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Coyote reminds us just who the stimulus stimulated:

Remember when the stimulus bill was all about “infrastructure” and “green energy?”  Way back in January of 2009 (sorry I am in I-told-you-so mode) I observed how less than 6% of the first two years spending appeared to be related to infrastructure.  It turns out that this is exactly how it played out

According to Recovery.gov, the government has now paid out $415 billion of the stimulus funds. Tax rebates account for $163 billion. Of the $252 of direct spending, the Department of Transportation has paid out $14 billion. That’s 5.5%.

…  No mention by Obama in selling it where the other 94.5% was going.  It would have been interesting to see public reaction at the time if Obama had said “we want to spend $230 billion making sure government employees continue to get 8% pay raises, even through the recession.  We are going to stimulate the economy by giving your money to a bunch of assistant principals who do little work but call themselves ‘educators’ so that they can pretend to be teachers when government budget cuts come along.

For more on the two economies in the US, see this WSJ story. My favorite part of that one:

Given our 2.7 million-strong federal work force, the government effectively overbills Americans by almost $40 billion every year just on labor costs.”

What’s $40 billion when we now speak in trillions?

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