Stimulus Jobs Check: Are They for Real?

CBS News Visits California and Illinois to See Stimulus Dollars in Action

(CBS)  Where are all the jobs the White House is talking about? California got $18.5 billion in stimulus money, producing more than 110,000 jobs. Illinois got nearly $6.5 billion, and turned that into more than 24,000 jobs. CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy brings us the story from California, and CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds reports from Illinois.


At Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, classrooms and budgets are tight despite the influx of stimulus dollars.

California received $7 billion for education. The government says that created or saved 62,000 jobs. But the teacher's union says California also made $6 billion in cuts to education resulting in 20,000 jobs lost. Friday, California's governor said that number could have been much worse.

"Teachers would have been gone if it wouldn't have been for the federal stimulus money," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said. "I just want to make sure you understand that."

Fairfax lost eight teachers - they each taught about 175 students, who are now packed in with the rest.

When CBS News visited, one student was sitting on top of a file cabinet because there weren't any seats. Forty-two kids were piled into a room built for 30.

"What does it mean for your relationship with the teacher and your ability to learn?" asked CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy.

"You don't have that one-on-one with the teacher," said Arionne Featherstone, a senior. "If you have a question, you'll probably have to wait."

In one room, three students shared the teacher's desk.

"I think every student here knows that there's something going wrong when you have three students or four students sitting at the teacher's desk," said Ricardo Daniels, a student.

A lack of teachers is not just a problem here in California. More than half of the 160 superintendents who responded to a nationwide survey said they had to cut teachers in core subjects - despite getting federal stimulus money. More than 80 percent cut librarians, school nurses and custodians.

"The stimulus money has made the layoffs less extreme, but the stimulus money won't last forever," said Tim Daly, the president of the New Teacher Project.

Nationwide, $100 billion in stimulus was allotted for education. But three-quarters of that has already been awarded and it will all run out by 2011.

"Honestly I shudder to think what that situation will be like," said Fairfax Principal Edward Zubiate.

Without stimulus dollars, the principal at Fairfax is not sure he can even keep the supply cabinet full.

"You know the basic supplies: pens, pencils, inks for the copiers, etc.," Zubiate said.

Meanwhile, Ricardo Daniels is just trying to finish his last year of high school.

"I have to come to school every single day and do the best that I possibly can to become successful with what's handed to me," Ricardo said.

But what he's been handed is a school still in need of a handout.

---

In Chicago, CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds found that at the Ba Le Vietnamese Bakery, owner Tim Nguyen said the stimulus money sustained his business, saved his workers and found jobs for others.

"I was able to keep my employees and create more positions," Nguyen said.

He received a $270,000 loan from the Small Business Administration. Without that money, he said he would have had to cut employees' hours, and cut some jobs.

With the money he was able to proceed with plans to move to a new spot next door, which in turn created construction jobs in advance of the January opening. About 30 people had jobs building the new place, he said.

Seven miles away, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner toured a job training center that received $200,000 in stimulus, a center that helped Francisco Chavez land a job after 18 months without one.

"Going through the training made me more marketable," Chavez said. "It updated my skills. It enhanced them."

Don Schultz's construction firm did $8 million in business on four shovel-ready projects with stimulus money Illinois received from the Transportation Department.

While that meant jobs for 30 workers, those jobs end next month, and Shultz worries about what happens next for his business.

"We've got to just go out and get some more work and there's going to be less work because we don't have those stimulus jobs to bid on," Schultz said.

Which could bring his business to a grinding halt.

[Virgil-1]

Stimulus creates 1,000,000,000 jobs.They never told you how many were
lost.

[searingtruth]

As I said over a year ago now, America will have an unprecedented depression. The only question was how deep it would be, and whether or not our government would have enough funds to pay for the food, shelter, and health care of our citizens during it.

But because of the incredible corruption of the Republicans, Democrats, and Obama, that question has now been answered.

Our coming depression will be unprecedented in depth and length, and we have given away the money we needed to sustain our people during it.
ST


"We were to be rewarded according to our works, and most justly so.

A home, an abundance of food, an abundance of hope for our children, and a luxury of joy to be shared by all.

Not only for the few, as it always had been before.

And is again."
SearingTruth

A Future of the Brave

[jroach31]

Using California's horrible public schools as an example of the "failure" of the stimulus package?

What utter garbage, CBS.

The schools in California have been in a death spiral for 30 years. You can thank Prop 13 for that. It has nothing to do with the stimulus.

