"It's Official: The Stimulus Isn't a Waste of Money"

[bfdd]

No roads being repaired around here. Wtf? California got no stimulus money to fix our roads? There's some fucked up roads here. With the earth moving and literally everyone and their mother drives, our shit gets fucked up fast.


also, this is "good" news, but not "great" news.

 

[BoberFett]

haha and 99.9% of them getting paved that NEEDED TO BE!!! Amazing how that works huh?

Proof?

Around here it seemed about half and half. Some of the roads desperately needed repaving. The other half did not.

The stimulus sure has made it hell getting around town though. I wonder how many hundreds of millions of man hours were wasted around the country due to traffic congestion brought about by cramming several years worth of construction projects into one summer. Where normally there would be alternate routes during construction on one road, this year all of the usual alternates were under construction as well. Probably wasted a shitload of gasoline and pumped tons of pollution into the air as well.

 

[manimal]

several hours (couple hundred miles) of i84 were repaved in Oregon that were perfectly fine, for one.

In GA, we've got a 50 mile road that hardly anybody drives, was paved 2 years ago, and was just repaved with the stimulus money.

Most wasteful spending I've ever seen. I voted for hope and change, what a crock of crap that was.

Do you work in construction? How do you know that those roads are fine? Asphalt and concrete are finite, they wear and the amount of patching is figured into how soon a road is redone. How thick was the road when it was made?

In your case I can see the problem of a 2 year old road being repaved. Who is at fault in this case?

Not the stimulus....

If you look at other parts of the country some counties are actually converting roads into gravel roads...... third world countries have better infrastructure now.... we can waste time looking at .something percetages in regards to waste or we can do something about the problem.

This is the same as the fauxrage over pork...less than half of a percent of any given budget and has been dropping for a generation..

Another BS fauxrage.... medicare is the most efficient and well run health care product in the world. The amount spend on administration is hundreds of percentage points lower than any insurance company...

I have lots of family members in construction. The amount of projects being rolled out right now is very good and to a greater extent than we have seen for many many years...

 

[bfdd]

manimal you do realize there are health industry workers here right? i've yet to see them say anything good about medicare.

 

[yllus]

This article reminds me of when historians in 2005 were preemptively calling Bush's presidency a failure in regards to history.

Yeah, he sure proved them wrong. :awe:

 

[Balt]

No roads being repaired around here. Wtf? California got no stimulus money to fix our roads? There's some fucked up roads here. With the earth moving and literally everyone and their mother drives, our shit gets fucked up fast.


also, this is "good" news, but not "great" news.

CA DOT is going to get $4.1B total. According to recovery.gov they've only spent $1.4B of it so far, though.

 

[her209]

No roads being repaired around here. Wtf? California got no stimulus money to fix our roads? There's some fucked up roads here. With the earth moving and literally everyone and their mother drives, our shit gets fucked up fast.

also, this is "good" news, but not "great" news.

http://www.dot.ca.gov/Recovery/

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

Of course, if there WAS a lot of fraud, you'd be all over that as evidence of its failure. Objectivity here? Not so much.

I understand the article...my comments were directed at the OP who misinterpreted the article as illustrated by his BS thread title.

Look I'm glad there was little fraud...and you're right, I would have been pissed if there was a lot of fraud...and you wouldn't?

"Objectivity here?" Seriously.

BTW...my objections to the stimulus package was never based on the possibility of fraud.

 

[manimal]

manimal you do realize there are health industry workers here right? i've yet to see them say anything good about medicare.

I never said it was perfect, I was noting the fact that not all government programs are wasteful. Most doctors and hospitals dislike medicare because it pays them less than private insurance. Billing is harder because they have higher standards for coverage. Medicare fraud is a big problem but so is insurance fraud..

Back on topic though, Some roads depending on how much wear they get and how the weather there affects them can cause them to degrade much faster than others? Again I say just because the road in the part you were driving on was fine the entirety of the run may be degrading. Just beause it looks ok to you right there doesnt mean it is.

 

[sandorski]

http://projects.propublica.org/tables/stimulus-investigations

here is a start

but fraud isn't the issue as much as the government spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per job saved. if it was magic free money... sure we could all be happy about it.

Ridiculously stupid comment.

 

[Moonbeam]

It's an RNC propaganda tag, used as a gratuitous attack when one has nothing useful to contribute.

I found the OP interesting. It shows that contrary to Republican dogma, government can work pretty effectively with the right people. It's encouraging to see they've managed the program itself so well, regardless of one's opinion about the projects "stimulated" and their effect on the economy.

This should tell you where the paranoia about government effectiveness comes from. Republicans fear incompetent government because it's what they deliver.

 

[Throckmorton]

I've personally seen at least 3 roads near my house get completely repaved. I happen to know one of the D.O.T. folks, so I asked him about the process and he said "they weren't scheduled to be repaved for another few years, but the department doesn't want to lose out on funding so they are accelerating a lot of the paving projects". Anecdotal, yes. Is it likely to be the case all over the country? Absolutely, it makes complete sense.

Like I said, it's good that it wasn't outright stolen, but given the anemic results of the spending I'm sure we could have found better ways to spend close to $900 Billion.

OK, so how does not paving roads that can do without for a few years increase stimulation?

 

[ericlp]

Proof?

Around here it seemed about half and half. Some of the roads desperately needed repaving. The other half did not.

