Stimulus Projects that Created No Jobs

(CBS)  A couple of Republican senators put out a report today spelling out how they say a lot of the money taxpayers shelled out for the stimulus package was wasted. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson Follows the Money.

It may be called the Recovery Act, but to Pastor Greg Sheets - it's the law of unintended consequences.

A well-meaning stimulus project to improve the road in front of his Newark, Ohio home has led the city to take part of his yard through eminent domain. Sheets got a restraining order when workers got too close to his house. The mess is now in its fourth month.

"My grandmother owned this house when I was a child," Sheets said. "There's not much left here to keep in the family."

In the state of Washington, another stimulus project may be hurting those it was designed to help. Construction began one year ago today in front of the Archery Bistro Restaurant. The owner says it's shut off business like a fly in a bowl of soup. He's had to stop serving lunch, close two days a week and, ironically, lay off 12 workers.

Read the Full Coburn/McCain Stimulus Report

A new report from Republican senators Tom Coburn and John McCain says too much of the $862 billion in stimulus money is being spent with dubious results: $700,000 for a researcher to study improvised music. For a project on interactive dance, 44 percent of the money goes to "overhead."

The $1.9 million spent to photograph ants in foreign countries has created two jobs created so far. That's better than other ant research stimulus projects: $451,000 has created one job, $276,000 spent on another created six one-hundredths of a job, and the $800,000 spent on a different one created no jobs.

The $144,000 spent to study the behavior of monkeys on cocaine created four-tenths of a job.

To study why monkeys respond to unfairness cost $677,000 - and has created no jobs yet - except maybe for the monkeys.

Still, Obama Administration economists say all the projects have valid goals, and the Recovery Act has put three million people back to work.

Jared Bernstein, chief economic adviser to Vice President Biden said, "If you look at the impact of the Recovery Act, including many of the projects that they're critiquing, these are projects that are creating jobs today, getting Americans back to work."

"I think sometimes decisions are made far away, whether it be in Washington, D.C. and they do not understand how it impacts people in everyday America," Pastor Sheets said.

He's resigned to giving up the home in his family for three generations - but he wonders who would buy it now.

Read the White House Statement Below

Liz Oxhorn, WH Spokesperson for the Recovery Act:

"Senators McCain and Coburn have released error-laden Recovery Act reports in the past and we have no reason to expect any different with this one.

It's no surprise that we're seeing this just as leading economists, including a former advisor to Senator McCain, have released new research showing the Recovery Act is already responsible for nearly 3 millions of jobs and lowering unemployment by 1.5 percent.

We made clear from the start that we would subject every dollar of Recovery Act spending to the highest standards, and we've already proactively spotted and killed hundreds of dubious Recovery Act projects.

We'll look into each of their claims and take action if any have merit, but with more than 70,000 Recovery Act projects underway, any misguided project is just a small fraction of tens of thousands coast to coast that are rebuilding America and putting people to work. For hard-hit middle class families, this isn't about partisan 'reports' or a single project - it's about a choice between returning to the failed policies of the past or building on solutions like the Recovery Act that are moving America forward."

Watch Sharyl Attkisson's Report Below

[oldman47701]

let me see--more taxes..for more TEMP workers for TEMP time period..Umm and let's tax the companies that can creat jobs and the people that can invest..Ummm>>> like the companies will not--WILL NOT hire if taxed more nor will the people invest if TAXED MORE..how about this...no investments/expansions/hiring--then tax more..nah--put the TAX money in the hands of politicians(who can not get a REAL job) and let them manage it for ya..oh yes--REAL SMART MOVE...DAH

[thomderr1]

There are many public works projects that need to be done. Now.

I'm sorry for the restaurant owner and the pastor.

But the main point to be made should not be the inconvenience of the repairs, but the short term effect of the repairs and the money spent on ridiculous projects. Building one street or widening a road, in every town, only has short term benefits for those employed by the projects. Yes, the benefits of the populous are longer lasting. But once the project is over, it's over for those employed by the project.

As for the 'pet' projects, (monkeys and ants, etc.), I guess some people have been watching the television commercial with the weird guy in the purple suit with the question marks all over the suit. He pitches the "Buy my book! There are thousands of government programs that you can get a grant for...." I guess that he is correct.

The sad part is that the United States Government really doesn't care where they spend OUR money, with no attempt at accountability. Valid Goals? Monkeys on cocaine or treated unfairly can't give you as valid an answer as a human being who has been treated unfairly or is a recovering cocaine addict.

If listening to the people the you represent is the problem, don't study the monkey's - ask the people, not the lobbyist's!

