[ExI] jobs created or saved

[Damien Broderick]

On 11/25/2009 8:43 PM, spike wrote:

>> 1. Are you asserting that the sole declared purpose of the
>> >  "stimulus bill" was to "create or save" jobs, and by funding
>> >  them directly? It had nothing to do with shoring up a
>> >  self-buggered financial system, etc?

> Close.  What I am asserting is that the action taken by the government to
> crave jobs actually destroyed jobs in the long run.

My point, however, was that dividing $789 billion by the number of jobs 
allegedly gained or saved so far and getting $1,200,000+ per job (as 
James Clement did, and you echoed) is absurd. Here's AP's quick 
breakdown of projected expenditure back in Fed when the bill passed:

<http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-02-12-stimulus-plan-breakdown_N.htm>

Many provisions of the nearly $789 billion compromise stimulus plan 
expire in two years. Additional debt costs would add about $330 billion 
over 10 years.

Highlights [well over half the total]:

Spending

Aid to poor and unemployed

•$40 billion to provide extended unemployment benefits through Dec. 31, 
and increase them by $25 a week; $20 billion to increase food-stamp 
benefits by 14%; $3 billion in temporary welfare payments.

Direct cash payments

•$14 billion to give one-time $250 payments to Social Security 
recipients, poor people on Supplemental Security Income, and veterans 
receiving disability and pensions.

Infrastructure

•$46 billion for transportation projects, including $27 billion for 
highway and bridge construction and repair; $8.4 billion for mass 
transit; $8 billion for construction of high-speed railways and $1.3 
billion for Amtrak; $4.6 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers; $4 
billion for public housing improvements; $6.4 billion for clean- and 
drinking-water projects; $7 billion to bring broadband Internet service 
to underserved areas.

Health care

•$21 billion to provide a 60% subsidy of health care insurance premiums 
for the unemployed under the COBRA program; $87 billion to help states 
with Medicaid; $19 billion to modernize health information technology 
systems; $10 billion for health research and construction of National 
Institutes of Health facilities.

State block grants

•$5 billion in aid to states to use as they please to defray budget cuts.

Education

•$54 billion in state fiscal relief to prevent cuts in state aid to 
school districts, with up to $10 billion for school repair; $26 billion 
to school districts to fund special education and the No Child Left 
Behind law for students in K-12; $17 billion to boost the maximum Pell 
Grant by $500 to $5,350; $2 billion for Head Start.

Homeland security

•$2.8 billion for homeland security programs, including $1 billion for 
airport screening equipment.

Law enforcement

•$4 billion in grants to state and local law enforcement to hire 
officers and purchase equipment.

Taxes

New tax credit

•About $115 billion for $400 per-worker, $800 per-couple tax credits in 
2009 and 2010. Credit phases out for individuals with adjusted gross 
incomes of $75,000 to $90,000 and couples with AGI of $150,000 to $190,000.

Alternative minimum tax

•About $70 billion to spare about 24 million taxpayers from being hit 
with the alternative minimum tax in 2009. The change would save a family 
of four an average of $2,300.

Expanded college credit

•About $13 billion to provide a $2,500 expanded tax credit for college 
tuition and related expenses for 2009 and 2010. The credit is phased out 
for couples with incomes over $160,000.

Home buyer credit

•$3.7 billion to repeal a requirement that an $8,000 first-time home 
buyer tax credit be paid back over time for homes purchased from Jan. 1 
to Aug. 31, unless the home is sold within three years.

Bonus depreciation

•$5 billion to extend a provision allowing businesses buying equipment 
such as computers to speed up depreciation through 2009.

Auto sales

•$2.5 billion to make sales tax paid on new car purchases tax deductible.

Source: The Associated Press