Government Dependency

Here's How Obama Spent $792 Billion on Fiscal Stimulus

September 10, 2010

Business Insider - With Obama pressing forward another major round of stimulus, the real question is how much the president and his political posse have spent already, and which initiatives the allocated money actually funded.

From the beginning of our president's well-publicized First Hundred Days to the beginning of his days taking personal hits at GOP members, Obama has left behind a Keynesian trail of stimulus spending that spans 20 months.

$36.9 billion for Aid to People Affected by Economic Downturn (Recovery Act)

Date: February 13, 2009

Purpose: For food stamps, rural housing assistance, child care aid for low-income families, and farm loans

Sample Programs:

* Special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children ($500 million)
* State re-employment services for the jobless ($250 million)

$48.4 billion for Education (Recovery Act)

Date: February 13, 2009

Purpose: For job training grants, aid for schools, Pell Grants, and education administration costs

Sample Programs:

* Dislocated worker job training ($1.25 billion)
* Pell Grants for higher education ($15.8 billion)
* Head Start programs ($1 billion)
* Education for the disadvantaged - elementary and secondary education ($10 billion)

$324 million for Accountability (Recovery Act)

Date: February 13, 2009

Purpose: Accountability funds were funneled into various government departments to oversee the disbursement of stimulus aid and for general division operations

Sample Programs:

* Department of Agriculture - Office of Inspector General ($22.5 million)
* Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board ($84 million)
* Government Accountability Office salaries and expenses ($25 million)

$58.4 billion for Aid to State and Local Governments (Recovery Act)

Date: February 13, 2009

Purpose: To fund various legal, crime prevention, community outreach, economic development, and disaster assistance programs

Sample Programs:

* State Fiscal Stabilization Fund to avoid cutbacks and layoffs ($53.6 billion)
* State administrative expenses to carry out increase in food stamp program ($295 million)
* Violence against women prevention and prosecution programs ($225 million)
* Community Oriented Policing Services grants ($1 billion)

$41.4 billion for Energy (Recovery Act)

Date: February 13, 2009

Purpose: To support weatherization procedures, green energy ventures, and modernization of existing utilities systems

Sample Programs:

* Modernize electricity grid ($4.4 billion)
* Innovative technology loan guarantee program ($6 billion)
* Federal building conversion to "high-performance green buildings" ($4.5 billion)

$13.1 billion for Science and Technology (Recovery Act)

Date: February 13, 2009

Purpose: To fund R&D on the national level, support security and facilities upgrades in the innovation space, and aid education measures to improve research functions

Sample Programs:

* National Science Foundation research and related activities ($2.5 billion)
* National Telecommunications and Information Administration ($4.7 billion)
* NASA exploration ($400 million)

$18.8 billion for Health Care (Recovery Act)

Date: February 13, 2009

Purpose: For the provision of health care and rehabilitation services to disadvantaged sectors of society, and for health care research funding

Sample Programs:

* National Institutes of Health fund to support scientific research ($7.4 billion)
* Construction, renovation, equipment and information technology for health centers ($1.5 billion)
* Department of Health and Human Services Prevention and Wellness Fund ($1 billion)

$870 million for Business (Recovery Act)

Date: February 13, 2009

Purpose: Primarily to support small business ventures

Sample Programs:

* Small business loans ($636 million)
* Rural Business - Cooperative Service: rural business program account ($150 million)

$2.1 billion for Miscellaneous Recovery Act Programs

Date: February 13, 2009

Purpose: A smattering of stimulus measures - everything from Americorps to Census funding

Sample Programs:

* Census Bureau programs ($1 billion)
* Filipino World War II veterans compensation ($198 million)
* National Endowment for the Arts grants ($50 million)

$3 billion for Cash for Clunkers

Date: July 27, 2009 (de facto start date for the program, initial aid ran out after a week and a second round of "Cash for Clunkers" was passed by Congress on August 6, 2009)

Purpose: To give folks cash for their "clunkers" (cars beyond a reasonable degree of use) in order to circulate money into the hands of consumers and ultimately stimulate some spending while giving a boost to the automobile industry

$48.3 billion for Infrastructure (Jobs for Main Street Act)

Date: December 16, 2010

Purpose: To poach previously allocated TARP funding and funnel the money into creating jobs in targeted sectors of the US economy. The infrastructure arm will improve mass transit, schools, public housing, and clean water initiatives while adding jobs in these fields.

