Some of you may remember that we had a rip-snorting recession and housing ‘bomblet’ hit about three years ago. In order to address the economic downturn and simulate the economy by adding new jobs, 2 million was the promise, President Hussein Obama conceived the Stimulus Bill. Well, he may not have actually been the intellectual power behind this, but he sure enough took credit for getting it passed.
Well now the State of Arkansas has just published its success in creating jobs from this stimulus money. But first some mind riveting facts:
1. Arkansas was “awarded” $3.3 billion “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” dollars.
2. To date, about $2.5 billion has been spent; about 75%.
3. Arkansas’s Department of Workforce Services reports at in February 2009 Arkansas’s unemployment rate was 6.8%; as of May 2011 the rate is 7.8%, about a 15% increase in unemployment with the $2.5 billion spent.
4. In February 2009 the state had 1,272,600 employed folks and 93,600 unemployed. As of May 2011 there were 15,100 fewer employed folks and 13,300 more unemployed workers.
5. The cost “per job created or saved” ranged from a low of $56,181.00 per job to a high of $216,583.00 per job.
6. If you were to divide $2.5 billion spent by the original 93,600 unemployed folks, you could have sent each of them a $1,000.00 check each and every month over the past 2 years.
In case you wondered where the states have been spending their stimulus funds, here’s where the state of Arkansas spent their ‘stimulus’ dollars:
1. Of the $1.008 billion given to Health and Human Services, $700 million has been spent on Medicaid.
2. Of the $740 million given to education, $509 million has been spent doing stuff.
3. Of the $836 million awarded for labor programs, $753 spent for unemployment insurance.
4. $364 million was given for highway programs of which $224 million is spent repaving highways and byways.
5. Of the $103 million for energy and weatherization programs, $45 million spent.
6. Of $131 million for housing and community development, $109 million spent.
So, of the totals listed above: $3.182 billion awarded to the state and of that $2.540 billion already spent. As mentioned, the results are employment down by 15,100 and unemployment up by 13,300.
You tell me if the stimulus program was worthwhile. Those who favor it make the argument that “it would have been so much worse without it”. Those agin’ say it was a trillion dollars added to our national debt and produced very little short and no long term benefits.
The Governor of Arkansas gave his opinion in the local paper on June 19, “Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, said he’s ‘not sure’ how much difference the stimulus money made in the state’s economy. ‘It helped some people’, he said.”
On the other hand, “The stimulus in Arkansas ‘hasn’t stimulated the economy, that is for sure,’ said Senator Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, co-chairman of the Legislature’s budget committee. But it did give Arkansas some relief on the Medicaid front.”
One thing is for sure, for dangsure, we spent a lot of money and added about 10 % to the federal debt with this stimulus program. The good news for you dear reader, if you are one of the ‘old ones’, it won’t be you who must pay it back. It’s your kids and grandkids and their kids who will have to pay it back. I'm not quite certain how you wrap that inheritance bequest up and make it look pretty.
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