The Obamulus Has FAILed – MN’s $3 Billion Not Stimulating Jobs
As if some people didn’t see this coming, the Strib has its best shocked face on as it profiles how the $3 Billion Minnesota got from Obama’s trillion dollar stimulus, isn’t doing a damn thing to help the economy. The Economist in Chief has failed. I guess being a community organizer doesn’t make you qualified to take over an economy.
Stimulus cash fails to pave way to new hiring in Minn.
The federal stimulus money was supposed to give Minnesota’s workforce a jolt of energy, but so far it’s just a tingle.
As construction season gets into full swing, companies are starting to recall workers laid off last year. But even some companies that are beneficiaries of the new federal spending say they’re unlikely to recall all their laid-off workers — and less likely to hire new ones.
Minnesota got about $3 billion in stimulus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, including $502 million for road construction and $107 million for municipal drinking water or waste treatment facilities. All that spending must be in the works within a year.
“We’ve picked up two road construction projects funded by the stimulus money, on Hwy. 169 in Onamia and St. Peter,” said Brad Mattson, corporate secretary of Shafer Contracting in Shafer, Minn. “We hope this gets us through 2009, because the economic forecasts for 2010 are more promising.”
But Shafer Contracting probably won’t need more than 40 or 50 additional workers for the stimulus-funded highway projects, and those would be drawn from a pool of 100 workers the firm employed last year but hasn’t needed in 2009.
That contrasts with favorable forecasts about how the stimulus should work. The Minnesota Department of Transportation has $375 million to spend on state highways and bridges (the rest of the highway money is shared with counties and cities), and for every $1 million spent on road or bridge construction, 28 to 34 jobs should be created, said Tim Worke, highway division director for Associated General Contractors of Minnesota, a trade association based in St. Paul.
“But the road construction market has been depressed for a long time, and most companies have laid-off workers they would be calling back to work,” Worke said. “It wouldn’t be until after the established crews are back that they’d look at hiring any new seasonal employees.”
Of course the Strib goes the extra mile to find some good in Obama’s plan, but first they expose the flaw in the Obama plan.
Part of the problem is that only 10 to 20 percent of the Montevideo project’s cost goes toward labor, he said. The other 80 to 90 percent goes to purchase heavy equipment. That means if new jobs are created by the stimulus-backed wastewater project, they are more likely to be at the non-Minnesota company that manufactures the heavy equipment than at his Minnesota-based construction firm.
They also go on to point out how an engineering firm that dabbles in the new ponsi scheme of wind power, is looking to hire some (SOME) people thanks to the glut of taxpayer handouts for the flawed energy theory of wind power. (oh yes, it is a theory. It has yet to work anywhere yet. It is a supplemental source, but NOT a replacement for fossil fuels at this point)
But the point of the post is that Obama’s great big plan to save the economy is at best, just going to sock future generations with inflation and debt with little to no gain today. That is all we can count on. Everything else is going to be by luck or by crook. Some of us said this would happen. We were called heretics. We were chastised by the smarter people in the center right and media.
Turns out we were right. Obama is unqualified to be Economist in Chief. I am waiting for the apology.
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