74% Polled Say The Stimulus Package Was Mostly Wasted

1.26.10

A CNN survey released today shows 74% of Americans think the government’s Stimulus package was a huge waste of money.

“Nearly three out of four Americans think that at least half of the money spent in the federal stimulus plan has been wasted”

The response looked a little like this:

21% of respondents say nearly all the money in the stimulus has been wasted.
24% feel that most of the money has been wasted.
29% say about half of the stimulus money has been wasted.
21% say only a little has been wasted.
4% think no stimulus money has been wasted.

“One reason why the economic stimulus bill is no longer popular with the American public is the perception that a lot of the money has been wasted. Six in 10 believe that the projects in the stimulus bill were included for purely political reasons,” said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

A few additional thoughts:

In case you have forgotten, the cost of the stimulus was: $787,000,000,000.oo
This was a CNN poll. I’m just saying.
We’ve been against the Pro-Hole Agenda since day one. I’ve spent a significant portion of my career in the construction industry, so let’s look at the construction spending. Spending money on new road construction does very little to encourage the economy. The jobs created only exists as long as the project does. Thus they are extremely temporary. It is also difficult to argue that transportation on the new road bolsters the businesses that travel upon them. Not to mention, many of the government projects funded by the stimulus money have yet to graduate from the planning process.
Although the government argues they saved the economy through bank bailouts, others suggest the failing banks were a direct result of the community reinvestment act.
Regardless of the variety of angles, it is hard to argue that the government stimulus was a good dollar-for-dollar program.