Maverick!“It’s very clear that the stimulus has had some effect,” the former Republican presidential nominee said. “And I’ll be glad to give him credit for that,” McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, said Sunday on the CNN program “…

Allahpundit’s Hot Air post Surprise: Stimulus not stimulating construction industry, infrastructure repair reflects my own sentiments about the recovery, Presidential approval ratings, the risks of conservative over-confidence, and Republican par…

Since the Great Stupid took office, they have not landed any new contracts past December of this year. Everyone is re-evaluating their construction and renovation jobs, and His Idiocy’s policies have raised the prices of raw steel, steel beams and all the fixins that get attached.

Not only is there no overtime any more, but the hours have been cut so nobody gets laid off.

Don’t ask me about my blood pressure.

Well, we learned one thing. Want stimulus? Target specifically.
The Cash for Clunkers is actually working. The other parts of the stimulus are a flop.
AnninCA

Ah yes, people want free money! Who coulda thunk it!

Apparently not the brainiacs in Obama’s Admin.

So lets look at “Cash for Clunkers” as a “teaching moment” an extremely expensive “teaching moment”.

The brainiac Obama figured they funded the “Cash for Clunkers” program for four months, it went broke in four days.

Hey, his math was only off by a factor of 30 to 1 (3000% ?)

The teaching moment?

Obama says his health care reform will only cost 1 trillion dollars we can apply this lesson figure it will actually cost 30 trillion.

And like the “Cash for Clunkers” program, if it cost more than that we just spend more on it.

We will get a $6000. tax on each pack of smokes!
Problem solved! it works on paper!

The fact that the economy did not contract as much as some people expected does not change the fact that we are still in a recession. I don’t think that is going to get a lot better any time soon.

Just how long does it take to replace a freakin’ sewer line?

Thank gawd I’m not a resident on that strip cause I would’ve gone D-FENS on them a long time ago.

As the Obamacare balloon loses air, and Obama’s numbers crash, a driving factor is the failed stimulus.
Washington Post:
President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan is having little effect on job creation within the general-construction indust…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_%22Buckwheat%22_Thomas

boqueronman on July 31, 2009 at 12:42 PM

++++

That, folks is not a “green shoot.” The economy over the last 20 years was built on debt leverage. Thus, probably as much as 20% of GDP growth during that period – up to 3rdQ 2008 – was an illusion. The law of economic gravity will require an overall decline in private debt outstanding to GDP from 350% back to the historical mean of 150%. The deleveraging will require paydown or default of large quantities of current private debt and a decline in U.S. GDP of 20% overall. Reversion to the mean will be a bitch so hang on.

boqueronman on July 31, 2009 at 12:42 PM

That’s what should happen, but it won’t. Whether it’s Dems of the GOP, they will try to prop the thing up with excess liquidity and avoid dealing with bad assets.

So we’ll get something even worse: something that looks like Japan’s Lost Decade. But with inflation, to boot.

You’re missing the point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iWdjkXwOUs
Don’t you just love it when liberals speak the truth!

Laura in Maryland on July 31, 2009 at 10:32 AM

Geez. Ever since these guys got their supermajorities and their First Ever Negro President, they just don’t even bother to conceal their true beliefs anymore. Whether it’s this guy or Holder or Bwaney Fwank or Waxman, they’re just crawling out from under the rocks and saying the most blatant things. Of course, Dear Leader is foremost.

Only among the permanent political elite could this little dwarf continue to command attention decade after decade, administration after administration, when every policy he’s ever promoted has been a dismal failure.

But then, he is from Haavad

Stimulus not stimulating construction industry, infrastructure repair

Well duh.

Despite the rhetoric used to pass it, it was never intended to which was clear as day to those of us who at least tried to read it.

Since the economy and unemployment are bound to turn around sooner or later, it pays to start shifting their message now from “where are the jobs?” to “how much of our money have you blown?”

Right, it’s far easier to determine his spending than it is to prove jobs were/were not created by stimulus. This should be our new focus.

with firms working on stimulus-funded construction projects hiring at no greater rates than those without such work

This doesn’t surprise me. I had a nice (not) debate on Hufpost with some guys saying that stimulus saved thousands of construction jobs, because construction has picked up. I told them that many of the construction projects going on now have been planned for years (if they are big), and funding for them has been planned out as well. They were all projected to start this summer, and now Obama is taking credit for those projects.

The “less than expected” decline in GDP is a mirage. This comes via one of the go-to guys on the internet, Ken Denninger at The Market Ticker. ONLY government expenditures – federal, state, local – have kept the decline anywhere close to zero. If you think that’s sustainable, put on the dunce cap and sit in the corner. When one examines what happened in the real, productive economy here’s what happened vs 1stQ 2009:

“Real personal consumption expenditures decreased 1.2 percent in the second quarter, in contrast to an increase of 0.6 percent in the first. Durable goods decreased 7.1 percent, in contrast to an increase of 3.9 percent. Nondurable goods decreased 2.5 percent, in contrast to an increase of 1.9 percent. Services increased 0.1 percent, in contrast to a decrease of 0.3 percent…

Real nonresidential fixed investment decreased 8.9 percent in the second quarter, compared with a decrease of 39.2 percent in the first. Nonresidential structures decreased 8.9 percent, compared with a decrease of 43.6 percent. Equipment and software decreased 9.0 percent, compared with a decrease of 36.4 percent. Real residential fixed investment decreased 29.3 percent, compared with a decrease of 38.2 percent.”

That, folks is not a “green shoot.” The economy over the last 20 years was built on debt leverage. Thus, probably as much as 20% of GDP growth during that period – up to 3rdQ 2008 – was an illusion. The law of economic gravity will require an overall decline in private debt outstanding to GDP from 350% back to the historical mean of 150%. The deleveraging will require paydown or default of large quantities of current private debt and a decline in U.S. GDP of 20% overall. Reversion to the mean will be a bitch so hang on.

Imagine that. I’m so glad they have such a better handle on the problems with health care. I’m sure their solution will get right to the heart of the problem.

This recession ain’t over by a long shot, the worst is yet to come. To think otherwise is thinking stupidly.

Knucklehead on July 31, 2009 at 12:03 PM

Democrat administration- Economy contracts less than expected=recovery
Republican administration- Economy expands less than expected=recession/depression on the scale of the 1930′s

if it’s true that the recession is finally ending and the economy starts expanding (however sluggishly) next year, will voters really care about stimulus waste during the midterms?

If anyone believes that, they’re closet KoolAid drinkers. This recession ain’t over by a long shot, the worst is yet to come. To think otherwise is thinking stupidly.