Dear Friend,
In February 2009, the Democrats passed the $787 billion stimulus bill. The Administration pitched this to Congress and taxpayers as spending money to generate jobs. I voted no.
Predictions were made on both sides of the aisle of what the outcome would be. In 2009, I wrote in an e-newsletter that the 625 predicted jobs in the 12th Congressional district would cost taxpayers $306,000 per job. Two years later we have the cost per job provided by the Administration - our predictions were not that far off.
According to the Administration’s Council on Economic Advisors, $666 billion of the stimulus bill has been spent so far. They claim that at least 2.4 million jobs have been created as a result. That means that on average, each job has cost taxpayers $278,000. The White House argues that this number does not take into account such investments as infrastructure improvement, factory construction, and education investment included in the stimulus bill.
With unemployment over 8.8% for the past 26 months and the national debt at $14.467 trillion, $278,000 is unacceptable, no matter how the Administration spins it. This is why I voted no in February 2009 and why I am continuing to focus on real job creating measures today.
Sincerely,
Kay Granger