Ohio Stimulus: Heavy on Programs, Light on Jobs

You might want to look into how the stimulus money is being spent on weatherizing older homes. My son, who was unemployed, looked into insulating homes as a way back into the job market as he had experience in that area. What he found out for the Omaha NE area was laughable. ALL of the insulation money is going to a “Non-Profit” entity, and they will hire “underemployed” personnel to perform the work. When asked if they had enough people and needed any help, he was told there would be no rush it get the work done as “The money they were given had to last at least five years.” As he left the office he noted that there were three brand new pickup trucks and one new large van, suitable for holding the equipment/supplies for installing insulation. I think that that will be the extent of the stimulus. It will buy the four new vehicles and pay the 3 or 4 management and administrative personnel for five years and be all used up – with little left for insulation. This is completely contrary to the idea of insulating older homes which could have been a win-win-win for everybody. First it would put people to work, second it would reduce the expenses of the elderly and poorer people living in the older un-insulated homes (A friend is spending over $300 a month in the winter to heat her house and she can’t afford the the $1000 to insulate the house.) The third way it would help is decrease the waste of fuel heating an un-insulated house – basically pumping CO2 into the air.

If you've ever watched the many documentaries regarding the Roman Empire, then you can appreciate what has happened to the United States. Remember Nero who was blamed for the burning of Rome. Essentially the same has happened to the United States. The rich and powerful weren't allowed to fail and now we all must pay the piper a heavy tax causing us many burdens, high inflation and such. However, it doesn't stop here. After Nero burned Rome, he blamed someone elase and it wasn't the Republicans. However, Nero did almost empty the treasury. Instead of Nero it's now the Democrats who have emptied the treasury of all the hard earned cash leaving the treasury empty and owing even the communist billions of dollars. Yes, the communist for which we spend the last 50 years fighting in a Cold War atmosphere. How will our histor unfold, a success or a failure resulting from our blithering idiologist in Congress. Only time will tell but the road to prosperity is long and hard and only will be come about if we fight for our freedom. Stand tall on the doorsteps of Congress with strong descent regarding the pilfrage of our democratic principles established over the past 200 years. Don't let socialism creap into our mainstream because we will only pay dearly as a nation with a diminished role in world advances in a democratic and equal society all because Congress has no morale compass nor backbone.

This is a tactical solution to a systemic problem. At the end of the day, when the stimulis money is all gone, we still face the problems that created this recession. This is a tactical approach to fix curbs, roads, public works and shore up social programs. There are too many "city planners" in Federal Government. What we need, and are strategic leaders. What we have is Hope & Change without Vision. But, with that being said, how much of this money benefit is really reaching the tax payers of Ohio? I imagine that there are a lot of non-profit organizations, government agencies and "preferred" private contractors that are profiting and getting more than their fair share of the bailout booty. I would venture to guess that no one is tracking how much of every dollar actually makes it to street-level. I would be surprised if it is much more than fifty-cents on the dollar.

This plan is nothing more than grand theft and those perpetraiting it should go to jail! Where is te supreme court?

The question "Stimulus" monies for the Individual with Disabilities Act and for Local Education Agencies, to some extent, revolves around the availability of certified teachers. Just as with the shortage of physicians to meet health care needs, there is a shortage of certified special education teachers and behavior analysts (especially needed for autistic spectrum disorders and severe/profound disabilities). Careful examination will show that often a person not certified is termed "qualified" to teach the disabled by simply enrolling in a certified "training program". This entire line of thought of unqualified persons to meet the immediate "Stimulus" needs is worth exploring.

Concerning the crime spending, I would always skew toward crime prevention in a big way. Every crime you prevent saves all money spent on potential victims of that crime.

Agreed that the stimulus is concentrating much more on social issues than economic stimulus. Many instances seem to be funds that will simply replace funds the states would obtain otherwise. Perhaps someone can take the time to assess the adverse impact of stimulus on existing contracts. I know of at least one case where an energy project that was near contract stage has been delayed for several months to attempt to obtain stimulus funding for said project. This delay is forcing the company to carry borrowing costs for at-risk work as well as find other work for employees originally scheduled to continue work on this project. Other companies might have already folded (resulting in the loss of jobs for all employees) based on cash flow and credit issues based on project delays similar to this situation. Forget creating jobs, how many jobs has the stimulus destroyed?

"We must quit this business of relief" and create 3½ million jobs for employables..." FDR 1935 "... laissez-faire capitalism does not always work, but massive economic depressions like the one now engulfing the world can be avoided by fairly simple governmental action such as investing in public works, encouraging capital goods production, and stimulating consumption by printing money to help restore the economic equilibrium." John Maynard Keynes 1936

The only stimulus that is happening is the stimulation of the massive egos of Obama and his sycophants. We need to administer the proverbial attitude adjustment on this bunch of ego-maniacal mongrels and self serving simpletons.