Have you or your community benefited from the stimulus bill?
Posted at 5:00 AM on February 17, 2010
by Eric Ringham
(9 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Politics/Government
President Obama signed the Recovery Act one year ago today. Today's question: Have you or your community benefited from the stimulus bill?
Comments (9)
Hi there! Do you use Twitter? I'd like to follow you if that would be okay. I'm surely enjoying your blog and look saucy to late updates.
Text sent to MPR:
Yes I have benefited: roads on which I commute have been improved with stimulus funds. -Josh, Shoreview
Lets see, I was a first time home buyer but that was a few years ago so no government credit. I traded in a clunker for a more fuel efficient vehicle, but ditto on doing it before the government subsidy was in effect.
I did, through taxes, help a few of my friends and neighbors purchase homes and new vehicles. I also recently learned that my tax money will soon be helping some of them buy new, energy efficient appliances. Yeah, did that 3 years ago.
The stimulus bill has helped me a lot. It added to my unemployment benefits, extended the length of time I'm able to receive unemployment, and it has subsidized COBRA, enabling me to continue my health insurance coverage.
Without these benefits, I'd be in a much harder place financially.
I'm now entering my 11th month of unemployment and these benefits have had very real and substantial effects on my life.
Having said that, I also want to point out that the long term solution to our economic crisis is not short-term government aid, but economic democracy.
We need to overhaul a system in which gargantuan corporations gobble up an increasing share of workers, making our economy vulnerable every time one of them goes under....in addition to the debt-ridden large corporations which also put us at risk when they go under.
The ARRA effect at the U of M:
-Because of ARRA's State Fiscal Stabilization Funds, all resident undergraduates at the University of Minnesota saw their tuition bought down by more than $400 in both 2009-2010 and 2010-2011, and middle income students (from families between $40k-100K) saw an additional tuition mitigation-of up to $1,500 per year.
-Pell grant recipients saw a significant grant increase.
-U researchers have competed for and been awarded 267 NIH, NSF and DOE grants funded by ARRA, with an authorized amount of $139.2 million over two years.
No. I think we need a stimulus, but the focus isn't as broad-based as it needs to be. The term "shovel-ready" was thrown around a lot as a way to describe job efforts that should be funded by a stimulus, but that's kind of narrowly construction-centric.
Teachers and paraprofessionals could be easily hired today and start tomorrow. So could certain health-care professionals in regions that are short-handed, like rural areas.
In Minnesota libraries have had their hours cut; how about hiring some people to staff the library (where, by the way, job-seekers can go to use the library's online resources, but only if the library is staffed.)
Another idea: what about a kind of draft? If you're not working, filing for unemployment, and need a job, the reality is that there is work to be done that will benefit us all, and a stimulus could pay for that. The newly employed persone would, of course, now have money to spend in the economy.
Yes, my brother-in-law has a construction job because of it.
But, naming it "The Stimulus Bill" mislead people into believing that this legislation would stop the recession from happening, and that was never the intent.
"The Stimulus Bill" was created to minimize the impact of the recession. Also, about 60% of it hasn't been spent yet but will be in 2010 & 2011.
Think of it as a huge agricultural subsidy which we hand out to Farmers annually regarless of party affiliation. We never hear any controversy about this...Aah, PORK we can all agree on, I guess?
Bill
No, however as a legal, tax paying, U.S. citizen I am much deeper in tax debt.
Yes, I have. I bought a house in July 09 and was able to claim the first time home buyers tax credit. The whole process took way too long, 6 months in total, and I had to call the IRS three times before I received my check..... but I did get it finally and it is helping me tremendously!
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