Obama Uses 2009 Stimulus Bill to Bailout State Government

Three new reports about the Democrats’ 2009 stimulus bill were recently released.

They include the following:

(1)    A report about how stimulus money was spent in Eighty-Six “competitive” House districts currently held by Democrat incumbents (CONCLUSION: it was spent poorly);

(2)    An in-depth analysis of where the money was spent in Illinois’ 8th Congressional District (CONCLUSION: it served to prop up state and local government jobs while doing little for the private sector); and

(3)    An analysis about certain districts containing state capitals (CONCLUSION: stimulus spending amounts to nothing more than a bailout for state government)

Using data from the Obama’s Administration’s recovery.gov website, the first report looked at data related to how stimulus money was spent in 86 “competitive” House districts with a Democratic incumbent.  Using recovery.gov information, the analysis also looked at: (1) the number of “awards” or projects funded in each district; (2) the amount of money spent; (3) the number of jobs that were created (or saved) in each district; and (4) the average cost to the American taxpayers for each job.

A related analysis looked in depth at stimulus spending in Illinois’ 8th Congressional District, which is currently represented by Rep. Melissa Bean (D).  According to recovery.gov, more than $226 million was spent in this district and only 169.46 jobs were created.  The average cost to taxpayers?  Over $1.3 million per job!!

The third analysis looked at the makeup of some of the 86 competitive districts. Districts where the Obama Administration claims to have saved or created the most jobs, the report concluded, also included the capital of that state.  In fact, in 13 of the 86 districts that had the lowest average cost per “job” for stimulus spending included the state capital.  This report supports the idea that the Obama Administration has run up record deficits to prop up state government while doing nothing to assist the private sector or grow the U.S. economy.
A couple of specifics from the reports:

(1)    In nearly half (39 of 86) of these Congressional Districts, the average job cost the taxpayers more than $1 million per job.

(2)    In these 86 districts, the Obama Administration spent more than $40 billion dollars ($470 million per district) to create a combined total of 162,711 jobs in those districts.

(3)    In Illinois’ 8th district, nearly 80% of the stimulus money was provided to government agencies and nearly 78% of the jobs created appear to be government jobs.

(4)    The stimulus spending has been disproportionately directed to districts that include state capitals and the spending amounts to nothing more than a state government bailout.

(5)    In some states, Kentucky and Missouri included, many more “stimulus jobs” were created in the district that includes the state capital than in the rest of the state combined.  In Kentucky, 82.6 % of all stimulus jobs were concentrated near the state capital while the other 5 districts average around 4% of the state’s stimulus jobs.

Clearly, the stimulus bill is nothing more than another taxpayer-funded bailout, aimed at chiefly benefitting government workers.  As a consequence, it has done little to grow our economy or to grow the private sector.

***Christopher Jaarda has worked as a legal counsel and policy analyst for the Senate Republican Policy Committee.  His expertise includes matters of tax, budget, judiciary, and national security.  Jaarda is a contributing editor for A Line of Sight.