Report: Obama to tell us some jobs are shovel-ready, after all
President Obama, late September 2010, to the New York Times: “[T]here’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects” when it comes to public works.
President Obama, about a year earlier (off the record to the Times’ David Brooks): “Shovel-ready jobs” don’t exist.
President Obama, June 13, 2011, at a meeting of his jobs council: “Shovel-ready was not as…uh…shovel-ready as we expected.”
CBS News, August 27, 2011, in a report on President Obama’s forthcoming plan to boost job creation:
The President wants to spend big on the nation’s roads and bridges, starting with a two-year, $109 billion spending package that’s been stalled between the House and the Senate — but which he argues — will put tens of thousands of people back to work quickly. (emphasis added)
How much is $109 billion over two years — and how much impact is it likely to have? Well, the 2009 stimulus has disbursed $20.9 billion toward infrastructure, with the number of jobs created as a result peaking at 30,597 in the third quarter of 2010, according to Recovery.gov. (It’s now at 23,109.)
How’s that working out for you?
Do you think the president will explain why the shovels are standing at the ready this time, or (my prediction) will he just act as if he never said all those things in the past?
Note: This post has been edited to correct the spending information from Recovery.gov.
– By Kyle Wingfield
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
140 comments Add your comment
Gm
August 29th, 2011
3:03 pm
Did you see the roads and bridges during the Hurricane? they are 19th 20th Century, President Obama has been trying to get something done on this since he took office, but our hypocrites hateful tea party people have held their party leaders hostage””’
Please tea party idiots come out the 20th Century
Joe The Plumber too.
August 29th, 2011
3:10 pm
hey gm, who was in control of both house for the first two years years of barry the boy blunders reign? And you call tea party members idiots?
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
August 29th, 2011
3:14 pm
There is so much partisan gnashing to teeth on this subject that it’s hard to know where to begin.
Did this President promise shovel-ready jobs and not deliver? Yes.
Did he backtrack on that terminology? Yes.
Did the Stimulus create anywhere near the jobs the administration said it would? No.
Did it SAVE anywhere near the jobs they said it would? Yes. (However, LOCAL governments should have provided for their own teachers, fire and police rather than having the country go into debt for their lack of cojones in raising taxes)
Does spending $1 in stimulus funds provide for $1.44 in spending? No, especially if you go into debt in order to spend that $1. Given the size and length of time to pay off our debt, it is a net loser when all is said and done.
Does our infrastructure need attention? Yes.
Will $109 billion cover it? Not even close.
Is there a plan to responsibly pay for this $109 billion in new stimulus? Not even close.
Prognostication? DOA unless the GOP can find $109 billion in associated cuts to offset.
morris wise
August 29th, 2011
3:14 pm
Four hundred billion in frozen Libyan assets invested wisely could put every unemployed American back to work.
We put the lives of our boys on the line and deserve the spoils of war.m
JD in Marietta
August 29th, 2011
3:16 pm
GM, you don’t know your A– from the so called holes in the roads and bridges that you speak of. All repairing roads and bridges are going to do for the economy is put a few state road contractors(CW Matthews in GA for example) to work for half a year…and they’ll staff up and hire temp labor. That’s it. And thats Obamas solution for the economy…fix a couple potholes? The man knows nothing, does nothing, except spend money we dont have on fantasy projects that we dont need.
Lil Bushie Bailout (Revised Upward)
August 29th, 2011
3:36 pm
JDW, the 17th Street Bridge was recently built, obviously shoddy work, as it is falling apart. More government efficiency needed not more money to spend.
______________________________________________________________
But Rafe, that would require regulation. Contards — talking out of both ends.
Lil Bushie Bailout (Revised Upward)
August 29th, 2011
3:38 pm
Let’s bury him and the other Taxo crats who want to give freedoms to the illegals for making it over here.
__________________________________________
Do you mean like ole Saint Ronnie did?
Lil Bushie Bailout (Revised Upward)
August 29th, 2011
3:40 pm
“I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5 pound largemouth bass in my lake.” –Bush on his best moment in office, interview with the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, May 7, 2006
JDW
August 29th, 2011
3:44 pm
@Obozononics, well lets take a look,
First you wrote “is there some reason that you “believe” the democrats and not the republicans? Are you so stupid that you think they are different?”