The stimulus sure has made it hell getting around town though. I wonder how many hundreds of millions of man hours were wasted around the country due to traffic congestion brought about by cramming several years worth of construction projects into one summer. Where normally there would be alternate routes during construction on one road, this year all of the usual alternates were under construction as well. Probably wasted a shitload of gasoline and pumped tons of pollution into the air as well.

Where's your proof?

All the roads around here that got repaved desperately needed it.

Edit, I guess you'd rather watch money being blown in Iraq watching American die? Yeah thanks but no thanks...

I'd rather watch an American "get a job" and pave a road here in America and SPEND the money IN America. Bush was a waste of time and ZILLIONS got spent and for what? NOTHING...That's what.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Can you please provide a link for information about roads being paved that did not need to be?

Come on over to my house and I will show you 1.

 

[BoberFett]

Where's your proof?

All the roads around here that got repaved desperately needed it.

Edit, I guess you'd rather watch money being blown in Iraq watching American die? Yeah thanks but no thanks...

I'd rather watch an American "get a job" and pave a road here in America and SPEND the money IN America. Bush was a waste of time and ZILLIONS got spent and for what? NOTHING...That's what.

I see, so you can provide no proof of your claim but expect me to provide proof of mine? Here's a napkin Sally, wipe the Obama jizz off your chin. I've always been against the Iraq war, so take that bullshit strawman elsewhere you pathetic little wanker.

 

[ericlp]

Come on over to my house and I will show you 1.

Come on over and you can meet my neighbors that will all tell you how great they are for roads that did get paved. You do realize that it was up to the state to pass out the funds for City's to tell them what roads SHOULD be Paved... Why didn't you stand up and ask why the fuck your mayor is doing such a shitty job paving over perfectly good roads? Sounds like all your republicans live in Backward ASS states that can't figure out how to spend a dollar unless it goes over seas. Pathetic...

 

[ericlp]

I see, so you can provide no proof of your claim but expect me to provide proof of mine? Here's a napkin Sally, wipe the Obama jizz off your chin. I've always been against the Iraq war, so take that bullshit strawman elsewhere you pathetic little wanker.

Pathetic as usual... You just said you got half and half. Well, you can whip off you Obama's ball sweat after your done driving on half of them. You got 50 cents on the dollar hell that's better then nothing you republican cry baby...

I'm not for either party but at least I didn't vote bush in "TWICE" ... I'm not that much of an idiot. Didn't vote for Obama either. Your two party system sucks.

Ok... Now that we got that out of the way. Hey at least we can agree on something!

 

[BoberFett]

Pathetic as usual... You just said you got half and half. Well, you can whip off you Obama's ball sweat after your done driving on half of them. You got 50 cents on the dollar hell that's better then nothing you republican cry baby...

I'm not for either party but at least I didn't vote bush in "TWICE" ... I'm not that much of an idiot. Didn't vote for Obama either. Your two party system sucks.

Ok... Now that we got that out of the way. Hey at least we can agree on something!

I'm not a Republican and never voted for Bush. Amazing, you haven't gotten a single thing correct yet.

 

[PokerGuy]

OK, so how does not paving roads that can do without for a few years increase stimulation?

That money could be spent on things that are actually needed. Paying someone to dig a hole and then pay for someone to walk behind them and fill the hole that was just dug also "stimulates" the economy, but it's not exactly effective use of the funds.

The stimulus has been a great big waste, just not in the sense that a large percentage has been outright stolen.

 

[PokerGuy]

Sounds like all your republicans live in Backward states that can't figure out how to spend a dollar unless it goes over seas. Pathetic...

Right. Republican states don't know how to properly spend a dollar. Unlike those states like CA, IL, NY, MD that are the model of fiscal prudence and in fine economic shape!

 

[her209]

That money could be spent on things that are actually needed. Paying someone to dig a hole and then pay for someone to walk behind them and fill the hole that was just dug also "stimulates" the economy, but it's not exactly effective use of the funds.

This is what we call Iraq. Blow shit up using tax payer funds, then spend more tax payer funds to rebuild the infrastructure we just destroyed.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

Right. Republican states don't know how to properly spend a dollar. Unlike those states like CA, IL, NY, MD that are the model of fiscal prudence and in fine economic shape!

ericip owned...color me surprised. The Party of Intellectualism apparently has a large tent...a very large tent.

 

[drebo]

It could be worse. We could have lost, i.e., unaccount for, those billions doing "infrastructure" in Iraq and called it "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED".

Well, let's split it up the middle then and just call all government spending bad. That way, you can bitch about Bush and I can bitch about liberals and RINOs, and we'll both be happy!

 

[JSt0rm]

wasnt there a thread here recently about the 5 jobs that were saved by millions of stimulus dollars??

That information proved to be false but go ahead and keep believing it because it reinforces your preconceived notions.

 

[bfdd]

CA DOT is going to get $4.1B total. According to recovery.gov they've only spent $1.4B of it so far, though.

http://www.dot.ca.gov/Recovery/

Thanks, just haven't seen them doing shit in my area yet. 190th from like Hawthorne to Prospect on the Torrance/Redondo Beach border needs fixed like a motherfucker. Torrance and Redondo won't fix it because half the street is Torrance and the other half is Redondo. Lame... so many pot holes on La Cienega it could use a fixing too. These are just streets I drive on weekly I know are fucked.