More Stimulus Spending Madness - $738,000 for Each Job Created by US DOT

The Daily Caller videoed U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asserting that he is "very proud" that his agency created new jobs at cost $738,000 using Obama stimulus funding. From the Daily Caller:

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood told The Daily Caller that he is "very proud" of the Economic Recovery Act of 2009 that put 65,000 people to work with $48 billion in federal funds for the Department of Transportation, amounting to $738,461 per job.

The Recovery Act of 2009, which in total cost taxpayers $825 billion, has been criticized because it did not prevent the unemployment rate from rising above 8 percent, contrary to what the Obama administration predicted.

"Yeah, we spent $48 billion and we put 65,000 people to work in 15,000 projects in two years with no problems," LaHood told The Daily Caller in a video interview in Alexandria, Va., on Friday. "I'm very proud of that. I know that the governors can spend this money because over two years we gave them $48 billion, they created 65,000 jobs in 15,000 projects. This is doable. We're going to get the money out and get people to work."

A general benchmark is that investing $1 million in the private sector generates 10 new jobs, which means that the DOT "investments" fell short by more that 400,000 jobs. Paraphrasing the bitter joke about stock brokers: "The Feds are going to keeping investing our money until it's all gone."

Comments

[Lord Humungus]

don't worry, the gubbimint can just print more money! -derp

[Stilgar]

not meant to support the program but a little more has to go into the analysis. $1M might create 10 jobs in certain industries and less (or more) in others. Would like to know how much of the $48B went to wages and how much to get raped on supplies, equpiment and misadministration.

[aelhues]

Separating out the actual funds spent on salaries would be an easy way to be completely misleading. Leaving out all the other costs involved, would clearly be ignoring real costs.

Unless your point is to find out how many dollars ended up in workers hands, in comparison to dollars spent. That could be an interesting statistic.

[anon]

Details of the cost analysis are irrelevant as long as the same metric is applied between private and public sector jobs.

That said, I think the private sector creates jobs for about 100-150k/each, which makes the federal government look like a bunch of fucking retards. Probably because they are fucking retards.

[The Hammer]

Come on, give them a little credit. Some of them are just lazy frauds.

[DaveAnthony]

And some of them are malicious frauds...

[tres]

And where did all the money go? Bet the level of graft and payoffs far exceeds the standard everyday government graft and payoffs. How about a comprehensive audit?

[CE]

Just pick 65,000 people at random next time, and give them $738,000 each. I'm betting that would be a more effective stimulus.

[Whiterun Guard]

It's just about time to sauerkraut this country up.

[aelhues]

Did Ray LaHood say that shit with a straight face!?

[Mr. FIFY]

That's "Ray, The Hood".

[Kaptious Kristen]

Is he a member of the T Birds or the Scorpions?

[Brutus]

Spinal Tap

[Scarecrow Repair]

Spinal Crap

[Drake]

A cash crop duster over cities would be more a more efficient economic stimulator.

[CE]

The Ben Bernanke prefers helicopters. The cash gets spread more evenly.

[Auric Demonocles]

See, the stimulus just wasn't big enough. If they had just been given $350 billion instead of a measly $48 billion they would have created those other 400,000 jobs.

[Killazontherun]

More likely, each job would have cost around 6 million bucks instead of .78 million each.

[The Late P Brooks]

What a maroon.

[sage]

This is an outrage! I demand an investigation!

[Doctor Whom]

But ... but ... multiplier effect!

[Scarecrow Repair]

0.15 is a multiplier of the government variety.

[o3]

"The Recovery Act of 2009, which in total cost taxpayers $825 billion..."
_
so the payroll tax cut stimulus "cost" taxpayers?

[sage]

Yes, you're a moron. Next question.

[o3]

so the payroll tax cut money was the gummint's?

[WTF]

Have we reached peak derp yet?

[anon]

so the payroll tax cut stimulus "cost" taxpayers?

Where in that legislation do you see a payroll tax cut?

[Brett L]

Were any of these contracts no bid?

[TongReee]

Doesnt make a whole lot of sense to me dude. Wow.

http://www.Private-IP.tk

[Leebig]

Of course LaHood fails to mention anything about the results produced by the work of those 65,000 workers. Were roads upgraded? Sewer systems streamlined? Was there any benefit that would not have been gained by just giving 65,000 people a government debit card?

[anon]

That's probably my biggest pet peeve with these god damned federal "roads" projects; they never fix or upgrade the roads that actually need to be fixed, they always re-pave some fucking stretch of interstate highway that was paved last year.

[Auric Demonocles]

But don't you want to be able to drive 2 MPH faster on that interstate (except of course for the 2 months where half of the lanes are shut down for the paving)?

[anon]

Ahhhh, now it all makes sense! Those fuckers keep repaving that same section of interstate so they can generate revenue from issuing speeding tickets, thus perpetuating the repaving process! MOTHERFUCKERS!

[Auric Demonocles]

And, at least in some states, for the 2 months it's under construction, you can charge double price for speeding tickets!

[anon]

Wow. Lawmakers are geniuses; at fucking constituents out of their money.

[DaveAnthony]

Yeah I'm watching them repave I64 in VA this year (and not doing a very good job of it either) when there was absolutely *nothing* wrong with the road and I am almost positive they paved the whole thing last summer too.

STIMULUS!!! for a few well connected contracting companies.

[Brett L]

Actually, the 10 mile stretch of I-10 at Tallahassee is now 3 lanes both directions, which is awesome because Tallahasseeans drive on the highway like old people fuck. So it used to be that between the slowasses and the semis, you couldn't reach the speed limit during the day most times. So, I guess we did get that.

[anon]

That's one law that needs to be enforced more. Drive the fucking speed limit or better, else lose your license.

[Brett L]

I learned to drive in Houston, where the posted speed limit is actually the mandatory minimum. So, so frustrating to drive around here.

[Today's Tom Sawyer]

They stop to rest every five minutes?

[CE]

No, but traffic was slowed down for a few months.

[RickC]

Truth is I'd like to see the actual receipts (joke) from the supposed expenditures on each particular road/highway. Just east of where I live one of those make-my-blood-boil signs proclaiming stimulus dollars at work popped up out of the blue. That road had been under construction for over a decade and I might be wrong but suspect that all the money had long ago be appropriated for that project. Another of those signs popped up in our small downtown on some minor work with sidewalks. I have to say both of these appear to be bullshit claims. Makes me wonder how many other bogus claims were made under the stimulus.

[BakedPenguin]

The photo reminded me of FREE CAT.

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

The important thing here is, "GREAT Alt Text, Ronald!"

[Auric Demonocles]

Ron's a good guy. All those times I said, "Kill all humans," I'd always whisper "Except one."

[The Late P Brooks]

We're going to get the money out and get people to work.

That there is a champion hog caller.

[Sal Paradise]

The private sector would have simply wasted all of this money on monocle polishing and the torturing of street urchins.

[LTC(ret) John]

Torturing, never! Enslavement certainly.

[CE]

The Feds are going to keeping investing our money until it's all gone.

That's okay, they'll just borrow more after that to pay off the previous loans and fund new projects, all while claiming they're not bankrupt because they still don't spend every dollar the private sector produces each year.