Businesses feel no real effect from "stimulus"
Contrary to what the Obama Administration and it's apologists want you to believe, despite increased government spending on a scale we haven't seen since the Great Depression, businesses are still struggling:
President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package is not having as big an impact as some thought it would.Veronique de Rugy, an economist at George Mason University, took a look at how stimulus spending is faring. In short, it's not very efficient, but what else would you expect from government:A survey of 3,100 U.S. private- and public-sector hiring managers finds just 23 percent experienced an increase in business in the third quarter as a result of the stimulus program, while 77 percent did not.
The survey, conducted for CareerBuilder, found 6 percent of respondents received direct funding from the stimulus program. Of those, 36 percent said they plan to hire new employees in the fourth quarter, while 42 percent reported having already hired employees as a result of receiving funding.
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Of those who did not receive stimulus funding, 14 percent reported that their organizations still benefited as a result of increased business. Twenty percent said they hired new employees this year as a result of the increased business, and 19 percent plan to hire in the fourth quarter.
The reality is likely at the crossroad of these three explanations. First, the data show that much of the money has been allocated randomly among states without regard for the level of unemployment in those states.Expensive. Inefficient. Catering political interest groups. The "stimulus" bill has been good at one thing...placing debt on the backs of future taxpayers.Second, much of the money has been spent to close budget gaps in the states, which often means keeping union-protected school teachers in their jobs and paying for public-sector jobs rather than creating jobs in the private sector. For instance, according to Recovery.gov data, so far a little over 13,000 contracts went to independent contractors and over 116,000 grants went to public agencies. Also, reports have shown that the stimulus funds have been used to pay for employees whose jobs were never in danger (see California for instance).
Finally, the data on Recovery.gov reveals that many private-sector jobs were created at very high cost to taxpayers. For instance, $437,675,000 was awarded to CH2M WG IDAHO, LLC, in Washington to create 496 jobs. That’s $882,409 per job. That’s not as bad as the $257,613,800 awarded to the Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC, in New York to create 25 jobs. That’s over $10.3 million per job.
