Reading
this article is very frustrating, since it says some things that
I have believed for a long time:
"I kept hearing that we had lots of projects that were shovel-ready," says one administration official. "But they weren't. We have think tanks that make a compelling case for Keynesian stimulus. What we need, it turns out, is a think tank that tells us how to actually do a stimulus -- how we can get the dollars out there now" to reduce unemployment. [snip]
The disparity in the speed at which different projects get going is evident in the state's own tally of jobs funded through the stimulus dollars. By the end of 2009, stimulus money had funded 50,138 jobs in education but just 1,656 in transportation. Totaling all infrastructure spending in the stimulus, $10.6 billion was slated to come to California, $5.6 billion had been awarded, and just $1.2 billion spent by the end of last year.
What happened? Big government -- spending, that is -- ran into good government -- regulation, competitive bidding, environmental safeguards, the works. [snip]
"Environmental-impact reviews, historic-preservation safeguards, unionization of government workers -- these are good things, but they've changed the way government can operate. Plus which, the federal government said, 'We'll give you a ton of money, and we want you to spend it faster -- and better.' There are no exemptions from regulations that came with the stimulus funds. They didn't waive the requirement for competitive bidding; they stressed competitive bidding."
She continues, "You can't just build a new bridge. You've got to do environmental-impact reports, you have to open up the decision to community input, you face potential lawsuits. I'm not saying concern for environmental impacts should go away, but it makes it harder to deal with an economic crisis."
Jim here again. Recrimination first: the Obama administration's original sin will be the stimulus package, which was neither fish nor fowl. If they wanted to do Keynesian stimulus, it should have been MUCH bigger (1.2T instead of 800B.) It was also sold with the phrases "shovel ready" and "timely, targeted and temporary." I think they painted themselves into a corner with those words.
Most frustrating: I don't think Obama can get another stimulus package through. That was the only bullet, and they wasted it.
Perhaps Obama can do some good for the country and untangle the Gordian knot of red tape and regulations around construction. I doubt it, though.
