Stimulus Dollars and Sense: Why Taxpayers Get Mad

It has been just short of a year since President Obama signed the stimulus package into law, but critics have been skewering the plan's tepid results for months.  Skepticism is grounded primarily in frustration.   The blizzard of numbers being tossed back and forth in the controversy perhaps does more to confuse than clarify the issue. But unbridled emotions are accompanied by objective signposts.  Ohio, for example, is in desperate straits.  Here are some year-end 2009 signposts that Buckeye state taxpayers (and voters) are looking at:

•  A 10.7% statewide unemployment rate (not seasonally adjusted);
• 24,705* full-time jobs "supported" in the state in the fourth quarter of 2009;
• 10,100 full-time jobs lost in the state in the fourth quarter of 2009; and
• 17,000 full-time jobs generated in the third quarter of 2009

Virtually nobody is favorably impressed with these numbers. Yes, there are some folks looking at the 4th quarter uptick in job "creation" and discounting the jobs lost during the same period.  They are saying that the impact of stimulus is beginning to pick up steam, that more time is needed to fairly evaluate the plan's merits, and that the need for a second stimulus infusion (a.k.a "jobs bill") is compelling and justified.

*However, in contrast to job reports from the 3rd quarter, the 4th quarter job figure contemplates hours clocked by employees who were paid with stimulus money.  In other words, the 4th quarter jobs include not only those that were "created" or "retained," but also those that were simply "supported" by stimulus funds, even if the positions being "supported" were not in jeopardy. For example, Columbus City Schools leaders freely admit that most of the job positions funded in part by the stimulus were never at risk in the first place.

*Moreover, by the Obama administration's own scorecard - the federal government's $18 million web site, recovery.gov - over 75% of the 24,705 jobs "supported" in the 4th quarter were public sector jobs.  In other words, stimulus "created," "retained," or  "supported" fewer than 6,000 private sector jobs during this time period.

No wonder so many are calling the stimulus plan a flop!  Dividing the $860 billion stimulus evenly between all 300 million Americans, it is costing each one of us over $2,800.  With the sorry results we have seen so far, do we really believe that we are well served by the first stimulus?  Do we really believe that adding a second one is going to make it better?  Is this really the right road map?