CNN Poll: 3 of 4 Americans Say Stimulus Money Wasted

While the public may not be an accurate measure to determine the success of the program, there has yet to be a reasonable method to determine its impact.

There are certainly some conclusions you can draw from this poll to support its impact. First, CNN is no where skewed towards the conservative side. A programs success is often gauged by public opinion, regardless of the truth in the matter. Coming from a liberal leaning base, this does say a lot.

If 75% of the public feels like its been wasted, then its safe to say most of these individuals either have not seen the impact because it wasn't communicated (not likely considering projects are frequently publicized) or they are aware of actual projects and feel its a waste. I live in a small town and I have seen at least 4 projects funded by stimulus money. All 4 did absolutely nothing in creating jobs (outside the one month it took to complete the projects) and none of them were even remotely close to being needed. I believe the public has a better view of how its being spent than many realize.

 

That you would defend a complete imbecile says a lot about how far you have fallen from reality

 

This thread is probably more amusing as poo flinging, but here's another take on the stimulus, from the mayor of Phoenix. Differing opinions differ.
Link to CNN editorial

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Phoenix, Arizona (CNN) -- When America's financial institutions crumbled and housing values plummeted, cities and families across the nation felt the tremendous impact.

Almost overnight, the reality of how we live our lives and govern our communities shifted dramatically. To make matters worse, no road map to help us navigate these new and troubled waters was delivered to our doorstep. It had to be created.

Endless dialogue and analysis about whether or not the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is working has become a cottage industry among economists, professors and political commentators.

The debate of whether or not the stimulus has in fact "stimulated" our economy will continue for months, and possibly years to come. But the picture in Phoenix, Arizona, is clear: Because of ARRA, key projects are under way, our environment is improving -- and thousands of people are going back to work.

Meet James Ceaton.

Phoenix has more than 300 days of sunshine a year, so it doesn't surprise anyone to learn that a key to our local economy is tourism. Moving individuals in and out of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport efficiently is critical to our economy.

At a time when our economy had slowed to a point where new infrastructure projects did not seem possible, the city was awarded $11.7 million from ARRA to reconstruct a taxiway at the airport. Until now, the taxiway was able to handle only small aircraft and ground vehicles. When complete, it will be capable of moving large commercial aircraft between the north runway and the terminals at Sky Harbor.

Ceaton is a construction worker who was hired for the job. "Without the stimulus," he told the Phoenix Business Journal, "I would still be out of a job." Because of the stimulus, though, he continues to work, to support a family, to pay a mortgage and to make purchases that contribute to our economy.

Meet the Lovato family.

While cities on the East Coast struggle to keep utility bills low for residents during cold winter months, our hot summer months can cause a significant economic burden on Phoenix residents.

The Lovato family in central Phoenix was the first family of 1,200 households that will benefit from the city's $7.2 million ARRA weatherization grant during the next three years. Weatherizing the Lovatos' home is expected to shave 30 percent to 40 percent from the family's $440 monthly energy bill. The project also employed six full-time and a dozen part-time workers.

Scott Lovato, who lives with his wife, Angela, and two children, Christian, 13 and Sarai, 11, commented, "At a time when the economy really stinks and people were out of work, a lot of people were working on this," he said. "This put paychecks in their pockets so they could feed their families. I think that is probably the best thing out of all of this."

Meet Jeanne Simons. (B-Bob edit: Gene Simmons now teaches junior high? Heaven help us all... or every junior high girl in Phoenix.)

Simons is a seventh- and eighth-grade teacher at Gateway School in Phoenix. Last year, she was told that if ARRA funds were not approved, she would lose her teaching position. If her position had been eliminated, the remaining teachers would have faced class sizes of between 40 and 50 students -- a daunting task for any educator to face.

Ceaton, the Lovato family and Simons are only three of the thousands of Phoenicians who continue to be employed and contribute to our economy. And they, and we, have the ARRA to thank for it.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Phil Gordon.
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B-Bob adds: Also, Meet the Feebles before you're done.

 

If your sub-Econ 101 level of comprehension is any measure, which i suspect it is - I fear it's much worse.

 

2 out of 3 Americans have no idea what the hell they are talking about.

 

That was just all the attention it deserved.

 

I suspect if you polled those exact same people and asked them what was in the stimulus package they would have no clue.