[natdef_1]

WHO CAN BELIEVE OBAMA'S CONTINUED LIES?

[hungry1968-17]

Lies such as.....?

Or didn't Beck give you those talking points?

[hungry1968-17]

Still googling furiously to find ONE, huh?

Guess I should have cued the Jeopardy music.

[Jess0908]

Jobs?! Don't talk about - - jobs?! You kidding me! Jobs! I just hope we can get handouts!

The years of complancency may be over and it may be time to kick it in high gear again. We certainly won't if we are too stupid to figure this out. So education, its certainly critical. But what are we teaching? Complacency! Go to school, have a decent job waiting for you. This is the difference between foreigners that move here with little education and start businesses and end up successfull. They know how to get off their tush and do something. No education is going to put fire under an "educated" person's backside like going without food for a while will. That said, we need education in order to develop and sharpen minds, inspire ingenuity, and offer tools for innovation. As another commented wisely, our system can't depend on growth forever, that is why there is outsourcing. What our system does need is to stay fresh and at the top innovatively so that we always have something to offer that the rest of the world needs or wants. Less education, then less innovation, less new jobs. Detroit wasn't built because Ford had a college degree. But an education or surrounding oneself with educated persons will certainly help an idea become reality and suceed in business. So the point, is quit complaining and go out and do something! The Stimulus money was only designed to buy time, so the rest of us could get off our tush and kick it in high gear! True, not everyone can start a business, but we can communicate and network and spread ideas in a way that the world has never seen in its history. If we can't pull ourselves out of this mess, when we were saved from outright depression, and bought some time (with the Stimulus) to regroup and get something done, then many of you are right, the stimulus will only do so much because we will simply return to the status quo. If we fail, it will not be Bush's fault and it will not be Obama's fault, WE OWN THIS.

[jsd330]

jess0908 Good post, The problem in our society today is most think manual labor is a Mexican name.

[two-cats]

The stimulus was too small, if anything. Many, many projects which would have benefited everyone were cut out by screaming Republicans and blue dog Democrats. It is so perplexing that these same politicians are pushing and fighting for us to expand military initiatives which are dubious at best in really fighting terrorism. Afghanistan is probably a lost cause now because the incompetent Bush pulled out so many troops there when momentum was going our way to send them on a wild goose chase in Iraq. I get furious every time I think about the last 8 years which nearly decimated our economy!!!

[natdef_1]

You continue to propagate this LIE. The stimulus bill was written in the dark of night and voted on before ANYONE could even read the bill.

Besides, you don't think $800 BILLION MORE DEBT IS ENOUGH???

[charmainelim]

Economic downturn is the best time to upgrade ourselves. Perhaps, we should take 2 steps back and assess our weaknesses to determine how we can improved ourselves to be more competitive to other countries.Think out of the box. Why should we waste our time and energy sulking and moaning. We cannot just rely on government aids cos' it will get run out very fast if we ourselves are not doing anything to upgrade ourselves to be more competitive. It takes two hands to clap.

[curse914]

charmaineli, a Nue-Gilded Age capitulator.

<snip>

In June 2003, Bill Moyers said that "Karl Rove has modeled the Bush presidency on that of William Mckinley (1897-1901) and modeled himself on Mark Hanna, the man who virtually manufactured McKinley. Mark Hanna saw to it that Washington was ruled by business, railroads, and public utility corporations." President Bush's tax cuts have given over 93% of their benefits to large corporations and well-to-do households with over 250,000 dollars of annual income (about 10% of the U.S. households). Moreover, President Bush's tax cuts are abolishing taxes on such asset-based income as stock dividends and capital gains. He is opposed to taxing management aristocrats' self-dealt stock options (salary payment in kind). He is opposed to requiring the corporations to treat such stock options as their personnel expenses. More than anything else, management aristocrats' stock options are encouraging many corporations to abandon manufacturing-and-supply procurements at home and switching to imports from China and other lower-wage countries. He is phasing out estate taxes. All these measures are transforming the past "potbelly flower vase" shape of the U.S. income distribution to the "bottom-heavy hour glass" shape.

This was the same kind of income distribution that the U.S. built during the McKinley-Gilded Age. There was no Securitiesy Exchange Commission to check "creative accounting" and Enron-WorldCom like malfeasance of corporations. America had poor public schools and medical care. There was no minimum wage or labor standard. Both federal and state governments and courts were hostile to labor unions and civic groups protesting the "injustices" of the society. The natural environment was ravaged by railroads, mining, lumbering, and newly emerging oil and gas firms. Abortion was illegal. Women did not even have the vote. In the South, Christian fundamentalists were pressuring public schools to stop teaching Charles Darwin's evolution theories. During the McKinley-Gilded Age, America's democracy atrophied. And America embarked on her imperialistic expansions of colonising Cuba, Panama, and the Philippines.

