The stimulus did create jobs...even the Republicans says so

Created 2.5 million jobs

We've been saying it for ages, and how could a $862 billion stimulus not create jobs, but the controversy surrounding President Obama's stimulus package has never gone away.

In early January, an Associated Press article claimed that the stimulus spending on transportation infrastructure “had no effect on local unemployment and only barely helped the beleaguered construction industry.”

However, while that story was countered by the Transportation Equity Network who said it was a "misguided, apples-to-oranges comparison".

In their official rebuke, TEN said, "Highway and road construction represents only a small percentage of the construction industry as a whole, and only a tiny percentage of the total national work force—0.2 percent—meaning that it cannot, on its own, be expected to transform unemployment trends."  

Second, the story ignores decades of hard evidence about the jobs that transportation infrastructure spending creates—and fails even to mention the number of transportation-related jobs the stimulus has created or sustained: more than 210,000 direct, on-project jobs, plus another 420,000 indirect or induced jobs as of Oct. 31, 2009, according to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

To the AP and its “independent economists at five universities,” this may be a drop in the bucket, "To those of us on the front lines every one of those job hours is a chance to pull a family back from the brink of disaster. At member congregations we work with across the country, newly jobless parents are approaching their pastors every week, asking for food pantry supplies or tuition assistance because they can no longer provide for their children."

The stimulus is working

However today, our friends at The Infrastructurist have today published an article saying that the stimulus package, including the US$35.6 billion committed by the DOT, has indeed created jobs - up to 2.5 million in the long run.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is unsurprisingly happy at the news, posting on his blog,

"I want to talk about some good news I shared with the National Governors Association on Sunday. And I don't mean good news for the Obama Administration; I mean good news for the American people, good news for the two million people who would not be working were it not for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"Last week marked the one-year anniversary of the Recovery Act. I mentioned it here, but we were so busy announcing our TIGER grant awards that I didn't give it the attention it deserves.

"Luckily, America's economists and news media stepped in. They have combed through the Recovery Act data, done their due diligence, and concluded--as I have--that the stimulus is working.

"It is employing good people across the country who would otherwise be out of work. And it is getting our nation's infrastructure back into the condition it ought to be in.

And it shows that sometimes this great Federal government of ours--despite its critics--gets it right.

Now who is saying the Recovery Act is working? Who is citing the two million direct jobs or the 41,000 transportation jobs created by the $35.6 billion DOT has committed so far to 13,300 different projects?"

Even some Republicans are concurring with the figures; Governor Schwarznegger told ABC he believed the stimulus had created jobs and scorned those who didn't. Speaking to ABC News, he said,

"I find it interesting that you have a lot of the Republicans running around and pushing back on stimulus money and saying this doesn’t create any new jobs, and then they go out and do photo-ops and they’re posing with the big check and they say, “Isn’t this great! Look the kind of money I provide here for the state! And this is great money to create jobs, and this has created 10,000 new jobs, and this has created 20,000 new jobs.” It doesn’t match up."

If the Governator is on board, then the Obama administration must be doing something right.

Relevant articles:

Obama stimulus created 650,000 jobs | Obama jump starts the smartgrid | US economy grows beyond expectations

Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

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