CBO: Jobs Created and Saved By Stimulus Cost At Minimum An Average of $228,055 Each

CNS News.com ^ | Thursday, February 24, 2011 | Matt Cover

[unique]

(CNSNews.com) - The jobs created and saved by the economic stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed on Feb. 17, 2009 cost at a minimum an average of $228,055 each, according to data released yesterday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Snip.......

[unique]

I'm not sure how this type of calculation can be made, but it sure produces more than passingly strange results. Can we afford any more government intervention?

[blueyon]

I would have taken 1/2 of that in cash along with everyone else...would have fixed the economy and the housing market

[Vaduz]

Can we afford any more government intervention?
NO it cost to much.Obama may have taken a lot of speech classes but he sure as hell never took a math class.

[theDentist]

I’d have accepted 1/2 that as pay to pick up trash on the sides of the roads.

[screaminsunshine]

I propose adding vast amounts of Thorazine to Washingtons water supply it may counteract whateve LSD they are on.

[bert]

The question to be asked is who got the money?

The treasury was looted and the loot redistributed

There is no legal remedy

[bigbob]

CNS isn’t one of those satire sites is it? When it comes to the events of the past 2 years I have trouble telling the difference...

[sickoflibs]

The Peter Schiff/Austrian Economics ping. (Washington Bankrupting our Nation by Spending your past, present and future money!)

What's a few trillion when it's other peoples money??

RE :"(CNSNews.com) - The jobs created and saved by the economic stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed on Feb. 17, 2009 cost at a minimum an average of $228,055 each, according to data released yesterday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In a report released Wednesday—“Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output from October Through December 2010”—the CBO said it now estimates the stimulus law cost a total of $821 billion, up from CBO’s original estimate that the stimulus would cost $787 billion. In the same report, the CBO estimated that in the fourth quarter of 2010 there were somewhere between 1.3 million and 3.5 million people who were then employed who would not have been had the stimulus not been enacted. “CBO estimates,” says the report, “that ARRA’s policies had the following effects in the fourth quarter of calendar year 2010: … Increased the number of people employed by between 1.3 million and 3.5 million...Thus, the $821 billion cost of the stimulus divided by the maximum of 3.6 million jobs the CBO believes the stimulus may have saved or created equals an average of $228,055 per job. At the lower end of the CBO’s top job-creating-and-saving estimate for the stimulus—1.4 million jobs—the jobs would cost an average of $586,428 a piece..”

[EyeGuy]

The larger point would be that even these “jobs” that were “created” are totally useless; work that would not have been created (necessary), given the cleansing rigor of a free market economy.

[Liz]

Behind The Real Size of Obama's Wall Street Bailout (more like $14 trillion)
Mother Jones | Dec. 21, 2009 / FR Posted January 04, 2010 by E. Pluribus Unum

A guide to the abbreviations, acronyms, and obscure programs that make up the $14 trillion federal bailout of Wall Street.

The price tag for the Wall Street bailout is often put at $700 billion—the size of the Troubled Assets Relief Program. But TARP is just the best known program in an array of more than 30 overseen by Treasury Department and Federal Reserve that have paid out or put aside money to bail out financial firms and inject money into the markets. To get a sense of the size of the real $14 trillion bailout, see our chart here. Below, a guide to the pieces of the puzzle:

Treasury Department bailout programs (controlled by Rahm Emanuel)

Money Market Mutual Fund: In September 2008, the Treasury announced that it would insure the holdings of publicly offered money market mutual funds. According to the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), these guarantees could have potentially cost the federal government more than $3 trillion [PDF].

Public-Private Investment Fund: This joint Treasury-Federal Reserve program bought toxic assets from banks and brokerages—as much as $5 billion of assets per firm. According to SIGTARP, the government's potential exposure from the PPIF is between $500 million and $1 trillion [PDF].

TARP: As part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Treasury has made loans to or investments more than 750 banks and financial institutions. $650 billion has been paid out (not including HAMP; see below). As of December 21, 2009, $117.5 billion of that has been repaid. Government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) stock purchase: The Treasury has bought $200 million in preferred stock from Fannie Mae and another $200 million from Freddie Mac [PDF] to show that they "will remain viable entities critical to the functioning of the housing and mortgage markets." GSE mortgage-backed securities purchase: Under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the Treasury may buy mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. According to SIGTARP, these purchases could cost as much as $314 billion [PDF].