Empirical evidence…since Reagan every Republican has preached smaller government, lower taxes and fiscal responsibility. In each case they have dramatically ramped spending, cut taxes and exploded the budget. Clinton on the other hand balanced the budget and created the greatest period of economic success in history. As for me I got fooled for a while. I voted for Reagan and Bush 1, then I learned.
Then your wrote….”Idiots that believe that are the reason we have Obozo, and since yo9u Bush bash at every turn let me bother you with some FACTS.”
First off, you need to review my 1:22, things are far far better now than they were. Are we done yet no, should we go back…HELL NO.
Then you wrote…”How about keeping the Bush tax cuts in place, I thought you liberals hated that.”
Agreed, big mistake, he should have let the whole mistake expire.
“Then there is the Patriot Act which the left cried about but Obozo expanded on and kept the rest of it in place”
Mostly agree, he did scale back some of the more egregious policies but could have done more.
And lastly you wrote
“Then there was the cry that Bush was spending like a drunken sailor, then what do you call spending 3 times as much as Bush in half the time. ”
I think you are confused take a look at the real numbers
Fiscal Year Owner Spending +(-)(In Billions)
2002 Bush $2,011 +6.00%
2003 Bush $2,160 +7.41%
2004 Bush $2,293 +6.16%
2005 Bush $2,472 +7.81%
2006 Bush $2,655 +7.40%
2007 Bush $2,730 +2.82%
2008 Bush $2,931 +7.36%
2009 Bush $3,517 +19.99%
2010 Obama $3,720 +5.77%
2011 (Est) Obama $3,833 3.04%
2012 (Est) Obama $3,754 -2.06%
Average Bush increase 8.12%. Average Obama increase 2.25%. Again the problem is not Obama but recovering from the Duhbya effect.
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy11/pdf/hist.pdf
Lastly you wrote:
“Looking at the FACTS you should hate Obozo,”
I think you need to review your assumptions…the FACTS are clear. Does he do everything right, no…would I vote for someone better yes. However Romney, Bachmann, Cain, Perry et al don’t rate a seconds consideration. Huntsman, maybe, but he will fail the Repugnican purity test so I won’t get the chance to decide.
JDW
August 29th, 2011
3:46 pm
@Road Scholar, I am in Buckhead.
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
August 29th, 2011
3:48 pm
JD, you’re spot on.
The only thing government can do in the private sector is:
A. Create temporary jobs.
B. Slow down job recovery.
That’s it. The only permanent jobs government creates are those in the public sector. So they’d better have a way to pay for this stimulus with offsets or it isn’t gonna fly.
JDW
August 29th, 2011
3:50 pm
@LBB…”the 17th Street Bridge was recently built, obviously shoddy work, as it is falling apart. More government efficiency needed not more money to spend.”
I believe the responsiblity would lie with the PRIVATE CORPORATION that did the work not the government whose specs were not followed.
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
August 29th, 2011
3:53 pm
JDW, since it was the Republican-led CONGRESS that balanced the budget during Clinton’s term, you should be all for those days, shouldn’t you?
And why should an artificially-created dot.com bubble that burst under Bush be considered a great economic achievement?
get@yahoo.com
August 29th, 2011
4:02 pm
Kyle,
Don’t be silly.
Presidential elections.
I guess that is a no on writing the gop should work with our President.
Figures.
getalife
August 29th, 2011
4:04 pm
Ooops.
JDW
August 29th, 2011
4:05 pm
@Tiberius…”JDW, since it was the Republican-led CONGRESS that balanced the budget during Clinton’s term, you should be all for those days, shouldn’t you?”
Yet more Repugnican HORSE HOOHEY. The two key policies that led to a balanced budget were taxes at the proper level and PAY AS YOU GO.
The tax increase was passed in August of 1993 and PAY GO which was passed in 1990 and extended in 1993. The Republicans took the Congress in 1994 and proceeded to do zippo until Duhbya. Then they repealed both the tax levels and PAYGO which led directly to the problem we have today.
