Economy Alarm: Stimulus Spending Comes to Near Standstill
Stimulus Spending Comes to Near Standstill
Democrats Quick to Tax, Slow to Spend: Stimulus Not Creating Jobs, Only Headaches
Dems Promised Inaction Would Have Devastating Consequences:
“The scale and scope of this plan is right, and the time for action is now,” Mr Obama said in his weekly radio and internet address. If we don’t move swiftly to put this plan in motion, our economic crisis could become a national catastrophe.” (Obama defends economic stimulus, BBC News, 2/07/2009)
Credibility Crash: Stimulus Proves Not So Stimulating as Complications Arise in Spending:
Stimulus spending on infrastructure projects is moving slowly and many projects won’t get started before the summer construction season ends, complicating the Obama administration’s efforts to tout the impact of the $787 billion economic recovery act.
The General Services Administration has decided how to spend $1 billion on federal building upgrades, but only about 1% of that money has been spent. The GSA will approve another $1 billion by year’s end, but Anthony Costa, acting commissioner of the GSA’s public buildings services, said it will take until 2011 before the agency picks projects for all of the $5.5 billion it was allocated for infrastructure work.
The Federal Transit Administration has spent about $500 million of the $8.4 billion it received. The Coast Guard has decided to spend the majority of its $240 million on four bridges, but a spokesman said the money “won’t transfer hands for a while.” California’s transportation department has decided how to spend $1.7 billion of the $2.6 billion it is getting for highway infrastructure projects, but the agency says its spending on such projects probably won’t peak until next year.
“If we go any faster, we’re going to be breaking people,” said Earl Seaberg, deputy program manager for stimulus spending at Caltrans, the California department. (Stimulus Slow to Flow to Infrastructure, Wall Street Journal, Christophe Conkey and Louise Randofsky, 8/05/2009)
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