Examiner.com

  (Animation:  McAdam)

The cost to taxpayers for “creating or saving” jobs in Kentucky seems to be declining somewhat. A report last November indicated that across the nation it cost over one-half million bucks to create each “stimulus job.” Kentucky, on the other hand, was able to make do with only $148,126.43 in stimulus money per new job. And last Saturday, the latest report from the spend-our-way-to-prosperity folks shows Kentucky is now creating jobs with only $74,486.00 in taxpayer cash. Looks like we’re getting better at it.

The federal government says its massive stimulus program paid for nearly 10,700 jobs in Kentucky during the final three months of 2009. Since Congress passed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act nearly a year ago, Kentucky state government, local communities, companies and other agencies have received about $797 million of the $2.5 billion awarded. Data released late Saturday concluded that the federal program had created or saved 4,170 jobs in Kentucky. Using a little long division (we do the math, so you don’t have to), that came to a mere $74,486.00 per job “saved or created.”

(Lampoon:  missourah.com)

Last November, we reported that the Obama administration, after tripling the national deficit, bragged about creating (or saving) 30,383 jobs by spending roughly $16 billion worth of stimulus contracts awarded directly by federal agencies. Using some more long division (we do the math, so you don’t have to), that came to $526,610.28 per job “saved or created.” Some bargain.

Later, Kentucky’s governor Steve Beshear announced the spending of $12.8 million in federal stimulus funds for local criminal justice programs. The grants, funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, were estimated to “create or preserve” 87 jobs, with some of the money to be spent installing video cameras in Kentucky penal institutions, and for the purchase of laptop computers for state police. We did the math (so you don’t have to), and computed that each of the 87 “created or preserved” jobs cost U.S. taxpayers $148,126.43.

  (Lampoon:  myfreedompost.com)

Still later, Susan Ferrechio, Chief Congressional Correspondent for our sister publication, The Washington Examiner, compiled a remarkable list of fraud and abuse weighing down the stimulus package. Some examples:

• $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state.
• $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.
• $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women.
• $2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid.
• $3.4 million for a 13-foot tunnel for turtles and other wildlife attempting to cross U.S. 27 in Lake Jackson, Fla.
• $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.
• $6 million for a snow-making facility in Duluth, Minn.
• $300 apiece for thousands of signs at road construction sites across the country announcing that the projects are funded by stimulus money.

Watch the video: Ranking Member Issa Questions Devaney on Phony So-Called "Stimulus Jobs Saved/Created"