Stimulus job bust

Again these numbers never take into account the jobs lost from the stimulus taking money from someplace else in the economy. In any case, these are the "positive" examples.

Biden’s latest campaign prop is a list of 100 of the “most innovative and effective” projects across the country that are “changing America.”

Five Massachusetts projects are highlighted on the list, including a lead paint mitigation project in Malden, a new wind-blade testing facility in Boston and a Superfund cleanup project in New Bedford.

The five projects alone represent a total of $135 million in direct investments and another $43 million in loan guarantees. And the total number of jobs associated with them is . . . oh, give or take 500. . . .

Some of the projects are not considered such successful ones to brag about.

"I'm disappointed that we've only created or retained 55 jobs after receiving $111 million," said Wendy Greuel, the city's controller. "With our local unemployment rate over 12 percent we need to do a better job cutting red tape and putting Angelenos back to work."

According to the audit, the Los Angeles Department of Public Works spent $70 million in stimulus funds -- in return, it created seven private sector jobs and saved seven workers from layoffs. Taxpayer cost per job: $1.5 million.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation created even fewer jobs per dollar, spending $40 million but netting just nine jobs. Taxpayer cost per job: $4.4 million.

Greuel blamed the dismal numbers on several factors:

1. Bureaucratic red tape: Four highway projects did not even go out to bid until seven months after they were authorized.

2. Projects that were supposed to be competitively bid in the private sector went instead went to city workers.

3. Stimulus money was not properly tracked within departments

4. Both departments could not report the jobs created and retained in a timely fashion..

"I would say maybe in a grade, a B- in creating the jobs," Greuel told Fox News. "They have started to spend those dollars but it took seven months to get some of those contracts out. We think in the city that we should move quickly and not in the same usual bureaucratic ways." . . .

A grade of a "B-"?