Barbara Boxer has spent a lot of time running around California construction sites and government projects recent on her rare, election year-driven trips out from Washington touting “miracle recoveries” and all the “jobs” she says have been created by the economic “stimulus” plan.
It’s ironic that she chooses such locations as the backdrop of all her bogus press conferences because in fact, the construction sector has been decimated as a result of bad policy and a sputtering economy. In California, employment in the construction industry is down more than 18 percent since February 2009. And nationwide, the unemployment rate in the construction industry is more than double the overall unemployment rate at a staggering 20.1 percent. Studies have shown that, despite its cost and spending surge on infrastructure, the economic stimulus plan’s effect on the construction industry and economy has been minimal.
Highway Projects Provide The Backdrops For Political Press Conferences But Haven’t Necessarily Helped The Unemployment Picture. “Highway projects have been the public face of the president’s recovery efforts, providing the backdrop for news conferences with workers who owe their paychecks to the stimulus. But those anecdotes have not added up to a national trend and have not markedly improved the country’s broad employment picture.” (Matt Apuzzo and Brett J. Blackledge, “AP: Road Projects Don’t Help Unemployment,” The Associated Press via The Daily Breeze, 1/11/10)
AP: “Local Unemployment Rates Rose And Fell Regardless Of How Much Stimulus Money Washington Poured Out For Transportation.” “Spend a lot or spend nothing at all, it didn’t matter, the AP analysis showed: Local unemployment rates rose and fell regardless of how much stimulus money Washington poured out for transportation, raising questions about Obama’s argument that more road money would address an ‘urgent need to accelerate job growth.’” (Matt Apuzzo and Brett J. Blackledge, “AP: Road Projects Don’t Help Unemployment,” The Associated Press via The Daily Breeze, 1/11/10)
Although Barbara Boxer claimed the $862 billion for the economic stimulus plan would bring “help and hope,” in fact, 2.25 million Americans have lost their jobs in just the last 15 months.
So today, we ask Barbara Boxer, “Where are the jobs?”