Oklahoma has received $2.6 Billion in Stimulus funding from the American and Recovery Reinvestment Act passed in February of this year. The estimated appropriations are shown at recovery.ok.gov. Is the money really helping to stimulate our state economy or just giving a false sense of security, while decreasing our future cash flows with increased taxes to pay for it all?
- Oklahoma City is using $1.8 Million to provide maintenance on the Oklahoma River Cruise boats according to Newson6.com.
- Millions of dollars are going towards providing an additional $2,000 per year for students in the form of Pell grants, including Cosmetology school. Newson6.com reports that in Tulsa, 90% of CC’s Cosmetology School graduates have their education fully funded by the federal government!
- Okcommerce.gov describes The Energy Star Appliance Rebate Program which will provide $3.5 Million to assist Oklahomans in reducing their energy costs by giving rebate checks of up to $200 to buy a new refrigerator or washer.
Do these seem like programs that can kick start our economy? Are we seeing an increase in jobs and decrease in unemployment as a result? When does personal and corporate responsibility come into play?
#1 by Nick Vest on December 1st, 2009
The money, as explained by various Government spokespersons, was intended to be spent frivolously and loosely in order to circulate cashflow that wouldn’t otherwise be circulated (this is paraphrased, mind you). The Gov’t was very upfront about this. The last sentence of the first paragraph pretty much sums it all up.
You ask about a kick start? A kickstart, in your analogy, is only needed when the object has died or quit working, which I don’t believe stands to be the case in our economy. Increase in jobs and decrease in unemployment should go hand in hand, wouldn’t you agree? It’s almost redundant. It’s almost redundant. I bet if you ask those Cosmo Students if they stimulus money helped them get a job and feed the economy, they’d say “YES!” I don’t see how a rebate for buying an appliance that will lower costs in the long run is any worse than Cash for Clunkers. Sounds like a downright creative idea to me.
As for Personal and Corporate responsibility…the time for that is ALWAYS. If we had it, we wouldn’t be in this situation. If we valued it, we wouldn’t bail eachother out of this situation.
I’m just sayin’.