Recovery Summer Exposed

By Adam Bitely
We are nearing the end of August, and the end of what was dubbed the “Recovery Summer” by the Obama Administration. This was supposed to be a time where all Americans would experience the “most active Recovery Act season yet”, where “the American people will get to see first-hand the Recovery Act dollars being put to work in their communities” according to Joe Biden’s press office. It is nearly the end of summer and all Americans must be wondering where the “recovery” is?

While laying out the top priorities of the activity that will be seen through the “Recovery Summer”, the administration remained vague, choosing not to lay out major goals of any sort. For instance, these were the top examples of projects that would be performed throughout the summer:

• “Highway Projects: There will be 6 times as many highway projects underway in July 2010 as in July 2009 – projects will surge from 1,750 last summer to over 10,000 this summer.

• “Clean and Drinking Water: This summer over 2,800 clean and drinking water projects will be underway versus just over 100 last summer – more than 20 times as many.

• “Home Weatherization: This summer, 82,000 homes will be weatherized versus 3,000 last summer – 27 times as many homes this summer as last.

• “National Parks: This July, nearly 800 projects will be underway at national parks versus just over 100 last July – 8 times as many this summer.”

In the same press release highlighting all of the good stuff that billions of taxpayer dollars would be spent on, there was not a single mention of how money jobs would be “created or saved” by the “Recovery Summer” activity. The Obama administration chose to focus on a year-end goal of 3.5 million jobs without noting whether or not this net figure on jobs would be “created or saved”.

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