[brickorock]

We have had a thriving masonry business for the last 15 years. We have maintained city and state licenses, paid workmen's compensation, public liabliity insurance, paid taxes and unemployment. One of the biggest problems we have run up against is what we call scabs, who come to town, do the work for cost and pay none of the above. We cannot compete with these people. Our city officials refuse to do anything about these scabs even if they are given a location where they are working. They say they don't have the man power to police these situations.
We recently had an idea that would add more jobs to our local economy by manufacturing artificial stone. We had a shop that was large enough to manufacture and store many pallets of the stone, we could have employed several people, and when the economy picked up, use the stone on our projects whether it be residential building or commercial. We applied for some stimulus dollars through our state to follow through with the project, unfortunately our state turned down most of the stimulus dollars and therefore we were turned down. We lost the office and shop we were renting because we couldn't pay the rent; as the building industry took a major nose dive. Then watching the CBS broadcast of a foreigner who is recently a new citizen of the U.S., and not paid taxes all his adult life, not only applied for federal stimulus dollars received 280,000.00 through the
SBA to expand his business and employ several more people.
This has got to be the most frustrating and exasperating situation we have encountered over the past 15 years. How can a hardworking tax paying American compete with scabs and foreigners where is the blame to be placed?

[Renegade.Rivers]

When is everything going to make those who have been blinded by the Obama mantras, that it's all a "pig in the poke," and that there has not and will not be any change as long as we the American people allow the same professional politicians to remain in office.

Very few of those in the senate or congress have the American peoples' interest at heart, instead they are obligated, blackmailed, and coerced into taking care of the corporations and their lobbyist that support their campaigns with millions of dollars in funding for their reelection campaigns.

As for the course that Obama has taken, it should be clear to anyone who can think logically that what this administration has been doing all along is blowing smoke. Nearly ever campaign promise that Obama had promised during his campaign, has either been altered, wavered, or forgotten up to this point.

Instead we have seen nothing but rhetoric, more promises, highly questionable, and doctored statistics, and a lot of wasted time and billions of dollars that have done little to improve the economic picture in America or the lives of the American people.

[curse914]

by sharncedar October 30, 2009 10:58 PM EDT
The logic of course is terrible - the fact that some teachers were laid off when funds were short does not mean that more teachers would have been laid off if funds were even shorter. Perhaps they would have cut the school year shorter, or asked parents to drive their kids to school, or buy their own books, or raised taxes. It was a good article, but not skeptical enough of this bogus notion that one can pull numbers about "saved" jobs out of Obama's backside. Because there is no way to estimate such things, in the first place, and in the second place these guys are lying as hard as they can lie as part of the deal fo getting these funds.

So please let's have some journalism folks, if you have even a shred of pride or self-esteem left. Yes, ask some questions. Ask this one - Mr. Obama, you talk about jobs "saved and created" - could you break that down and give us the numbers for jobs created separately from jobs "saved"?

[][][][][]

What Obama needs to do is something that no president in recent history has had the courage to do, admit our economic system is inherently flaw and we have reached its inevitable end. An infinite growth economic model simply cannot work on a finite planet. Can you put more water in a full glass?

It boggles the mind that we are throwing money at our current economic model to keep it alive, when anyone with an inkling of understanding should know we have no means to create jobs; industry creates jobs and all of those jobs have been intentionally shipped off to nations that resemble American in the late 1800's with no product or labor safety laws with "employers" who pay their desperate laborers pennies.

Free trade did not "lift all boats", it sank most of us so that those already on yachts could purchase even more grotesque displays of wealth. And those yacht owners were rewarded for the ravaging of our economy with bailout money so that they may ship off to the nation of choice as ours crumbles in a Class stratified, gated community cesspool like Venezuela.

[curse914]

by luadda22 October 31, 2009 10:00 AM EDT
It's also the gift that keeps on giving. The money spent to pave this road was borrowed money. We will still be paying for it years after it has fallen apart again.

[][][][][]

So is money spent on wars and "nation building". So what is your priority, finding better ways to kill people or money spent on education?

