Just a Thought: It's Two Years Silly, Not Six Months
It is as I feared and actually expected.
The stimulus package is six months into its two year life span and the public (or at least the pundits) are complaining that everything isn't all better yet. Well the unemployment tsunami has slowed and if the states weren't hanging onto the money to patch holes in their budgets and putting it to work as they were supposed to their projects might very well be further along.
In our little community we received some stimulus money for projects that we had had no idea how to fund, no ground hasn't broken yet but the projects are further along now than they were. "Shovel ready" after all does NOT mean that the crews have been hired and are just standing around... it means the plans have been approved and so forth now all we need is the funding.
Oh sure, all across the country money will get redirected and misdirected but if even three quarters ends up where it supposed to things will improve. Financial institutions aren't lending at the rate they were expected to when they got their bail outs, people aren't spending - we're hanging on to our pennies for the most part. Good for us, not good for the overall economy.
We have to be patient, after all the Titanic couldn't turn on a dime either. It took a while to get into this mess - the economy started to turn in February-ish of 2008 and had been heading that direction for a while economists are now saying. TARP funds went out in late Fall 2008 (previous administration folks) and there were at least two "stimulus" checks to taxpayers that I can recall as well prior to the ARRA that passed early this year (aka the stimulus bill). I don't know about you but I spent mine on bills and tucked some away into savings. It did not go to the big ticket items that move the economy along - it wasn't that much really. My year end bonus had more of an impact when I bought this computer.
So suck it up, buy local when you can, be patient and let the plan work. Contact your Representatives and ask them what happened the $$ your state got/was supposed to get; find out why it isn't being put to work in your community. The projects are online, all you have to do is look them up.
The stimulus package is six months into its two year life span and the public (or at least the pundits) are complaining that everything isn't all better yet. Well the unemployment tsunami has slowed and if the states weren't hanging onto the money to patch holes in their budgets and putting it to work as they were supposed to their projects might very well be further along.
In our little community we received some stimulus money for projects that we had had no idea how to fund, no ground hasn't broken yet but the projects are further along now than they were. "Shovel ready" after all does NOT mean that the crews have been hired and are just standing around... it means the plans have been approved and so forth now all we need is the funding.
Oh sure, all across the country money will get redirected and misdirected but if even three quarters ends up where it supposed to things will improve. Financial institutions aren't lending at the rate they were expected to when they got their bail outs, people aren't spending - we're hanging on to our pennies for the most part. Good for us, not good for the overall economy.
We have to be patient, after all the Titanic couldn't turn on a dime either. It took a while to get into this mess - the economy started to turn in February-ish of 2008 and had been heading that direction for a while economists are now saying. TARP funds went out in late Fall 2008 (previous administration folks) and there were at least two "stimulus" checks to taxpayers that I can recall as well prior to the ARRA that passed early this year (aka the stimulus bill). I don't know about you but I spent mine on bills and tucked some away into savings. It did not go to the big ticket items that move the economy along - it wasn't that much really. My year end bonus had more of an impact when I bought this computer.
So suck it up, buy local when you can, be patient and let the plan work. Contact your Representatives and ask them what happened the $$ your state got/was supposed to get; find out why it isn't being put to work in your community. The projects are online, all you have to do is look them up.
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