$6 million for 3 jobs?

[Gregg]

Stimulus money has paid to preserve 3 jobs at the PR firm that did Hillary's polling in 2008.
Is this the tip of the iceberg? Is this how the government should spend our money?
I think not.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/71353-mark-penn-got-6-million-from-stimulus

[clintl]

I read the linked article, and that doesn't sound to me like a fair representation of what happened.

[Don]

Federal records show that a contract worth $5.97 million, part of the $787 billion stimulus Congress passed this year, helped preserve three jobs at Burson-Marsteller, the global public-relations and communications firm headed by Penn.
I dunno, it sounds pretty accurate to me. Gregg left out the part about Obama's former staffer, though.
Federal records also show that a former adviser to President Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign received nearly $70,000 from that contract to help alert viewers in difficult-to-reach communities that their televisions would soon no longer receive broadcast signals.

[Dommo]

What the stimulus money should have done was put to work thousands of americans in rebuilding infrastructure. Sort of in the same mold as the projects done during the great depression. The thing is, if we dumped a good trillion into refurbishing our infrastructure, that's an investment that would EASILY pay for itself over the coming decades.

[Prozyan]

That would mean the government would have done something productive. Everyone knows that would effectively end the Universe as we know it.

[icerose]

That would have been logical. The millions upon millions poured into Utah to "save the jobs" saved six. That's right, six. Where as the millions used in other ways could have created hundreds if not thousands of jobs. Way to go stimulous money! Just another way to burn our country's tax dollars.

[clintl]

I dunno, it sounds pretty accurate to me. Gregg left out the part about Obama's former staffer, though.

I strongly disagree. It sounds to me like the bulk of that money was spent on things other that the salaries of those three, which in turn probably created or saved at least several more jobs down the line that are not being counted. I don't think this was the best use of stimulus money, but it was certainly a campaign that was necessary, and needed to be funded from some source.

[robeiae]

Maybe the companies that sell the conversion boxes, the companies that sell televisions, and the broadcasting companies should have funded it...

[clintl]

Maybe. But on the other hand, they were all forced into this because the government wants back the old analog TV spectrum so that it can be auctioned off for other uses.

[MattW]

Maybe. But on the other hand, they were all forced into this because the government wants back the old analog TV spectrum so that it can be auctioned off for other uses.
It's not worth whatever they get for it. Pockets will be lined, and new TVs will be sold.

[Gregg]

what's the government doing with that analog stuff anyway?

I know place where the change-over really caused problems. A friend has some rental cottages in the remote north woods and it's not cost effective to get a satellite dish for each property, so they have no tv for their renters.

[clintl]

I don't remember for sure, but I think the FCC's intentions were to auction it off for more wireless services. It probably makes sense to wait for the recovery at this point.

[Plot Device]

What shall we call it?

Bail-out-gate???

Stimulus-gate??

Oh wait! I've go it!







Bail-water!!




:D




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