I know, you’re pretty darned surprised. Who would have thought that so much money would be wasted on “green” projects by the Obama/Democrat Stimulus plan?
(Fox News) A federal audit shows that nearly a half-billion dollars in government funds was spent on training workers for so-called “green jobs.†The only problem is that not enough positions in the growing industry exist.
The findings — released in a June report
by the Government Accountability Office — showed that only 55 percent of those trained were able to place in a new job, many of which were not technically green jobs. The $501 million in funding came from the 2009 stimulus law. The report also uncovered that the Department of Labor created a framework that led grantees to broadly interpret the program’s definition to include any job “that could be linked, directly or indirectly, to a beneficial outcome†which led to the gap between training programs and available green industry jobs.
Essentially, they were throwing money out into the wilds of private enterprise without any real knowledge of the marketplace, products, consumer interest, you know, basic economic and corporate decisions that all these folks in Government, who’ve mostly or solely spent their working lives in other than the private sector, have no idea about, except as academic notions.
“Basically, this is what can happen when you fund large programs amid much uncertainty and when there’s too little data available,†Mark Muro, senior fellow and policy director for the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, told FoxNews.com.
And a president who’s virtually never worked a day in the private sector in his life, who hires people who’ve mostly spent their lives in academia and government.
“The GAO report is just more evidence that the administration has no clue what drives a successful economy and job growth,†said Paul Chesser, an associate fellow at the National Legal and Policy Center. “President Obama tried to build this economic sector, but the buyers didn’t come. And now after the initial flurry, the ‘green jobs’ are evaporating.â€
By “evaporating”, I assume he means “really never appeared, but Obama campaign contributors got some nice money out of it”.
Speaking of job, James Pethokoukis wonders where the 5% unemployment rate that the Stimulus promised by July 2013 is
Of course, we now know conclusively that this prediction — based as it was on the pixiedust magic of Keynesian fiscal multipliers — was a total failure, one even beyond what the July job numbers suggest.
Much like Obama’s reliance on “green” jobs training for jobs that didn’t exist, but were supposed to magically appear just because some people were trained.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
WOW!! 500 million What would you rather have done with that Teach finance a war for an extra day? Because that is what Afghanistan costs. I would much rather have it used here and if 55% got jobs I think that is good.
Great: John thinks that going after the country that harbored the group that attacked and killed 3,000 on 9/11 was a Bad Idea.
I bet he’s a Truther, too.
John’s hypocrisy shows again.
The Obama administration has sought to condemn “for profit” colleges based upon the idea that the job placement rate is too low.
That rate – which the administration says is unacceptable – is 68%.
So it is good to have a 55% placement rate, but bad to have a higher frate of 68%.
It’s the new math.
Spending any Federal Tax monies on private industry is in my mind unforgivable. Spending tax dollars on wasteful pet projects is beyond acceptable.
I don’t care if it worked, or not, it is not right.
It’s wasted, its not mandated, and it’s not beneficial to all.
If you people want to steal people’s money, do pet projects with it to help your own people out, go to Russia or China. Leave this once-peaceful place alone.
I love how John likes pissing away taxpayer money on worthless ventures, and calls it tiny, yet freaks out over Bain Capital and other companies spending their own money.
Because those private industries did not get prior gov’t permission to spend money on those issues that benefited the funding source. But, it’s OK with john for the Fed Gov’t to spend all of our money on a private ventures that very few are OK with. Heck, even john and his ilk, much like other trolls, are OK with gov’t losing money as long as it is being GIVEN to those people who believe as they do.
When we started accepting socialism, we started accepting corruption. When we started accepting corruption, we started accepting tyranny. I just pray we don’t accept tyranny. But, it sure seems that we are.
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I’m guessing John didn’t actually bother reading TFA, or he missed the final ‘graph:
So even with such loosely defined criteria to qualify as a “green job,” they barely find positions for a majority of their “clients.”
[…] yesterday, but didn’t have time to do it justice. I also see The Lonely Conservative and Pirate’s Cove have both already covered quite well. If you would, please allow me to weigh in on the matter of […]