WHAT STIMULUS? - AT 10:23 A.M. ET:  We were told that the president's stimulus package was heavy with public-works projects, the kind of things that employ construction workers and get the economy moving.

Not so fast, economic wizards.

Turns out the details are a bit different:

The best symbol of the $787 billion federal stimulus program turns out not to be a construction worker in a hard hat, but rather a classroom teacher saved from a layoff.

On Friday, the Obama administration released the most detailed information yet on the jobs created by the stimulus. Of the 640,239 jobs recipients claimed to have created or saved so far, officials said, more than half — 325,000 — were in education. Most were teachers’ jobs that states said were saved when stimulus money averted a need for layoffs.

Can you say "teachers unions"?  Go ahead, say it.

Although the stimulus was initially sold in large part as a public works program, only about 80,000 of the jobs that were claimed Friday were in construction.

We love teachers here, but I see more shenanigan than stimulus.  Schools can usually squeeze with a few fewer teachers, but if that road or bridge doesn't get built, it doesn't get built. 

There may be more hard-hat projects next year, but let's see.  Why do I think the money will go where Deem politicians want it to go?

October 31, 2009