Sample Programs:

* Amtrak ($800 million)
* Clean water subsidies ($2 billion)
* Housing trust fund to provide rental homes for low-income families ($1 billion)

$26.7 billion for Public Service Jobs (Jobs for Main Street Act)

Date: December 16, 2010

Purpose: To create and maintain jobs in the public sector

Sample Programs:

* Education Jobs Fund to support approximately 250,000 education jobs over the next 2 years ($23 billion)
* Summer youth employment ($500 million)
* Law enforcement jobs ($1.2 billion)

$79 billion for Emergency Relief for Families (Jobs for Main Street Act)

Date: December 16, 2010

Purpose: Primarily for unemployment benefits, child care, and small business support

Sample Programs:

* Unemployment insurance, 6-month extension of benefits ($41 billion)
* Help with health insurance for unemployed workers (COBRA) ($12.3 billion)
* Child care tax credit ($2.3 billion)

$34 billion for the Extension of Unemployment Benefits

Date: July 22, 2010

Purpose: To extend funding for a variety of unemployment programs already in existence, although the bill famously does not grant additional aid to workers who have been employed over the 99-week federal limit

$30 billion for Small Businesses in Obama's Second Round of Stimulus Spending

Date: Pending approval

Purpose: To provide tax relief to small businesses burdened with the cost of starting up in an uncertain economic environment and ultimately to incentivize these businesses to innovate, expand, and provide jobs for the unemployed

$50 billion for Infrastructure Spending

Date: Pending approval

Purpose: For the construction and upkeep of roads, railways, and runways

Big Chunk of Economic Stimulus Yet to be Spent by State, Local Governments

August 14, 2010

Washington Post - As Americans puzzle over why the economic stimulus package enacted more than a year ago has failed to restore vigorous job growth, one explanation has emerged from new reports: A lot of the money is not yet out the door.

Detroit is struggling with 14 percent unemployment, but as of June 30 the city had spent less than 1 percent of the $8.8 million in stimulus funds it received for energy-efficiency initiatives. In budget-strapped Arizona, Phoenix has spent even less of its $15.2 million, and in hard-hit South Florida, Fort Lauderdale has spent $66,000 of its $2 million.

The $862 billion package was divided roughly in thirds among tax cuts, aid to states and the unemployed, and investments in infrastructure, health care and other areas. The first two have delivered most of their boost, but much of the investment spending is moving far more slowly. At the end of July, nearly 18 months after the stimulus passed, more than half of the $275 billion in investments had yet to be spent.

Underlying the slow pace is a defining tension: Officials want to get money out the door to jolt the economy but want to spend it carefully enough to meet long-term policy aims -- and avoid headlines about waste or fraud.

"This is federal money we are stewards of, and we have to make sure we're spending it well," said Eric Coffman, senior energy planner for Montgomery County. By the end of June, the county had spent none of its $7.6 million in energy-efficiency funds. "Spending fast is not the only thing in the world. We want to make sure we get results."

Administration officials say the stimulus remains on schedule, with 70 percent expected to be spent by Sept. 30. And some economists note that the sluggish economy will still need a boost until 2012, the deadline for spending most stimulus cash.

"Some stuff is taking a longer time to have an impact, but we still have over 9 percent unemployment," said John Irons of the Economic Policy Institute. "The fact that we still have dollars coming on line now should not be seen as a negative."

Many of the unspent funds lie in programs portrayed from the outset as true long-term investments, such as $8 billion for high-speed rail, $17 billion for health information technology and $10 billion for the National Institutes of Health. But other programs that had been viewed as quicker job-generators are also taking a while to get rolling.

'Green jobs' programs

Take, for instance, three programs meant to improve energy efficiency and produce "green jobs." The $5 billion program for weatherizing low-income homes is recovering from a slow start as officials wrestled with rules on wages and historic preservation, and as providers struggled to expand capacity.

Only 3,000 homes were weatherized last summer, a sliver of the program's goal of 600,000 by March 2012. The pace has picked up, with 25,000 now being weatherized monthly. Still, barely a quarter of the funds were spent by the end of last month.

Moving more slowly are two other energy-efficiency initiatives, one for states and one for cities and counties. Of their combined $6.3 billion, $556 million had been spent by the end of July. Officials note that some of the remaining money is already at work but that states and cities will not pay out until projects are done.

In the Washington area, Prince William County, with $3.2 million, had not spent any money by June 30, while Arlington County had spent only $4,000 of its $2 million. Fairfax County had spent $236,000 of its $9.6 million and Loudoun County $239,000 of its $2.2 million. Prince George's County passed much of its $6.6 million to towns, but many had yet to spend it.

Virginia, which is investing much of its energy-efficiency money in biomass energy production, had spent $10.2 million by the end of June -- a fraction of its $70 million but enough to put it in the top five nationally. Maryland has spent 10 percent of its $51.8 million but says it has millions more at work in retrofitting apartments.

As of June 30, the District had spent $373,000 of its $22 million in state-level funds -- enough for a few TV ads and billboards promoting its tax on plastic bags -- but officials say millions more are being put to work modernizing schools. The District also received $9.6 million in city-level energy-efficiency funds; as of June 30, it had passed along $1.5 million, mainly to nonprofits. It says more will be spent on retrofitting fire stations and libraries.

