A federal stimulus grant of nearly $500,000 yielded a whopping 1.72 jobs.

[Cancel 2018. 3]

A federal stimulus grant of nearly $500,000 to grow trees and stimulate the economy in Nevada yielded a whopping 1.72 jobs, according to government statistics.

In 2009, the U.S. Forest Service awarded $490,000 of stimulus money to Nevada's Clark County Urban Forestry Revitalization Project, aimed at revitalizing urban neighborhoods in the county with trees, plants, and green-industry training.

According to Recovery.gov, the U.S. government's official website related to Recovery Act spending, the project created 1.72 permanent jobs. In addition, the Nevada state Division of Forestry reported the federal grant generated one full-time temporary job and 11 short-term project-oriented jobs.

It also resulted in the planting of hundreds of trees -- which critics say is about the only good thing that came out of this stimulus project.

"Looking at the failure of the stimulus to live up to its promises, not just in Nevada, but throughout America, I think the question becomes ‘is there any good use of stimulus money?'" said Douglas Kellogg, communications manager for National Taxpayers Union, in an email to FoxNews.com.

A Nevada state official has a simple explanation for the low job growth.

"If the question is ‘was this a job-creating project?’ the answer is 'no, it wasn't,'" said Bob Conrad, public information officer for the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. "It was one of a number of projects that we do believe helped improve natural resources in the state."

Conrad said the $490,000 is being used for a number of projects. Those projects include tree inventories, salaries for staff at the nurseries through the Nevada Division of Forestry, plant material and plant supplies.

"The goal obviously was to make trees available to local government entities, parks, schools, things like that, at our state nursery," said Conrad. "We basically grew and provided about 2,000 trees to these local entities."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ck-jobs-officials-say-it-wasnt/#ixzz1VmXMCWtI


great job obama! no wonder he finally had to concede there weren't any shovel ready jobs. the stimulus mismanaged to say the least.

 

[Onceler]

Please, ODS guy. Time was of the essence when they passed this; they knew that there would be waste. Had they honed it perfectly, it would have taken so long that it would have defeated the purpose.

This is like posing a report about the Pentagon spending $300 on a wrench & saying that military spending is useless...

 

[SmarterthanYou]

Please, ODS guy. Time was of the essence when they passed this; they knew that there would be waste. Had they honed it perfectly, it would have taken so long that it would have defeated the purpose.

This is like posing a report about the Pentagon spending $300 on a wrench & saying that military spending is useless...

this is why you fail. this kind of waste is self defeating.

 

[Cancel 2016.2]

Please, ODS guy. Time was of the essence when they passed this; they knew that there would be waste. Had they honed it perfectly, it would have taken so long that it would have defeated the purpose.

This is like posing a report about the Pentagon spending $300 on a wrench & saying that military spending is useless...

Give me a break, they didn't have to rush anything. This is simply your attempt to provide yet MORE excuses for the failure by Obama. Quit being an apologist.

 

[Onceler]

this is why you fail. this kind of waste is self defeating.

To an extent it is, but I would disagree that it is in this case. For every story like this, there are 3-4 about real jobs being created from the stimulus. If you look at Nevada alone, there are thousands of jobs in green energy, education, et al. that have been created, and both the gaming & arts commissions have credited the stimulus for saving thousands more in their respective industries.

So, you get the occasional "wasteful" story, which tend to get the press. But waste was inherent in the process - they needed to get something done fast, or the market would have kept tumbling. And market losses = lost jobs.

 

[Onceler]

Give me a break, they didn't have to rush anything. This is simply your attempt to provide yet MORE excuses for the failure by Obama. Quit being an apologist.

You forgot what the first few months of 2009 were like. The market was in a free fall, and they were talking Depression.

Time was of the essence.

 

[Cancel 2018. 3]

this is why you fail. this kind of waste is self defeating.

it is wasteful spending. the stimulus might <-- big might, have been successful if it had been managed more wisely. i'm amazed no pub candidates have gone after obama for his shovel ready embarrassment.

 

[Cancel 2016.2]

You forgot what the first few months of 2009 were like. The market was in a free fall, and they were talking Depression.

Time was of the essence.

No, I have not forgotten. Do you honestly think that every single 'stimulus' project that got funding was listed in the legislation that passed the total funding?

Passing the amount of spending was necessary to help stop the bleeding. But the DETAILS of HOW to spend it came later. THAT is where the admin fucked it all up.

 

[Onceler]

No, I have not forgotten. Do you honestly think that every single 'stimulus' project that got funding was listed in the legislation that passed the total funding?

Passing the amount of spending was necessary to help stop the bleeding. But the DETAILS of HOW to spend it came later. THAT is where the admin fucked it all up.

