"Stimulus Facts": Where the Money Went

Veronique de Rugy, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, recently compiled report data from Recovery.gov and economic and political data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, and GovTrack.us, among others. It can be overwhelming to sort through the massive amounts of data on the stimulus, but she did it for us, and her resulting paper analyzes the disbursement of stimulus funds across state and district lines for the last quarter. We think your readers would find her analysis very interesting, especially as she considers how party affiliation affected stimulus spending.

Here are a few of the facts you will find in the report:
-Every job created or saved during this period cost an average of $285,814.61 per job.

-Democratic districts on average received 1.53 times the amount of rewards than Republican districts.

-Public entities are receiving fewer contracts, but there is a higher average dollar value on public awards.

If you'd like to read more or publish the content on your blog, you can download the PDF file here. The complete data set is also available:

http://mercatus.org/publication/stimulus-facts-0

Veronique also testified before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure with her findings. You can view the testimony here:

http://mercatus.org/publication/stimulus-facts-1

If you have any questions, or would like to speak to Veronique about her report, please feel free to contact NHInsider and we will get you the contact information.



NRN - Where is the Stimulus Money Going?

Fellow Bloggers,

Yesterday, we reported on the Washington Examiner uncovering 75,000 plus bogus jobs from the Stimulus Bill. Today, we have even more fishy news on the Stimulus front.

Bill McMorris from Watchdog.org discovered that there seems to be stimulus money going to "phantom congressional districts", according to Recovery.gov. D.J. McGuire from Virginia Virtucon dug into this claim in Virginia and discovered that not only was this claim true, but Virginia, which has 11 congressional districts, received stimulus funds in many, many more districts than the recognized 11.

Notice, this chart (click here to see chart) showing the funds being delivered to Virginia includes many more districts than the federally recognized 11. Even further, the chart shows jobs being created in "unknown" portions of Virginia.

And, according to Bill McMorris, this is a widespread problem not exclusive to Virginia.

October 2009 Issue of Trend Lines

Trend Lines

October 2009

This Month: Dealing With State Budget Deficits

States everywhere are struggling to fill budget gaps.  Is higher spending or declining revenue behind the large deficits facing states and is the federal stimulus package a cure worse than the disease?  This edition of Trend Lines looks at these and other issues.   To receive email copies of upcoming reports on the cause and correlates of state deficits email here:  statedefictreports@poleconresearch.com 

Highlights:

An Unconvincing Recovery is at Hand.  (pg 2)

Revenue Drops Prompt Deficits but Spending Determines Their Severity. (pg 3)

Does Stimulus Funding Relieve Stress or Reward Profligacy? (pg 4)

Recovery Won't Alleviate the Need for Tough Choices.  (pg 5)

Trend Lines Oct. 09 Edition