--- On Tue, 8/18/09, Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> New Hampshire stimulus: $8.32 million per job
>
>
> posted at 2:57 pm on July 13, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
>
>
> When this stimulus money was first dished out in titanic
> proportions, a bit more time and effort on the part of
> Congress could surely have targeted for real job creation
> and long term benefits. Using it as a “stabilizing”
> stop-gap patch for failing state governments is resulting in
> it having roughly the same benefit as pouring golf balls
> down a gopher hole.
>
[WS:] What this implies is that federal tax dollars substituted gaps in state budgets i.e. state tax dollars. If that is indeed the case, the money went to sustain state services which otherwise would have to be shut down due to decline in state and local taxes. Not a bad thing, unless you are a construction tycoon hoping to shore up your bottom line with government largesse on highway construction.
When discussing the stimulus package in any meaningful way, it is necessary to to specify where the money actually went i.e. who received and for what purpose. What the quoted piece does is really bogus accounting which confuses transfers with operating expenses. It is as absurd as, say, treat all money loaned by a bank as its operating expenses i.e. money spent on wages, facility maintenance etc.
Pulling a smart alec and bamboozling the public with pseudo-rational arguments is an old trick of the right wing government haters. Unfortunately, the American public always falls for it.
Wojtek