EDITORIAL: Stimulus spending has more than two sides

On Friday, the White House released estimates that $160 billion in stimulus spending created or preserved 650,000 direct jobs.

The stimulus program awarded $3.8 billion to South Carolina, and $702 million have been received, according to recovery.gov. These funds have created or saved 8,147 jobs as of Oct. 30, and these jobs are quite welcome given the state of our state.

The number of unemployed in September increased by 3,570 to 251,975, making the unemployment rate 11.6 percent statewide. The state’s overall job count was 68,700 below the year-ago level and nearly 98,000 below the December 2007 level when the current recession began according to the S.C. Employment Security Commission.

“Job growth in our state continues to struggle to keep up with job losses. As a result, the unemployment rate will remain high for the foreseeable future,” said Roosevelt T. Halley, Executive Director of the Commission.

In Darlington County, unemployment was 13 percent in September with 4,188 people unemployed. Any help we can get should be welcome.

Some area agencies that have received or will receive stimulus funds include Marlboro Area Arts Council $10,925; Marlboro Civic Center Foundation $10,925; Pageland Town Hall $25,079; Town of Cheraw $25,231; Boys & Girls Clubs of the Pee Dee $42,500; Hartsville Special Housing Inc. $48,288; Florence-Darlington Technical College $52,393; Marlboro County $116,791; Town of McBee $137,686; Francis Marion University $158,948; Pageland Place II, LLC $281,450; HopeHealth Inc. $429,748; City of Darlington $471,000; Coker College $502,416; City of Hartsville $559,272; School District of Lee County $1,115,990; Care South Carolina $1,606,806; Indian Land Fire Department $1,669,808; Chesterfield/Marlboro County Economic Opportunity Council Inc. $1,907,284; Marlboro County School District $1,922,804; Darlington County Community Action Agency $2,318,619; Chesterfield County School District $2,466,736; Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority Inc. $2,631,050; Darlington County School District $2,974,442; Pee Dee Community Action Partnership $5,291,100; S.C. Employment Security Commission $5,604,614; Pee Dee Regional Council of Governments $6,617,350; and Alligator Rural Water & Sewer Company $9,381,000.

In Darlington County, recipients have reported receiving 24 grants totaling $14.9 million, which created or saved 63 jobs. In the 5th congressional district, recipients reported getting more than $118 million, which created or saved 286 jobs.

Critics of President Barack Obama and the stimulus package object to the $787 billion in spending and constantly harp on the amount of government spending.

“All told, the plan would spend a whopping $275,000 in taxpayer dollars for every new job it aims to create, saddling each and every household with $6,700 in additional debt paid for by our children and grandchildren,“ Ohio Rep. John Boehner, the House Republican leader, said back in January.

Using that logic, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have saddled Americans with close to $9,500 in additional debt, and that number assumes there’s no more war spending. None of these same critics raised even an eyebrow about the $941 billion (and counting) for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq from 2001 to May 2009.

Critics calculate that the stimulus costs $230,000 to $275,000 per job created or saved, but those figures don’t include the value of what is produced such as water and sewer projects and other infrastructure projects.
The war spending has not strengthened the economy, has not created jobs in the United States, has made Americans less safe (the opposite of the intended goal) and has shifted the country’s budget from in the black to in the red, figuratively and literally.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the average cost per deployed soldier ranges from $320,000 to $390,000. None of the critics raised this cost issue before or today. They even said questioning the president was unpatriotic during the run-up to the war. Does that make them unpatriotic now?

Of the projects that will receive stimulus funds in the state, 395 have not been started, 59 are completed, 65 are more than 50 percent complete and 327 are less than 50 percent complete. Only 14 percent of contracts have been received, and only 22 percent of grants have been received. None of the $30 million in loans have been received.

The president is trying to mend the economy with a multi-pronged approach as well as improve the quality of life for Americans by using this opportunity to repair our failing and aging infrastructure.

Maybe we should give the stimulus package a chance to be fully implemented before attacking it. The stimulus passed, and that’s not going to change. We need to focus on the projects it completes and ensure those projects are done properly. We need to work together to solve our problems from every angle.

The 8,147 people in South Carolina whose jobs have been saved or created may appreciate that.