Obama Thwarts Debt-Ceiling Deal by Clinging to Wasteful Green-Jobs and Stimulus Spending

by Hans Bader on July 14, 2011

in Blog, Features, Politics

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President Obama is refusing accept deals that would raise the federal debt ceiling because they would require him to accept cuts in wasteful green-jobs and rail boondoggles and stimulus spending:   “The president has made a bipartisan agreement even more difficult by declaring certain spending off-limits to cuts. Mr. Obama’s ‘untouchable’ list includes his $1 trillion health-care reform, $128 billion in unspent stimulus funds, education and training outlays, his $53 billion high-speed rail proposal, spending on ‘green’ jobs and student loans, and virtually any structural changes to entitlements except further squeezing payments to doctors, hospitals and health-care professionals.”  If the debt ceiling is not raised, America’s credit rating may be downgraded, leading to higher interest payments on the debt in the future.

Obama’s refusal to reconsider green-jobs spending is unfortunate given how such spending has backfired, effectively outsourcing thousands of American jobs at taxpayer expense.  ABC News reports on the subsidies for Chinese wind turbines contained in the stimulus package:

Despite all the talk of green jobs, the overwhelming majority of stimulus money spent on wind power has gone to foreign companies, according to a new report by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University’s School of Communication in Washington, D.C.

Nearly $2 billion in money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been spent on wind power, funding the creation of enough new wind farms to power 2.4 million homes over the past year. But the study found that nearly 80 percent of that money has gone to foreign manufacturers of wind turbines.

“Most of the jobs are going overseas,” said Russ Choma at the Investigative Reporting Workshop. He analyzed which foreign firms had accepted the most stimulus money. “According to our estimates, about 6,000 jobs have been created overseas, and maybe a couple hundred have been created in the U.S.” Even with the infusion of so much stimulus money, a recent report by American Wind Energy Association showed a drop in U.S. wind manufacturing jobs last year.

The biggest recipient of green-jobs funding in the stimulus package was a bankrupt Australian company that imported Japanese turbines for a windmill farm.   (Spain’s “green jobs” program, which Obama cited 8 times as a model for his own green jobs and global-warming programs,  completely failed, destroying jobs and driving up Spain’s skyrocketing government deficit. Each new green job “created” in Spain wiped out 2.2 existing jobs and cost $800,000.   New EPA rules dealing with global warming are expected to wipe out more than 800,000 jobs, while proposed EPA ozone rules could wipe out millions more.)

Obama’s refusal to cut any stimulus spending is foolhardy.  Much stimulus money has been wasted.  It has gone to prisoners and dead people, wasteful welfare spending, abandoned bridges to nowhere, and unnecessary government buildings.  Recently, $130,000 in stimulus money was spent for a book that demonized white people and encouraged teachers to treat students differently based on their race, based on wacky racial stereotypes.

The stimulus also wiped out jobs in America’s export sector.  Economists Timothy Conley and Bill Dupor say that the stimulus wiped out 550,000 jobs.

The “’stimulus’ is not the road to economic recovery. It’s the problem, not the solution, writes Nobel Prize winning economist Vernon L. Smith.” Other Nobel Laureates like Gary Becker have also criticized the stimulus package.  200 economists signed a statement publicly opposing the stimulus package in an ad published in the Washington Post and New York Times.  Harvard  University economics professor Robert Barro called it “the worst bill that has been put forward since the 1930s.”

Obama’s so-called “high-speed” rail projects, which he also refuses to cut, are grossly wasteful.  They are anything but “high-speed,” and will be used by very few travelers at an incredible cost of at least “$35.3 million per mile of track.”  “Most do not even meet the requirements of the common definitions of ‘high-speed rail,'” since they will not allow trains to move anywhere near as fast as they do in Europe, Japan, or China.

pj July 17, 2011 at 1:05 am

Of course he doesn’t want to give up any of HIS pet projects, but he threatens the seniors with their social security and medicare. What a piece of work for a president! He doesn’t give a hoot about us. It’s all for himself and his reelection. Narcissist, self-centered, pretend president. Likes to PLAY president, but doesn’t want to BE president.

Bundoker July 17, 2011 at 4:30 pm

Maybe headline sould have read:
Obama’s Budget Seriousness Excludes Chinese Wind Turbines, Dead People and Boondoggle Stimulus Payment Cuts

Dan F July 18, 2011 at 4:30 am

You GOTTA be Shi*ting me!

Jeffrey Orr July 29, 2011 at 2:09 am

Obama is the worst nightmare that has ever happened to this country through one politician but so many people still go ga ga over him.

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