In the stimulus, where will the new jobs come from? Will it be hard to tell?
August 30, 2010 by
Filed under new construction jobs
The White House says the nearly $800 billion stimulus bill will save or create about 3 million to 4 million jobs. But if you look through the bill itself, it’s hard to see where they are coming from.
In the 1,073-page document, the word “job” or “jobs” shows up only 59 times, if you exclude its appearance in titles or chapter headings. That’s about once every 18 pages.
In most cases, the word is used in sentences that define goals – such as “the purpose of this bill is to create jobs” – or in provisions requiring recipients of stimulus aid to estimate and publish how many jobs they have created or saved.
An unemployed person would be hard pressed to read the bill and figure out where to look for work, at least in the near future.
“The trouble is, the things that create the most jobs are the things that kick in the most slowly,” says Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist with HIS Global Insight.
“The biggest bang for the buck” will come from new infrastructure spending on things like roads, bridges and alternative-energy projects, Gault says. But few of these jobs will be created before 2010 or 2011. (After the 1989 earthquake, construction on the Bay Bridge retrofit didn’t start for 12 years, and it’s still not done.)
Read the article at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/15/BUKO15TMRH.DTL
Well if your a union worker or a government employee then the stimulus bill is good for you !!! Bad news is the overwnelmimg majority of us do not work for either a union or the government.
Not only that but the part of the bill that was to make sure they only hired Americans was taken out.
So say good bye to Americans taking jobs the illegals will have them.
Way to go ole botox face pelosi and choo choo harry.
29 minutes after that bill was signed, construction began on a bridge in Missouri.
President Obama Signs Stimulus Legislation
Today, President Obama signed H.R. 1, The American Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which would provide approximately $789 billion in tax cuts and spending to help jumpstart our nation’s lagging economy. The White House and Congressional leaders estimate that the package would create or save 3.5 million jobs over next two years.
After hearing from ASLA advocates, ASLA CEO Nancy Somerville, and other allied professional organizations about the job creation associated with and benefits of community parks and highway beautification projects, Congress adopted a final stimulus package that does not include language to prohibit stimulus funds from being used for community parks or highway beautification projects. However, the final bill does prohibit stimulus fund for certain other recreational projects. In particular, the bill states that “None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available in this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, or swimming pool.”
The final stimulus package also includes a number of other provisions important to landscape architects:
The National Park Service
The measure provides the National Park Service (NPS) about $750 million to complete infrastructure projects – like roads, bridges, and trails – in national parks. ASLA contacted legislators about concern for their eliminating $200 million for the repair and rehabilitation of the National Mall in the House version of the bill. While this funding for the Mall was not re-instated in the final stimulus package, a portion of NPS infrastructure funding could be used to begin the much-need work on the deteriorating National Mall. The Interior Department estimates that its portion of stimulus funds would generate about 100,000 jobs over the next two years.
Funds for wildfire management, including forest health protection on federal and state lands and private forests would be administered through the Department of Agriculture.
Transportation Infrastructure Programs
The bill appropriates $48 billion for the Department of Transportation (DOT) for transportation and infrastructure improvements, including highway projects and mass transit. Funds include $27.5 billion for “ready to go” highway infrastructure projects under the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), including $1.5 billion in discretionary grants for road, bridge, and rail projects. Of the $27.5 billion, $170 million will be used for park roads and parkways and $20 million will be used for highway surface transportation and technology. A total of $8.4 billion will go towards the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for mass transit projects, including $6.9 billion in transit capital assistance grants.
The bill would require three percent of funds appropriated under the Federal Highway Administration’s Highway Infrastructure Investment program in the bill be set aside for Surface Transportation Programs (STP), including the Transportation Enhancement Program.
Environmental Protection Agency
The bill also provides about $6 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, which provides grants to states for wastewater treatment and drinking water treatment projects. This provision requires that at least 20% of these funds be used for projects to address green infrastructure, water or energy efficiency improvements or other environmental activities. The EPA also received about $100 million for brownfields restoration projects.
Energy Efficiency
The stimulus package includes $20 billion in tax incentives to spur investment in renewable and alternative energy, aimed at “green” jobs to make wind turbines, solar panels and to improve energy efficiency in schools and federal buildings. The measure also appropriates $5.5 billion for federal building construction and repair projects, with an emphasis on projects that achieve high levels of energy efficiency.
Army Corps of Engineers
The bill also provides about $4.6 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers for construction, operation, and maintenance of the nation’s flood control and navigation infrastructure, as well as the construction of environmental restoration projects.
Tax Incentives for Small Business
The final measure contains two major tax incentives for small businesses: accelerated depreciation and increased expensing. Under the accelerated depreciation incentive, small business owners may take a 50% bonus allowance on 2008 capital asset purchases acquired in that year. The remainder of the asset can be deprecated under the regular rules. With the new increased expensing rule, businesses may elect to treat certain assets as an expense (known as Section 179), and deduct it in the year the property was placed in service, instead of depreciating it over several years. Business owners may expense up to $250,000 in S
What people need to understand is that if it does create any jobs, they are “temporary” jobs.
Seems to me that any jobs created will basically be temp jobs. SO how does that fix anything and with what we will have to payback in the long run , how did that get us ahead or even partially ahead.
Can be tracked on recovery.gov I know that but beyond that there is no way to know. I think no matter what he does. Even if the economy sky rockets in 3-4 years Republicans will still think he screwed the nation up because we still have homeless and illegal aliens and stuff. He cannot win with the republican population.
I think they’re banking on the idea that projects already planned and sitting in the wings waiting for the funding will kick in rather quickly. People will be hired to do those jobs and supposedly stimulate the economy. They’re not waiting around for new projects to be scoped out, planned and funded. Sure, it will take a while for it to all go fully into effect, but is is a little different than the situation you’ve noted. In the case of the bay bridge, the time lapse had much to do with planning around an unexpected mini-disaster, as well as funding the work. The projects they want folks to get to work on are already through that phase and are sitting on a shelf ready to go, and the funding doesn’t have to be worked out. That said, I find it difficult to believe that the stimulus will have any long term impact. Once all the projects are done and the money dries up, people will be laid off and back on unemployment. I also don’t believe that it will create tons of new jobs. Companies will still remain conservative in their labor costs and will bring on as few new laborers as they can get by with… knowing that the money will dry up and they’ll eventually have to let them go again.
Obie’s a genius…building castles on sinking sand.
Maybe the Republicans will get warm n fuzzy & build some more
McDonald’s & burger kings & Whatever else pays 5.00 an hour
so all these college kids can at least get a pay check
Thank you Republicans for all your jobs you create that really helps American workers..
Where would we be without all the fast food restaurants
Your question gave an idea: everyone who has their job saved, or who gets a new job created through the stimulus gets to wear a stimulus employment badge. Now who do I sell this idea to – the Democrats or the Republicans?
It will be impossible to tell so Obama can say he saved 3 million jobs. It is a lot BS because this is a spending bill not a job stimulus bill. One has to admit that Obama has gotten very good with smoke and mirrors. Peace