[luadda22]

Yep, get rid of the whacko islamic nuts who want to kill us. As far as education; if money was the answer then the DC school system would be the best in the world. So what is your priority? Spend more money on a school system that is not working? Typical liberal thinking, if a lot of money is not working, lets spend some more. Get rid of the teachers union, the overpriced Administrators, the union janitors, after school programs, breakfast lunch and dinner (it's the parents job to take care of their kids before and after school), git rid of the feel good classes, etc. Hire teachers that want to teach and CAN. Pay them what they're worth and let them teach the kids that want to learn. If parents can't make their little dumplins behave is class, GET THEM OUT-OF-THERE. Make the parents teach their own unruly little monsters. Don't ask me to pay taxes for baby-sitting.

[BeckieBest]

Bush and his fellow Rushpublicans have really left a huge mess for Obama to clean up.

[natdef_1]

OMG, I can't believe you're back with the same tired old "BUSH REPUBLICANS RUSH FOX" routine!

I thought you had finally gotten over your GOP REFLUX DISORDER.

[harleythecat]

Hey "nextgenman09" - the Dems controlled BOTH houses of Congress during the last two years of GWB's term, so they have quite a bit of culpability as well. Quit trying to blame just the GOP where your beloved wealth reallocating Dems were part of the problem as well.

[missme4]

Here is the problem with that thinking. The dems were being controlled by the massive amount of moronic americans who were feverishly and blindly following bushes lead. American morons were so pumped up on war and vengeance that they could see nothing else. They failed to see the warning signs or listen to the truth. It is the people who are supposed to keep the law makers in check.

[BeckieBest]

This is pure Fox/Limbough B.S.

The Democratic party had a small majority in the house but not enough to overide the obstructionist Rushpublicans or a Bush veto.

The Democrats DID NOT have a majority in the Senate. It was split evenly.

Don't right wing nuts ever get tired of blaming Bush/GOP failure on Obama?

[jsd330]

BeckieBest Get off the fox/limbaugh BS you sound like a broken record. You give them way more credit then they are worth.

[natdef_1]

Barbie can't stop thinking about Fox and Rush Limbaugh. They make her world turn. Without them, she would have no one to blame for her inadequacies.

[army166]

Without the stimulus, GDP would be at -2 or worse. Unemployment would be higher by a million or more. Stimulus money will run out. Then what, people ask? We were never told the government would fund jobs forever. The 'brilliant' private and state-local sectors have to kick in at some time. Yet, had there been no stimulus money to start with, we'd probably be out hunting for rabbit, deer, rats, the country would have collapsed months ago. The feds did their part, the rest of us have to do something or it's a wash out.

[missme4]

"the rest of us have to do something or it's a wash out"

The rest of amricans are doing something. They are buying Japanese cars and Chinese garbage from walmart. That should help don't ya think? LOL. It's just going to get worse, and it's the stupidity of americans causing this. But, what can you expect from a bunch of morons who elected bush....TWICE! You would think if you shot yourself in the foot once you would be less inclined to shoot the other foot. Not it america.

[cbs4me3]

How long does it take to pave a road? Not very long. The job lasted only so long, but the stimulus money is gone. So what do you think happened to those jobs? The media needs to get serious with its reporting.

[hungry1968-17]

The stimulus was only supposed to be a temporary, quick fix, to get SOME people back to work. It wasn't designed to be a long term solution to PERMANENT employment for ____ many people.

[luadda22]

It's also the gift that keeps on giving. The money spent to pave this road was borrowed money. We will still be paying for it years after it has fallen apart again.

[midlclass]

actually depending on road size, gross weight capabilities, lanes, over and under passes and miles these prjects can last for several years. discovery channel did a show on the condition of our infrastructure to bring it to an exceptable level it would take 1.2 trillion in projects across the nation. if this is spread over a ten year period i.d say that this would be considered long term. this did not include new or addition infrastructure. throw in shifting our electrical needs to green and there's more jobs and investments.again what is corperate america and the wealthy going to do to make this happen consider the fact that most products manf. and shipped in or about the states is done on roads and rails. i haven't heard about any business's building any roads or bridges to put people back to work but alot of crying about them needing tax breaks.

[door331]

ill assume by the ignorance in these statements none of you live/work in the chicago area- the roads have been under construction for over a decade (look at I-88 which I drive everyday). You ever heard the phrase "there are only two kinds of weather in chicago- Cold and Construction?"

thats because our roads are tore up every spring and they start construction again. they refuse to change from salt in the winter and with the high volume of traffic that chicago has the roads turn into potholes in a couple months.

its a constant cycle-- the stimulus money is bogus and I am sure it helped temporarily but the fact is these roads should have been fixed up EVERY YEAR without stimulus-- but as most know, chicago is home to some of the most corrupt politicians and they cant get the cities budget under control.