ODD OWL
August 29th, 2011
4:08 pm
Kyle Wingfield and all the right wing, neo-national socialist Republicans continue to scape goat and blame President Obama for what the Bush/Cheney Admin. perpetrated. Bush/Cheney’s deregulated, unbridled economic policies are the only reason the unemployment rate went beyond 8%. Now i guess Wingfield and other neo-con Republicans are claiming that President Obama and the Democrats are to blame for the Unemployment rate going beyond 8%. The unemployment rate is 9.1% today. If we Democrats use the same flawed logic that Kyle Wingfield and other Republicans are using, i guess President Obama is responsible for increasing the unemployment rate by 1.1%. The Bush/Cheney flawed, supply-side, trickle down economic policies are the only reason we have a 9.1% unemployment rate. Most White Americans have gotten over their gullible-naivate’ and are not buying into the Republican’s scape goat and blame the Democrats philosophy. The Republicans must find themselves a new shtick.
Rafe Hollister
August 29th, 2011
4:08 pm
JDW, private firms built the bridge, hired by their bought and paid for government friends. Gov owes it to the taxpayers to make sure we get what we pay for. Buckhead, that figures.
Ayn Rant, have you ever seen non defense government spending you oppossed?
Someone asks how we could create more jobs with the 109B. That is pretty simple, leave the money in the hands of those who earned it. Maybe they will take Mama out to eat, buy junior a new bicycle, or stock up on incandescent light bulbs. Any of this would create more jobs than writing a check to CB Matthews Construction.
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
August 29th, 2011
4:14 pm
JDW, you can try to dismiss the success of the GOP CONGRESS by giving credit to everybody else, the but the FACT remains that Congress controls the budgetary process, NOT the President, and has for at least 50 years.
Any credit or blame on spending goes DIRECTLY to whoever controls CONGRESS.
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
August 29th, 2011
4:16 pm
“Bush/Cheney’s deregulated, unbridled economic policies are the only reason the unemployment rate went beyond 8%.”
Not intended to be a factual statement.
But a 10 on the “I don’t know a damned thing about the effects of government policies” meter.
MarkV
August 29th, 2011
4:17 pm
Kyle: “The question is whether that’s the best use of the money — both in terms of encouraging jobs/economic growth specifically, and in the bigger picture as well — right now. I think it isn’t”
So, Kyle, why don’t you give us your expert economic analysis why it isn’t?
carlosgvv
August 29th, 2011
4:23 pm
He can easily propose going with these “shovel ready” jobs, knowing the Tea Party wackos in Congress will never agree on funding. Then, at election time, he can blame them for our Nation’s large unemployment problem.
MarkV
August 29th, 2011
4:29 pm
“Any credit or blame on spending goes DIRECTLY to whoever controls CONGRESS.”
The Republicans control Congress. Therefore, they are to blame for the deficit.
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
August 29th, 2011
4:32 pm
Of course he can, carlos, because with this President, it’s ALWAYS about the next campaign.
Style over substance has been the watchword of this administration from Day 1.
His problem is that very few, except the Kool-aid drinkers like you, are buying his schtick anymore.
Rafe Hollister
August 29th, 2011
4:33 pm
MarkV
You are right, the Dems controlled Congress from 2006-2010, which, I believe was when this outrageous spending spree most recently occured.
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
August 29th, 2011
4:33 pm
MarkV, once again you fail Civics 101.
The GOP controls the HOUSE – not the SENATE. Both houses make up CONGRESS.
Nice try.
Rafe Hollister
August 29th, 2011
4:35 pm
Style over substance, is the same as, ideology over reality.
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
August 29th, 2011
4:35 pm
Rafe, don’t forget that the GOP controlled both the House and Senate during the first 6 years of the Bush administration.
They are not blameless in overspending, either.
MarkV
August 29th, 2011
4:38 pm
Tiberius – Your lightning rod of hate! @4:33 pm: “Nice try.”
Thank you. Only applying your logic.
MarkV
August 29th, 2011
4:40 pm
Tiberius – Your lightning rod of hate! @4:33 pm: “Nice try.”
The GOP controls the HOUSE and, through the use of the fliibuster, the SENATE.
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
August 29th, 2011
4:40 pm
MarkV, you could apply logic if you had any, which you do not.
As pointed out (again) CONGRESS consists of two house – the House of Representatives and the Senate. The GOP only controls the House. The Dems control the Senate.
Therefore your claim of “logic” does not apply at all.
Poor effort again on your part.
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
August 29th, 2011
4:42 pm
“The GOP controls the HOUSE and, through the use of the fliibuster, the SENATE.”
And as soon as you can come up with ONE spending bill of any significance that the GOP filibustered, I’ll agree with you.
Just one of any significance, MarkV.