The slow spend-out seems incongruous considering how desperate state and local governments are for funding; on Tuesday, the House passed $26 billion in aid to states to prevent additional layoffs of public employees. But most stimulus programs must be used for specific purposes, not to plug budget holes.

Many local and state governments say budget troubles have left them short-staffed, slowing their stimulus spending, though several have used some of the money to hire managers to oversee their spending. Louisiana is paying a company $5.7 million to handle its entire $85 million in energy-efficiency spending.

Mix of projects

After waiting for Energy Department guidelines last year, state and local officials spent months deciding how to use their funding. They opted for a mix of retrofits of public buildings; installation of low-energy streetlights and traffic lights; rebates for solar installations or insulation upgrades by residents and businesses; and workforce development.

Some of the projects are less jobs-intensive than others. Loudoun, like many counties, is spending heavily on an energy audit by a consulting firm. Fairfax is investing in making its computer systems more energy efficient.

The plans then went to the Energy Department, which decided, among other things, whether projects needed a full environmental review. The department told Florida that several of its proposals did not pass muster, and until recently the state was still unsure how to redeploy $12 million.

Fairfax was told that a proposal to replace windows conflicted with historic-preservation rules.

And Alexandria, along with many other cities, has run up against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac objections to a program that would let homeowners pay for energy-efficiency upgrades over time by attaching the cost to their property tax bill.

Now that the Energy Department has approved most plans, cities and states must still put projects out to bid and draft agreements with local partners. Matt Rogers, who is overseeing the Energy Department's stimulus spending, said he hoped monthly spending by both the state and city programs would soon reach $100 million, up from $60 million in July. Local officials also promised a surge.

"The good news is that there will be a lot of spending in September. You'll see money being spent in big chunks," said Matt Groff, who is managing Prince William's grant. "Although it's taken a little while to get off the ground, there'll be less mistakes than there could've been if they were quick to approve early on."

Much of Stimulus Won’t Be Spent Before 2011, CBO Says

January 20, 2009

Bloomberg - The government wouldn’t be able to spend at least one-fourth of a proposed $825 billion economic stimulus plan until after 2010, according to a new report that suggests it may take longer than expected to boost the economy.

A Congressional Budget Office analysis of President Barack Obama’s plan found that most of the approximately $355 billion in proposed discretionary spending on highways, renewable energy and other initiatives wouldn’t be spent before 2011. The government would spend about $26 billion of the money this year and $110 billion more next year, the report said.

About $103 billion would be spent in 2011, while $53 billion would be spent in 2012 and $63 billion between 2013 and 2019, the report said. Republicans said the analysis showed that the plan, unveiled last week by House Democrats, won’t get money into the economy quickly enough.

“We have serious concerns that the bulk of this spending won’t have an immediate or short-term positive effect on the economic crisis,” said Jennifer Hing, a spokeswoman for Representative Jerry Lewis of California, the top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee. “This is especially troubling given the massive size of the package and the enormous burden of debt it is placing on the taxpayers.”

Leading Economists’ Advice

A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended the plan, saying it was “crafted based on the advice of some of our nation’s leading economists.” Spokesman Nadeam Elshami said the CBO report did not examine the tax and mandatory-spending provisions in the plan, which he said could be more quickly enacted.

“These provisions will go out quickly to give the economy a jolt while others will represent down payments on crucial priorities for our economic future -- investments in clean energy, health care, education and repairing our nation’s infrastructure,” Elshami said.

The stimulus plan is aimed at helping lift the economy out of recession through tax cuts for families and businesses and $550 billion in new spending on programs including expanded unemployment benefits, aid to state governments and increased funding for scientific research.

The CBO report analyzed only the discretionary section of the bill, omitting the $275 billion in proposed tax cuts and approximately $195 billion in mandatory spending increases.

The analysis suggests that much of the stimulus may not come until after the economy has begun to recover. The CBO has previously said it expected a “slow” recovery to begin later this year and that the economy will expand by a “modest” 1.5 percent in 2010.

Highway Construction

The report said less than $5 billion of the $30 billion set aside for highway spending would be spent within the next two years. About $2.6 billion of $18.5 billion for renewable energy programs would be spent by then. About $907 million of a $6 billion plan to expand broadband access in rural and other underserved areas would be spent by 2011, CBO said.

The timing of spending on different programs would vary because some, such as building a highway or revamping the nation’s electrical grid, take longer to implement than others, such as providing bigger unemployment assistance checks.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, said last week that while lawmakers looked for programs that could be implemented quickly, they didn’t focus exclusively on “shovel-ready” projects because they also wanted the stimulus plan to address longer-term problems.