Stimulus Sign Backfire?
**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers
Earlier today, Drudge headlined an ABC News story about how many millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent on stimulus signs. Not stimulus projects, but just the signs to let everyone know where their money is being spent, whether it needed to be or not. I haven’t been able to find how many jobs have been “saved or created” merely by putting up signs saying the government is saving or creating jobs, but I’m sure the number is substantial.
Some are calling this a political move (duh) — that placing more and more of these signs in an election year will help the Democrats who helped pass the Recovery Act. I heard one person say, “They’re basically big yard signs for Democrats up for re-election.”
Are they?
One morning, as I sat still amid a throng of idling cars occupied by frustrated drivers on the verge of road-rage, I looked down the road a bit, and proudly displayed in full view in front of a construction site where nobody was working on a 65-degree sunny morning was a sign just like this one:
From a political sales perspective, I’m not sure it’s going to help Democrats at all — it could have the reverse effect. Putting up all these signs could be the biggest mistake the Obama administration has made so far — and that’s saying something. There’s nothing worse for a politician than to put a sign up to remind everybody exactly who it was that caused them to be late for work and ticked off that morning. Especially in an area that nobody’s been working in for quite some time and wasn’t in disrepair in the first place, as was the highway I was driving on at the time.
Even if you’ve never been in a stimulus-induced traffic jam, there have been enough Porkulus horror stories out there for long enough that it should make any sane politician, if there are any, very hesitant to take credit for them.
Obama putting up “Recovery Act” signs that are synonymous with his administration in full view of the accompanying traffic jams combined with the tales of waste we’ve read about for a long time has all the sales impact of placing Alpo billboards in front of pet cemeteries if you ask this voter.
Road work is a necessary inconvenience (well, often it is anyway), but taking credit for extreme traffic backups is just plain stupid — which is why traffic jams have never been “sponsored” before, and probably never will be again when or if the geniuses behind Hope, Change, Gumdrops, Rainbows and Unicorns figure this out.
In other words, when we look at a stimulus sign, the president wants us to see a positive symbol of progress, like this:
And what we’re really seeing is this:
**Written by guest-blogger Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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It is the Left’s version of Let them eat cake. They lie about jobs created, we know they lie, they know they lie, but they persist anyway because they have No scrupples. You don’t like it, eat cake (or some other four letter word).
It’s very simple, Doug. The project is the sign going up. And believe me, the erection business is booming.
Hugo Chavez had the same program, now they are trying to find food dailt in Venezuela, as other people’s money has now ran out.. Same as the old Soviet Union.
Socialism is falling on it’s face all over the world. Obowma thinks we need signs to show what kind of moo-siah he is.
Darn straight they are – and on our dime!
This is just one more example of STUPID! They are all crazy. Period. The progressive hippie throw-backs from the 60′s have fried brains from all the drugging, and now we have the proof. Their mommies told them that if they took drugs, their brains would shrink. They didn’t listen.
After the things these Democrats have said and done to their constituents, they have proved themselves shameless. Just watch and see, some of them will try to take credit – it’s why they approved of the stimulus in the first place.
I don’t know if it’s still going on, but for a while they were throwing these signs up on projects that had already been funded by other means.
About a month ago, Mrs. Ragman and I took the little Ragette camping out along Skyline Drive, in Shenandoah National Park. It seemed to us, as though about one in every three of the scenic overlooks was closed for repair work, with one of those porkulus signs prominently displayed. Has anyone else noticed a preponderance of porkulus repair work going on in national parks, where some of us productive Americans spending our leisure time might notice them?
Maybe hanging a solar panel, a mini-windmill and some battery operated flashing caution lights would help the signs.
And cash for caulkers would have saved the Titanic
White House press release:
3 million pets saved or created.
Um, Spacey. Are you a ‘working girl’?
Or, did you want to rephrase that?
They spent all my money on a stimulus package and all I got was this lousy sign. Good work DC. I’ll remember in November.
Great T-shirt idea if you add– “And I had to pay for the @*#$ T-shirt
Obama’s entire administration is shovel ready.
Stimulus? Erections?
What kind of place is this?
Erection- (n.) When Japanese vote.
I see these signs all over the place, which are definitely needed because you can’t find any other evidence of work actually being done.
They’re more illusion, brought to you by this deceitful Obama administration.
I’ve actually been in the car with people that comment, “Oh good! At least there’s some work being done with the money”, and I’ll say, “Uh, where? There are no trucks, there are no construction vehicles, there isn’t anything at all. Only the sign”. They’ll say, “Hey, yeah! I didn’t even notice that!”.
Congratulations, Obama: your deception is working.
JS–Do you live in NoVa?
Dexter, just making an observation is all.
Yes, I ‘work’. But I don’t ‘work it’.
My wife and I were driving back from the store the other day and we say one of those signs and she just started laughing. I asked her what was so funny and she said she had never seen a truer “government” sign in her life. I asked her what she meant and she told me she was talking about the stick figure on the top of the sign shoveling manure!
Would it be illegal for me to fling poo at one of those signs?
Seriously, but not my poo. Just poo.