[nottellin1]

I'd like to know why any money was spent on the projects listed. This is so typical of our Dem led governmemnt, just spend money. Doesn't matter what they spend it on as far as theyre concerned. The money would have been so much better spent not being spent at all. Instead we added to our debt photographing ants in other countries and how monkeys feel about unfairness. Great job Bam Bam, I guess the change is a brainless leader rather than just a retarded one.

[tryhonesty]

Loser RepubliCON McSAME himself said that he is weak in understanding economics...he proves it every time he opens his mouth.

[flambeaub]

Yet another case of "journalists" reporting right wing propaganda without thinking or investigating. I recently completed a road trip and on the way saw many worthwhile projects being funded by the stimulus. How about doing some actual investigation and reporting on those instead of taking the word of a couple Republicans who want the stimulus and the country to fail? Thanks to 30 years of Reagonomics capped by 8 years of Bush, the economy is a the ditch and would be even worse off without the stimulus. Obama quips that now the Republicans want the keys back having driven the country in the ditch. The reason they want the keys back is so that they can drive the country over the cliff next time saving only a parachute for the super rich (income of $5 million or more per year).

If news organizations want to stay relavent, they need to hire some investigators and and vet these made up stories before publishing them. CBS is getting worse and worse.

[wfw3536]

It is sad Obama and the democrats wasted most of the stimulus money. What is really unbelievable is now they want more money to waste. These folks are so out of touch. They have no clue as to how to run this government and deal effectively with the economy.

[tsigili]

Everyone with half a brain, already knew about the waste.

[smitvict]

The stimulus was doomed from the start. The private sector generates jobs, not Obama. It was a slush fund for political payoffs, nothing more.

Examples - "saving" union jobs at the state level that were beyond what the state could afford. Of course, when the stimulus funds dry up, the jobs go away anyway. Just a year and about a trillion $$ later.

[cleric60]

YES INDEED! The Democrats truly care for the working poor and middle-class taxpaying citizens! NOT. Just take a look at this list of projects!

Among the projects singled out for criticism in the report:

--A half million dollars for new windows at the Mt. St. Helens visitors center in Amboy, Washington. The building has been closed since 2007 and there are no immediate plans to reopen it.

--$6.9 million dollars for repairs to an 1846 brick fort marooned on Dry Tortuga at the end the Florida Keys. Few people can visit this remote national park unless they hire a seaplane or take a four-hour round-trip boat ride.

--Creating a museum in an abandoned train station in Glasboro, NJ, at the cost of $1.2 million.

--$2 million dollars to send researchers from the California Academy of Sciences to islands in the Indian Ocean to study exotic ants.

--A study of dog domestication at Cornell University with a price tag of $296-thousand dollars.

--$141-thousand dollars to send students from Montana State University to China to study dinosaur eggs.

--$762-thousand dollars to create interactive choreography programs at the University of North Carolina. Dancers would wear electronic monitors to analyze their movements.

--$89-thousand dollars to replace sidewalks in Boynton, Oklahoma that were just replaced five years ago. One of them goes nowhere near any houses or businesses and leads directly into a ditch.

Coburn and McCain claim these and other projects are misconceived and mismanaged, while creating few, if any, new jobs.

[RobAla]

The federal government is out of control. Incompetence in Washington DC has risen to an outrageous level. Continued expansion of the federal government, without a means to pay for it, is leaving us with a $1.47 trillion deficit for 2010 and a national debt that exceeds $13 trillion. The federal government has mismanaged Social Security and Medicare to the point that both programs are going bankrupt. This is gross mismanagement that has never been seen in corporate America. The incompetence and corruption of our leadership in Washington demands action by voters. We must elect leaders who will reduce the federal government to a manageable size and scope. The Constitution calls for a limited federal government, and we need to do just that. It should focus on the fewer things it SHOULD be doing, and do them well.

[JayAdler1]

Securing employment is not as easy as it once was unless you are willing and get by on minimum wage. The stimulus bill did not solve our employment problems but not only because the money was directed in huge quantities toward pork barrel politics. I do not think that the unemployment rate and whatever job creation means would have been ameliorated for any good reason because there never was a cohesive plan to put people back to work. There was enough federal money to rent or build training centers for skilled labor and administrative work all over the country. Their are millions of unemployed people who need this training and want it. Firms today unlike my era, do not have the wherewithal to hire people that are unfamiliar with their industry. Someone who is a raw trainee cannot produce for some time. There is high anxiety about taxes and health care among all businesses. The subject of liability in myriad indexes and categories are elevated in 2010 so that a simple hire is like War and Peace. Going back to LBJ who was known in Texas as a pork barrel politician and arm twister, it is not much different today. Politics is local and the cookie jar got raided in a frenetic way that is amusing when we review the expenditures. That stimulus money rightfully should have been earmarked for job training and job creation if possible.Presently we are getting the spin but we are too hardened now for that.