/rant off

[natdef_1]

Hungry, if the stimulus was only supposed to be a "quick fix" then why is the money being spent over several YEARS???

Are you already walking away from Obama's objectives of creating 3.5 million jobs, and keeping unemployment under 8% -- oh, wait, that objective has already been FLUSHED DOWN THE TOILET!

[dennisall77]

Jobs were LOST by the hundreds of thousands during the Bush/Cheney depression. EVEN MORE would have been lost were it not for the stimulus money. Even Bush was pressing for stimulus money. It turned us back from a deep, poverty-causing depression that could have lasted a decade into a recession that we are already pulling out of. Obama has saved us from one of the worst financial debacles of the last 100 years. Bush nearly drove us into the ground, just as he did with EVERYTHING ELSE he has ever touched!

[natdef_1]

WOW -- and jobs have been lost by the millions under Obama! When are you going to stop living in the past and blaming Bush for all your issues?

[brian1920]

the lesson for all is that the government spending by Obama is wasteful and doesn't create real long term jobs. He has used stimulus money to try and buy votes. The jobs it "saves" are there as long as the government keeps sending money. The entire approach was wrong because business should have had withholding tax reductions and R&D credits. Small business should have been encouraged so the jobs created were self sustaining. Even NASA spending, military research spending, etc. result in new products, new technologies and are incubators for future new companies. Obama has created chaos at NASA and continues to pour money into handout programs which basically buy votes.

[nextgenman09]

The lesson for us all is that Bush and the GOP caused this mess and they try despertely not to own up to it.

[midlclass]

the other lesson learned is that tax cuts just cut the hell out of our public services. the repubs keep pounding tax cuts and tax breaks and really what good have they done? were in the worse depression since 29 our schools are failing and why because people dont want to pay an extra 10 a month on there taxes. 42 kids in a class room set up for 30 over worked college educated teachers. get a business degree and get paid more for running a bank into the ground than you can with 4,6 or eight years of college to teach. no problem to pay the bank 20 or thirty dollars in fee's or interest a month but don't raise my taxes to keep the schools running. and what more in tax cuts and incentives do business's need? more corperate welfare thats fine how about giving schools and college's more tax breaks.

[hungry1968-17]

What a bunch of nonsense!

How did Obama "create chaos at NASA"?

You're complaining that the stimulus was "only a temporary fix", when the stimulus was designed to be "only a temporary fix"? Why are you complaining about something that is working as designed?

You're championing those tax cuts, when all those tax cuts have EVER done is refund BILLIONS to the wealthy, while draining our treasury. There was NEVER a boost to our economy, every time it's been done, but you're advocating that we should do it again? Why?!?!

[luadda22]

I would rather give tax breaks to American companies than pay $400 billion plus (in annual interest payments only) to foreign governments. On top of that we still have to pay back the princpal. You cannot borrow your way out of debt or into prosperity.

[natdef_1]

HEY HUNGRY -- THOSE "TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY" -- WAKE UP, MAN, THAT WAS THEIR MONEY IN THE FIRST PLACE. THE GOVERNMENT TOOK IT FROM THEM.

UNDER ANY OTHER CIRCUMSTANCES, THIS WOULD BE CALLED THEFT!!!

[payback108]

Washington BS

[sharncedar]

The logic of course is terrible - the fact that some teachers were laid off when funds were short does not mean that more teachers would have been laid off if funds were even shorter. Perhaps they would have cut the school year shorter, or asked parents to drive their kids to school, or buy their own books, or raised taxes. It was a good article, but not skeptical enough of this bogus notion that one can pull numbers about "saved" jobs out of Obama's backside. Because there is no way to estimate such things, in the first place, and in the second place these guys are lying as hard as they can lie as part of the deal fo getting these funds.

So please let's have some journalism folks, if you have even a shred of pride or self-esteem left. Yes, ask some questions. Ask this one - Mr. Obama, you talk about jobs "saved and created" - could you break that down and give us the numbers for jobs created separately from jobs "saved"?

[jskul]

Why do school districts need superintendnts who receive upwards of 150000 dollars when they are mainly figureheads protecting the status quo and do very little besides take up space and play musical chairs when looking for a new position?