Democrats look upon America and the American worker as one big gravy train. Life is one big run for the money – other peoples’ money. They are, as they say in Tennessee, fixin’ to get a mouthful of strychnine with that next gulp of dog chow.
America needs laws specifically targeted to eliminate Marxism once and for all.
Poo is good. Florescent poo would be great.
Actually, a truckload of pig poo dumped on the steps of Congress would be ideal, especially this time of year.
I drive Chicago’s Bishop Ford almost every day. While those signs went up about two weeks after Porkulus was signed, the roadwork had primarily been completed before Obama took office.
Ironically, within two months of those signs being taken down, there were bridge repairs that closed down the inside lanes. That lasted a couple of weeks.
You tourists stink!!!
I remember an old SNL News Update during an election year with
Emily Litella starting out: “What’s all this I hear about Presidential erections?”
Then she went on to talk about how we already have too many statues of presidents.
Nevermind….
Lady Michelle says, “Don’t let them eat that cake!”
“Dessert is NOT a right!!!”
It sure is!
BOHICA!
I took my wife on a 4500 mile road trip in June. Two weeks of driving, with a few days stopped to visit family or friends. Of the 15 days we were gone only 3 days of driving were on the weekend. In addition we drove mostly during the day.
I saw a plethora of these TARR signs all over the interstates. What didn’t I see? Workers. Not one. No excuses about “it was the weekend.” What else didn’t I see? Equipment. But damned if I didn’t see signs and barricades.
Way to go Obama!
Slacker!
Michelle, I noted the same thing on a project in my own neighborhood. No one comes to work on it on a regular basis. I proposed on my FB page this is a scam project. Now I know why!
Take a look at the images on my FaceBook Album. Giant ripoff.
Problem is….it’s us taxpayers getting the “benefit” from these democrat erections.
Well, as I mentioned before, my husband took this picture of a stimulus sign in Tahoe National Forest at some off-road ATV trail.
And NO, there was no one there, doing anything at all.
Of course, they probably paid a union guy who made the sign, paid another union guy to dig the hole, and then paid another union guy to put the sign in the hole.
There you go…see? Three jobs created!
Want some more wonderful porkulus news?
Here in Maine, Central Maine Power (CMP)
is using $96 million of porkulus money to purchase “smart meters”.
They’ll be able to monitor individual energy use and control how much power is going to homes and businesses.
Of course, no jobs created. Just a new arm of Big Brother.
Of course, stimulus “backfires” in more ways than just the signs.
The real effect is to destroy jobs and economies.
oops – missed the link
Old research but bears repeating
Follow the money.
Very high probability you will find that the only business “stimulated” by this sign work was a loyal party member deserving of laundered remuneration for their support.
Just look at Soros and One West bank. The deal he received from the FDIC to assume the liabilities effectively converted those liabilities into assets. to call it unprecedented would be an understatement. No downside and all upside. As I recall, Michael Dell also has a piece of that.
Interesting you should say that.
One of the investors is GE and two of the top execs in Trillium, the company that developed the “smart grid” and the meters that CMP is installing w/ stimulus $, come from GE.
GE also has a huge part in developing the health records network system that the govt. is insisting on every doc and hospital use to monitor body mass and such.
One can only hope every last one of those signs will be mowed down by a passing vehicle.
Unless of course Americans see the signs for what they are.
Campaign tools for thieves using your tax dollars. But as that’s unlikely for many Americans, the sign should be made to just go away.
Hangfire #16, Also when chinese and koreans vote. LMAO.
Heh. This a perfect example of why prosperity comes from the private sector not the public sector. The private sector actually has to produce efficiently and effectively – unless of course they are working under a government contract. The Crapulus signs are more than a reminder, they are an insult…
1) People who used to be engineers, project managers, suppliers, sub contractors, etc. now have to pick up a shovel and take a government job which is temporary, for low pay, with no benefits.
2) Per the ABC story, the signs are averaging $10,000 EACH. (??????) I could produce a better quality sign INSTALLED for $500 at most – or .5% of that cost. Want to bet union shops are producing these?
3) Once the crapulus projects (and/or elections) are done, the signs are useless junk. I.e. wasted money. – and more money will be needed to dispose of them.
Big government at its best is the worst option.
Now if there ever was a place for graffiti!
Ha ha!!
Get out the baseball bats!!
Paint a cross on them. They’ll disappear quickly.
I’d love it if the taggers just had a field day with these stupid signs. There is one near my home that is sitting on a major expressway that’s been there for 6 mos. and I have NEVER seen a worker within 100 feet of it.
Signs of arrogance aren’t usually tangible, but these are.
There has been one of these signs on 5th Street in Reading, PA for more than a year. The work is finally being done, but the repaving would’ve been better used on any of several streets that intersect 5th.
In PA, the effect of these signs is for the Obama administration to be associated with PennDOT, not a great political move.
Those signs should read:
Funded by Taxpaying American Sheep that keep electing free-spending Crooks!
FIFY
Spacey’s phrasing is correct since we’re all getting screwed.
thnx mom2jack.
Errah, personally I like the signs. It shows where they are pissing our grandkids futures away. I point them out to my kids every chance I get!