--SNIP--- long read

Federal Reserve bailout programs

Commercial Paper Funding Facility: With the support from the Treasury, the Fed established the CPFF in October 2008 to increase the availability of short-term debt (commercial paper) funding. Up to $1.8 trillion [PDF] was earmarked for the program.

Mortgage-backed securities purchase: In 2009, the Fed earmarked up to $1.25 trillion to buy investments based on home loans.

Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility: TALF provides financing to investors who are buying asset-backed securities. In February 2009, the Fed and Treasury announced an expansion of the program to generate up to $1 trillion in new lending.

Foreign Central Bank Currency Liquidity Swaps: The Fed has provided $755 billion [PDF] for currency liquidity swaps with foreign central banks.

--SNIP--- long read

[oust the louse]

I guess if the administration claims to have saved millions of jobs, there has to be a cost associated with it right? If this is what they say it is, I would have to believe the CBO.

Because we have to believe that the administration saved these jobs...what’s going to be interesting is the Magic Muslim trying to justify the cost of 228k to save a job....that’s if anyone calls him on it.

[unique]

Panel: Green jobs company endorsed by Obama and Biden squandered $535 million in stimulus money

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/02/22/panel-green-jobs-company-endorsed-by-obama-and-biden-squandered-535-million-in-stimulus-money/#ixzz1EzU47l4s

go to the url above - not only are they not hiring, they are laying off people. This is a complete fiasco, but probably not criminal although it sure seems like it should be.

[unique]

No satire, unfortunately but you’ve made an interesting point - it should be satire and would work as satire but it isn’t satire so basically we are just screwed, once again.

[unique]

The $586K per job seems more realistic.

Using federal funds, borrowed federal funds, to save jobs seems really odd in the long run - also in the short run or perhaps just stupid in the short run.

[RSmithOpt]

LOL!!! I completely agree!!!

The only jobs saved were goobermint, Wall Street, & unions...that's it in a nut shell.

[sickoflibs]

Nice post. I pinged tons of Stimulus bill arguments, a favorite topic of mine. As was obama-care.

[unique]

The stimulus and obamacare are two boondoggles for sure, but also very complex - too complex unfortunately to cite elements of them in uncertain terms to fully ID them as piles of sh@t worthy of citizen rage across the board.

I’m hoping that someone comes up with something new that brings on more citizens into the WTF column.

I was thinking today - how strange is it that Republicans are looking at around $60 billion in spending cuts, but the current budget deficit is $1.6 Trillion. It wasn’t long ago that $60 billion was a lot of money! No one seems to be thinking big on the cuts side, only the spending side.

We seem screwed.

[secretagent]

Per job per year or per job per ... ?

[unique]

The way I read it, it’s a one time expense (stimulus) to create or save a job, especially since no more stimulus funds are available - unless more stimulus funds are provides relating to the same jobs. It’s all a huge scam.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”I was thinking today - how strange is it that Republicans are looking at around $60 billion in spending cuts, but the current budget deficit is $1.6 Trillion. It wasn’t long ago that $60 billion was a lot of money! No one seems to be thinking big on the cuts side, only the spending side. We seem screwed.”

Even more screwed if they cant cut $60B. And these were mostly safe cuts for Republicans, most stuff that liberal Democrats like. Republicans gave themselves no pain, yet.

Your post reminds me of a conversation with a neighbor (who grew up in France) who leans Democrat but works in private industry. I told him about figures like these that were coming out earlier last year, he asks: Where did the other money go? He has no idea.

Similarly I find many in Maryland buy the idea of government being more efficient because they don't make a profit. They never learned anything, try :

1) No way to gage/measure/tune for efficiency, not tied to elections
2) Political constituencies that benefit
3) a monopoly
4) Other people's money

I posted this last night related:
The Political Economy of Government Employee Unions (they are the servants, not the masters)