Stimulus Bucks to Start Flying

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

Bulk of Billions in Stimulus Money Will Hit Private Sector in Coming Months

What started as a trickle of money into the private sector could soon be a gusher, an analysis of the status of President Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan reveals.

A roughly $200 billion chunk of stimulus money  much of it earmarked specifically for projects ranging from highway repairs to alternative energy initiatives  is only just now beginning to wind its way from government agency coffers and into the economy, and will continue to do so over the next year. Warmer weather approaching in many parts of the country, meanwhile, brings the onset of construction season, another leading factor in what appears to be a looming deluge of federal outlay.

"The stimulus did not really impact the private sector economy during its first year," said Michael Balsam, chief strategy officer for Onvia, Inc., a Seattle-based database company which operates the Recovery.org Web site that tracks the flow of stimulus dollars. "We're now, at last, seeing the money start to hit local economies," Balsam added. "The good news is, this phase has only just begun."

However, critics of the stimulus remain steadfast that the spending measures, while perhaps well intentioned, still amount to little more than a glancing blow in the steel-cage match that is America's ongoing economic struggle.

"Sure, spending a trillion dollars won't hurt the economy," said Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "But even if you accept that a million jobs will result, that's still a drop in the bucket compared to the tens of millions of jobs that could have been created had we employed targeted investment tax breaks for the industries that most needed it. We could have, for example, completely retooled our auto industry. It's not too late to take that approach."

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/stimulus-bucks-start-flying/story?id=10055407

[frazzled]

1. Funny, I was just thinking of that this morning ...

When I read this blog post about the appointment of Edward Tufte to the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board --http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/03/a_historic_day_for_anyone_who.html -- and then followed the links to see some of his nifty graphics/statistics work at recovery.gov

What struck me as I moved my cursor over the states to see what had been awarded so far, and what has been given out, was that there was a whole lot of money about to hit the economy. Smart economic policy or smart politics? Maybe both.

Check it out yourselves (it's very cool):

http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/home.aspx

[ThisThreadIsSatire]

4. Good links -- thanks... nt

[xchrom]

2. I hate that crook Issa. Nt

[rasputin1952]

5. Issa is worthless...

absolutely worthless...x(

[Beavker]

3. Is it even necessary to quote or even interview a Republican

or Conservative? We know what they want. They want the opposite of Obama. Just say that at the end of your articles and save yourselves some time.

[backtomn]

6. Nice Plan

Why would you pass a "stimulus" that would not help in the FIRST YEAR??? I thought that was the point of a stimulus. I don't want to agree with this Repug, but what the Hell did we do with this stimulus?? I don't give a **it about party, but if $250 billion did nothing, I think that is a problem. No apologies to Rep. Issa.

[Winterblues]

9. More than two million jobs have been created or saved by the first wave of the Stimulus.

What would you have done differently? It takes time to get things in place and have accountability. Republicans would have just sent out every penny and then wondered what happened to it. They have NEVER believed in accountability or the USA would not be in the position it currently is..

[lark]

11. What would "I" have done differently

while this isn't addressed to me - I'll take a shot. I'd have NEVER given all the money to Wall St. and the banks without strings. We needed to say none of this can be used for any bonuses at the receipient firms, none can be used for payouts to other financial institutions, no bonuses at the firms until every dime plus interest has been paid back to the America people, money must be accounted for and reported on quarterly - any failure to report would be a default and the company would be closed if this was not remedied within 60 (?) days. We should have let OIG fail. That's a start of what should have been done with the Wall St./bank stimulus.

[Winterblues]

13. In the first place the TARP payout was under Bush*

although I will admit Obama was for it 100%, but it had nothing to do with jobs. All it was for was to stop the complete collapse of the US economy. I understand how people that don't pay all that close attention could confuse the American Recovery Act with the TARP payouts but they are completely separate and for different purposes.

[Igel]

18. The passage of TARP was under *.

It was divided into two $350 billion parts; the second required a separate vote by Congress.

The first part wasn't fully allocated when * requested the second tranche to be released. He said he'd only do it if Obama personally requested it, and the request was confirmed by Pelosi/Reid and approved by Congress only a couple of days before Obama's inauguration. None of it was used by *.

In other words, "in the first place, over half the TARP payout was under Obama."

What's odd is when Obama takes credit for the good TARP did while blaming * for the deficit it incurred. This is the reason he can do it.

[cutlassmama]

15. Cash for Clunkers and $8,000 to new home buyers were in the first year.

Both of those have worked remarkably well.

[earth mom]

7. That money would have been "flying" a lot sooner if they had given each taxpayer

a nice chunk of it to spend to stimulate the economy. Say 20K or so.

But gawd forbid they give a shit about the people and do something that really would help everyone.

Hell, I even had a conversation with a rethug recently and he shocked me when he said the exact same thing I said over a year ago-"they should have given everyone $20K to bail everyone out-not given the money to Wall Street!"

Has hell frozen over?! :wow:

[Gin]

8. here in Va Beach some road projects are going on... and there is

a sign stating it's because of the stimulus...

[No Elephants]

10. I hope this news is as good as it seems. But, we also need longer-term solutions.

[unblock]

12. issa claims TENS OF MILLIONS of jobs would be created by tax cuts for corporations???

that's just nuts. we wouldn't even create a few percent of that many jobs in india, let alone here.

assuming tax cuts work AT ALL, which in this environment, they wouldn't. tax cuts for corporations don't do much if you don't believe the consumer demand for your product is there.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. A bunch of stimulus construction projects are starting this week here in Philly. n/t

[BootinUp]

16. When did the repukes advocate "targeted tax breaks" I thought

they wanted across the board cuts. :wtf:

[jtrockville]

17. Tax breaks got us into this mess.