I'd love to see the circumstances under which occasional stories like the one in the OP do not appear. This was a large spending allocation, and yes, time was of the essence. Opponents & detractors act as though this is the legacy of the stimulus, but for the literally hundreds of thousands of people who have jobs because of it, and for the hundreds of thousands more whose jobs were saved (and yes, lots of those are documented), the legacy is quite different.

I have seen such wild exaggerations about the stimulus. Again, the GOP repetition of "the failed stimulus" has definitely had an effect. On this site alone, more than one poster has claimed that NO jobs were created, and that stimulus money fell into a "black hole." I hate to burst that bubble, but a great many jobs WERE saved & created. As many as promised? No. But threads like this are BS. Have you seen even one thread on this site about jobs that were created because of the stimulus? Why do you think that is...because there were no jobs, or because posting those stories doesn't support an agenda?

 

[The Dude]

Obama's fear mongering indicated depression, Main street had to be told to panic becuase there was nothing for them to panic over.

 

[Onceler]

Obama's fear mongering indicated depression, Main street had to be told to panic becuase there was nothing for them to panic over.

Nothing to panic over? What do you consider panic-worthy? Is losing your job w/ a family to support worthy of panic? How about foreclosing?

 

[Cancel 2018. 3]

A Shovel-Unready President

Back in early 2009, President-elect Barack Obama was asked on Meet the Press how quickly he could create jobs. Oh, very fast, he said. He'd already consulted with a gaggle of governors, and "all of them have projects that are shovel-ready." When Obama revealed the members of his energy team, he explained that they were part of his effort to get started on "shovel-ready projects all across the country." When he unveiled his education secretary, he assured everyone that he was going to get started "helping states and local governments with shovel-ready projects."

In interviews, job summits, and press conferences, it was shovel-ready this, shovel-ready that. Search the White House website for the term "shovel-ready" and you'll drown in press releases about all the shovels ready to shove shovel-ready projects into the 21st century, where no shovel is left behind.

Only now it turns out that the president was shoveling something all right when he was talking about shovel-ready jobs - a whole pile of steaming something.

In the current issue of The New York Times Magazine, Obama admits that there's "no such thing as shovel-ready" when it comes to public works.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/10/16/a_shovel-unready_president_107606.html

what a great success

 

[Cancel 2018. 3]

more stimulus success.....

Unemployment still exceeds the Obama-guaranteed 8 percent unemployment rate two years after the bill's passage. In the same time period, network news barely reported that the stimulus failed to halt the sharp rise in unemployment. ABC 'World News,' CBS 'Evening News' and NBC 'Nightly News' all paid plenty of attention to the stimulus and its accomplishments, but more than 98 percent of those evening broadcast stories skipped over the administration's failed prediction.

http://www.mrc.org/bmi/biasbythenum...etworks_Ignore_Obamas_Failed_Job_Promise.html

 

[Onceler]

more stimulus success.....

Unemployment still exceeds the Obama-guaranteed 8 percent unemployment rate two years after the bill's passage. In the same time period, network news barely reported that the stimulus failed to halt the sharp rise in unemployment. ABC 'World News,' CBS 'Evening News' and NBC 'Nightly News' all paid plenty of attention to the stimulus and its accomplishments, but more than 98 percent of those evening broadcast stories skipped over the administration's failed prediction.

http://www.mrc.org/bmi/biasbythenum...etworks_Ignore_Obamas_Failed_Job_Promise.html

You sure are good at that cut & paste stuff, ODS guy. You must have searched "failed" with "stimulus" - creative.

The prediction failed - by about 1%. The stimulus itself did not.

 

[The Dude]

Nothing to panic over? What do you consider panic-worthy? Is losing your job w/ a family to support worthy of panic? How about foreclosing?

who was losing jobs outside of wall street before Obama ran around like chicken little?

 

[Onceler]

who was losing jobs outside of wall street before Obama ran around like chicken little?

Really?

Were you on earth in late '08 & early '09?

 

[The Dude]

who was losing them besides wall street, nobody

 

[SmarterthanYou]

Nothing to panic over? What do you consider panic-worthy? Is losing your job w/ a family to support worthy of panic? How about foreclosing?

in these instances do you blame yourself, your employer, or the government? who do you expect to fix it?

 

[Onceler]

who was losing them besides wall street, nobody

Over 500,000 jobs were lost in December of 2008 alone.

Those were all wall street guys?

 

[Onceler]

in these instances do you blame yourself, your employer, or the government? who do you expect to fix it?

I don't expect the gov't to fix it. I never thought the stimulus would be a "fix"; more like a band aid. Something to stem the bleeding, give the private sector time to catch its breath & then let the private sector take over.

I'm pretty capitalist. Obviously, something else is needed at this point. One thing I do agree with a poster like SF on is that we need some sort of "moon shot" initiiative on energy. There are opportunities out there to create a boom, and definitely, the private sector has to lead those opportunities, but the gov't can help.