Nor would they know that almost 10% of it or 70 BILLION dollars is the yearly AMT patch the GOP stuck in there to drive the number close to a Trillion for "political reasons".

Nor would they have a freaking clue what Build American Bonds are but they are a huge success.

When Congress wrote the Build America Bond program into February's $787 billion economic-stimulus bill, many predicted a flop. Nine months later, the municipal-bond program, which provides a federal subsidy to help states and other local governments raise funds, looks to be one of the economic recovery effort's biggest successes. Earlier this month, the volume of BABs, as they have come to be called, crossed the $50 billion mark.

"People originally said it would eliminate the issuance of municipal bonds," says John Cummings, who is head of muni-bond investments at money-management firm PIMCO. "Instead they have stabilized the market and helped to create jobs."
(See the top 10 financial-crisis buzzwords.)


Observers say Build America Bonds have lowered borrowing costs for states and other local governments. The bonds have renewed and expanded investor interest in the muni-bond sector. And by getting money into the hands of cash-strapped local governments, the bond program has saved or even boosted jobs, stimulating the economy. Many investors are already lobbying to extend the program, which is not expected to close until the end of 2010.

"It's the biggest thing to hit the municipal-bond market in a generation," says Amy Resnick, the editor in chief of The Bond Buyer, which tracks the muni market. "It's clearly been a success as a means of stimulating the economy."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1939720,00.html#ixzz0dgQXtewW

The people in this country are very very stupid, want proof? Go look at the ratings for crap like Jersey Shore, Keeping up with the Kardashians, etc. hell there is even now a Fox Reality Channel.

Bread and Circuses for the woefully ignorant. What do you expect I guess these are the same morons who thank Reagan was a good President.

 

This is from a Pew Center poll in 2007. Particularly amusing is that the only people less knowledgable than Fox News viewers are people who only watch Network News in the AM. But all around, the numbers are dismal.







So I think your supposition is probably correct. You could probably count on between 1 and 3 in 10 to be able to articulate any detail of the stimulus.

 

wait what

I'm actually shocked only about 60% of Americans can identify Peyton. he has about as many commercials as DD has posts on here.

 

Global and US economies are already rebounding, and likely will be doing so with some gusto moving into 2011. You could still argue the stimulus money wasn't spend wisely, or shouldn't have been spent (spent, granted, etc.) at all, but I think that is a different point than those answering the polls were attempting to make.

 

Good point about the point of the poll. I read a poll awhile back that asked Americans if they felt the government should provide welfare. Something like 30% said yes. Then they asked if the government should provide aid to the poor and something like 60% said yes! It's all in how you present the material.

Limbaugh, Beck, and the rest of these @ssclowns know how to win the hearts and minds of the ignorant, just feed them simple phrases and buzzwords like socialism, porkulus, etc.

They say their taxes are going higher when the stimulus package reduced their payroll taxes, and provided tax credits for the middle class like the American Opportunity Credit for education.

You would think after the destruction caused by Reagan and McCarthy people would start researching and questioning simplified rhetoric and scare tactics.

 

I posted this in another thread, but it seems very appropriate here as well (see #3).

 

I agree. They definitely could have presented it differently with at least an attempt to explain the reasoning behind it.

 

how do you account for the fact that the greatest number of respondents in the moderate--> high knowledge range were O'Reilly viewers, and rush is not far behind?

 

How do you account for the fact that Rush is tied with the viewers of Comedy Central and only four points behind O'Reilly in that range?

Of course, Faux "News" viewers were comparatively addle-brained.

 

i'm sorry, what network does o'reilly appear on?

 

Good Job Mr President!

CBO: Stimulus Put Up To 2.8M People To Work In First Quarter

It sure sounds like it's working...

The CBO now estimates that the stimulus put as many as 2.8 million people to work in the first three months of this year -- and raised GDP by as much as 4.2%.

The CBO estimates that the stimulus put 1.2 million to 2.8 million to work in the first quarter, and boosted GDP between 1.7% and 4.2%.

Thanks to the stimulus, the unemployment rate was lowered by between .7% and 1.5% in the first quarter, the CBO estimates.

 

Without a time machine to go back and try it numerous other ways, we'll have no idea how wasteful or valuable it was/is. We are all guessing, just some more educated then others.

 

True, just look at the quote in my sig. He is nothing but a shill.

 

It certainly was better than what Shovelfail posted.