling potholes, but the real gold mine is in the administrative overhead game. The task of dispensing all that federal money demands the services of private firms that draw up contracts, audit spending, see to the required disclosures and so forth. It's no shock that, as the Wall Street Journal reports, the stimulus outlay in D.C. and two adjacent congressional districts has hit $2,000 per resident, almost triple the national average. This is where the trickling-down starts, and there's a lot less left to trickle once the Beltway locals have had their fill.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (91258)	9/18/2010 10:04:31 AM
From: longnshort	3 Recommendations Respond to of 224718

The Tea Party Has Already Won Gene Taylor (4-MS) this week became the first House democrat to sign the Repeal Obamacare petition. Democrats in larger numbers are deserting Obama and calling for tax cuts for all Americans. A.B. Stoddart, at the Hill, observes that you don’t have to wait for November to tell that the tide has turned, the Tea Party has already stopped Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid’s leftist offensive. The war will continue, but the initiative has changed sides. Even before Christine O’Donnell handily defeated Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) in an epic upset Tuesday night, the Tea Parties, all of them, had already won. No matter what happens in the midterm elections on Nov. 2, the Tea Party has moved the Democrats to the right and the Republicans even more so, and President Obama’s agenda is dead. ... As of last week, before the House and Senate even reconvened, it was clear there were enough Senate Democrats joining Republicans seeking an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest earners that the Democrats don’t have the votes to pass President Obama’s permanent extension of the middle-class tax cuts without passing cuts for the top two tax brackets as well. When Obama introduced his latest economic proposals earlier this month, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), an ally of the Obama White House, immediately put out a statement not only criticizing Obama’s newest infrastructure plan but knocking the original stimulus as well. “I will not support additional spending in a second stimulus package. Any new transportation initiatives can be funded through the Recovery Act, which still contains unused funds,” Bennet said. Obama won’t get his infrastructure plan through the Congress, and he knows it. Next year, when he is running for reelection, tax and budget reform will be the only issues he could realistically work on with a GOP majority or a razor-thin Democratic majority. In other words, the Tea Party agenda. The Tea Party candidates themselves — like O’Donnell, whom Karl Rove called “nutty,” — matter little. Only a few will actually get elected this fall. Yet the Tea Party has won without them. There are no tea leaves left to read. Democrats have been spooked and Republicans threatened, cajoled or cleansed. The results are already in. ——————————————— Overseas, the center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung agrees: “Obama has underestimated the frustration in the country and the power of the Tea Party movement, which gives the prevailing disillusionment a platform and a voice. It is by far the most vibrant political force in America. Obama’s left-of-center coalition, which got young people and intellectuals involved and which appealed to a majority of women, blacks and Latinos, has evaporated into nothing. ... The new right, though, is on the rise. It sets the agenda. America is facing a shift to the right. The Republicans have already marched in this direction of their own accord, regardless how many Tea Party reactionaries get a seat and a voice in Congress in November. The Democrats and the president have been put totally on the defensive. From now on they will only be able to react, rather than act. neveryetmelted.com

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (91258)	9/18/2010 10:09:45 AM
From: chartseer	3 Recommendations Respond to of 224718

Johnson Surges Into Lead Over Feingold realclearpolitics.blogs.time.com comrade chartseer

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (91258)	9/18/2010 10:52:23 AM
From: chartseer	2 Recommendations Respond to of 224718

"L.A. gets $111 million in stimulus funds, creates 55 jobs" Actually it was stated created or saved 55 jobs. A little over 2 million a job! That sounds reasonable. I once bought a franchise for 15 thousand dollars and created six jobs. comrade chartseer