Rafe Hollister
August 29th, 2011
4:43 pm
Tiberius, I know that Dubyah and his Rep congress spent money like it was growing on trees, I was just refuting MarkV, who is trying to prove Oblamer innocent of this mess.
They want to establish the fact that the current president is never responsible for what happens during his administration. They know that when Barry leaves and a conservative takes over the economy is going to improve. Once it does, let me be the first to predict, ole Barry is going to pop up like a jack in the box and say, “IT WAS ME, WHAT DONE IT.”
getalife
August 29th, 2011
4:43 pm
In the real world, we have to recover 15 million jobs to get back to normal unemployment.
President Clinton added 23 million jobs so it is a achievable goal.
Now the gop refuse to put country first and work with our President to achieve this easy goal.
So what should our President do to add 15 million jobs know it alls?
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
August 29th, 2011
4:45 pm
“So what should our President do to add 15 million jobs know it alls?”
Resignation would be a good first step.
getalife
August 29th, 2011
4:47 pm
Anybody else?
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
August 29th, 2011
4:49 pm
getaclue, we’ve already discussed what should be done on earlier threads.
Please go back to the Children’s Table where you’re not wanted less than here.
Lil Bushie Bailout (Revised Upward)
August 29th, 2011
4:50 pm
“So what should our President do to add 15 million jobs know it alls?”
Resignation from the Republicans (party over country) would be a good first step.
________________________________________________________
Fixed that for you, buddy.
getalife
August 29th, 2011
4:51 pm
ti,
Hush puppy.
getalife
August 29th, 2011
4:53 pm
Any other adults have the solution to my question?
Rafe Hollister
August 29th, 2011
4:54 pm
Slick Willie never created 23 million jobs. He created a unpaid job for Monica, but the dot com bubble that he so luckily presided over created most of those jobs. He had nothing to do with it. But, give him credit, he didn’t blow it like Oblamer would have. Barry would have used that properity to spend 4-5 Trillion to advance his left wing agenda.
The most jobs Barry could create would be several million if he repealed Obamacare.
getabrain
August 29th, 2011
4:56 pm
never knew the insanity of dementia could be so funny. liberals are a laugh a minute.
getalife
August 29th, 2011
4:56 pm
rafe gives us rw talking points.
Anybody else?.
getalife
August 29th, 2011
4:59 pm
“Resignation from the Republicans (party over country) would be a good first step.”
Winner.
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
August 29th, 2011
5:01 pm
Forget it getaclue. We discuss adult solutions here. Not bumper-sticker slogans. Ours take more than one line to explain. We use paragraphs and analysis for our solutions.
Which is why we are not going to waste out time with you, because you just won’t get it.
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
August 29th, 2011
5:04 pm
Oh, and we’re just not into discussing complex, intelligent solutions with five year olds, getaclue.
Rafe Hollister
August 29th, 2011
5:05 pm
getalife
Yeah I guess you got me. I will give you a clue, those points are written throughout history. Ignore them at the peril of the country. Spend more than you take in and you incur debt which will eventually paralyze the country.
People say Oblamer is inexperienced and incompetent and can never bring us out of this mess. I disagree, the answers are out there. Just find the cook book and read the receipes left by Kennedy and Reagan and even Clinton. It doesn’t take an experienced cook to follow a receipe. Barry however prefers ideology over sure fire solutions.
Lil Bushie Bailout (Revised Upward)
August 29th, 2011
5:08 pm
Our President Clinton created 23 million jobs. He helped foster and create an environment that let the dot com bubble create all of those jobs. His policies and a congress that worked with him had everything to do with it. But, give him credit, he didn’t blow it like Cowboy Bushie would have. Bushie would have used that prosperity to spend 4-5 trillion to advance his right wing agenda, and put us in another war while ignoring the Saudis that were the people that flew the planes into the Twin Towers.
The most jobs Bushie could have created would be several million if he hadn’t created Medicare Part D.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Thee Magnificent!!! mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 29th, 2011
5:15 pm
gitmo- Where are you coming up with 15 million jobs from obozo’s “plan,” is that a Biden number?
The last 20 billion only created 2 jobs, both of them were with Acorn.
Am I missing something?
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Thee Magnificent!!! mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
August 29th, 2011
5:18 pm
After having watched the last few years of this corrupt, cheesy, simple minded third world lunatic in action at the White House, I’ve actually come to respect what Klinton did for the country while he was in office.
Kinda.