Post your "Summer of Recovery" stories here.

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Like the win in Iraq, Barack Hussein Obama LOVES to take credit for the work of others (and how many of us have had bosses just like that?)...

One needs to do a minimal amount of fact checking on Smith Electric Vehicles, one of Obama's stops on his tour in Kansas City, to see that Obama's stimulus policies live in the land of failure while his rhetoric soars into the land of the absurd.

How absurd?

Obama used the occasion to take credit for the employment at Smith Electric and go on the attack by daring stimulus naysayers to criticize his policies in the face of supposed "tangible successes."

From his remarks:

"For example, right here at Smith Electric, you've recently passed a milestone -- hiring a fiftieth employee -- and I know you're on your way to hiring fifty more. And we're seeing similar things all across America, with investments and incentives that are fostering growth in wind power and solar power, in energy efficient appliances and home building materials, and in advanced battery technologies and clean energy vehicles.

There are those who argue that we ought to abandon our efforts -- and others who have made the political calculation that it's better to obstruct than lend a hand. But my answer is that they ought to come here to Kansas City. They ought to tell the workers of Smith Electric that we'd be better off if your jobs didn't exist..."

A look into the company's press releases reveals that government stimulus dollars had nothing to do with the company's employment levels. According to the local newsprint in March of 2009, 5 months before the company ever received an award of stimulus funds, the plant had already planned on hiring a total of 200 employees over 3 years.

Upon receiving its first stimulus grant in August of 2009, Smith Electric's CEO revealed that the company "already planned to hire 50 people by the end of the year." Now with SEV planning on doubling their workforce from 50 to 100, what's the government's score with creating jobs at the plant? The answer is that the Obama administration is still 100 jobs away from the pre-stimulus goals of the company.

Absurd? Not half as absurd as Obama's rhetoric with regard to the real economic benefits that these investments are proposed to create. In his speech at SEV, Obama heralds stimulus investments in the plant and other similar investments, boasting that:

"...this is how we take charge of our destiny. This is how we create jobs and lasting growth. This is how we ensure that America not only recovers, but prospers - that this nation leads in the industries of the future."

Well if this is true, let's look at stimulus investment in SEV and see how taxpayer money is being put to work.

SEV received their first stimulus grant in August 2009 for $10 million. The funds were used to lower production costs so that their vehicle's massive sticker price of $150,000 could be reduced. I suppose $10 million would go a long way in boosting sales when your sales price is 3 to 4 times that of normal combustion engine trucks. So the question remains, how will the company sell its vehicles once the funds are exhausted? It appears that they won't have to worry about that problem for a little while, because the government expanded SEV's grant to $32 million in March of 2010.

So after $32 million, the President boasts that his stimulus created a massive 50 jobs at Smith Electric Vehicles and those 50 jobs. Wouldn't it have been more impressive to grandstand the company's success in selling it's vehicles to large companies? After all, such companies as PG&E, Frito-Lay, and Compass Group N.A. are all looking to purchase products from SEV, thanks to massive price subsidies with federal dollars. The Obama administration is subsidizing purchasers to the tune of 40-60 percent of the sale price with a single truck averaging about $130,000. The money adds up quickly. For example, Compass Group plans to buy 30 trucks, which roughly equates to $6.5 million in additional taxpayer subsidies.

If SEV's federal subsidy sticker prices seem egregious, it is only a drop in the bucket compared to two other projects Obama announces in his Missouri visit:

"Just last week, Abound Manufacturing in Colorado received backing for two plants to produce solar panels - creating 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs. One of the plants will actually take over what is now an empty Chrysler supplier factory. Another company, Abengoa Solar, is now planning to build one the largest solar plants in the world right here in the United States. When it's finished, this facility will be the first large-scale solar plant in the U.S. to actually store the energy it generates for later use - even at night."

The addition of 2,000 temporary and 1,500 permanent jobs sounds impressive until you learn how much these two deals cost; $2 billion.

The Obama Administration insists that the SEV story is the very poster child of Obama's recovery vision:

"The story of Smith's factory shows the direct and measurable impact of the Recovery Act. Smith's factory is re-purposing an 80,000 sq. ft. jet engine overhaul facility at the Kansas City International Airport, a space that was not being utilized or creating jobs is now a fully operational plant."

By the Obama Administration's own standards detailed above, there can be no doubt that Obamanomics is a miserable failure for the economy. If the Obama Administration is willing to drastically exceed $32 million to keep a single 80,000 sq. ft. factory in business, then we soon will find ourselves in the same situation as Greece.

Obama believes that America's future is in a green economy; behold the green economy sputtering to life as it drowns in the excesses of its own red ink.

Sam Foster
The American Thinker

What happens when we can't afford to plug our cars in?
__________________
When I was asked earlier about, uh, the issue of coal. Uhhh, y'know, under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket....
We would put a cap-and-trade system in place, eh, that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's out there. So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It's just that it will bankrupt them because they're gonna be charged a huge sum for all that, uh, greenhouse gas that's being emitted.
Barack Hussein Obama
Editorial board meeting, San Francisco Chronicle
January 2008

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Our friend just got laid off. He's the sole bread-winner.

He was the highest paid employee, so he was first to go despite being there the longest.

His kid is working 50 hours a week, at the evil Mickey Dees, during the summer to save for school.

That income prevents Medicaid eligibility. They can't cover the mortgage.

That's his "Summer of Recovery."

 

[Ishmael]

The curtain has been pulled down and the 'wizard of oz' has been exposed as the charlatan that he is.

I love his sending Geitner out to tell the business community that "we really love you." Apparently the adolescent in chief hasn't figured out that those guys are really pretty sharp and they pay way more attention to actions than they do words.

Besides, aren't the republicans the party of 'big business?' This whole love fest thing sorta puts the democrats in the position of talking out of both sides of their mouth at the same time doesn't it?

Ishmael

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Now I know how many of you just HATE the American Thinker, but let's face it, the Mainstream Press, having picked and championed Obama as "their" guy, are not about to print a story that reads in any, way, shape, or form like this, because they are impartial, objective, and dedicated to nothing but the facts...

Perhaps the icing on the cake was not any of the words that the President uttered, but the location in which this speech was given. It was at the company headquarters for Smith Electric Vehicles, which received $32 million in government stimulus and produces electric moving trucks. The President proudly hailed that the company just hired its fiftieth worker -- but at quite a cost.

Obviously the company had some workers before the stimulus, but just to be kind, suppose they didn't. A little basic math tells us that each worker was produced with just over $600,000. Why would you brag about creating one worker for every $600,000? Again, this is being kind, as some of these individuals were already working for the company. If the stimulus actually only produced an additional twenty workers, then those workers were each added for about $1.5 million of taxpayers' money.

Also, it is worth noting that the $32 million went to a foreign company, as Smith Electric Vehicles is not just some Mom & Pop manufacturer. The company is owned by Britain's Tanfield Group PLC.

So, what we learned from the President of the United States on Thursday is that you and I helped write a check for $32 million to a foreign company to create jobs in the United States that each cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce. And we were reminded that this President doesn't believe government has all the answers because the last thing this President wants to see is another government program.

How can anyone not have confidence in this man's ability to lead the greatest nation on earth?

Chad Stafko
__________________
With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and Playstations -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation.
Barack Hussein Obama

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

The curtain has been pulled down and the 'wizard of oz' has been exposed as the charlatan that he is.

I love his sending Geitner out to tell the business community that "we really love you." Apparently the adolescent in chief hasn't figured out that those guys are really pretty sharp and they pay way more attention to actions than they do words.

Besides, aren't the republicans the party of 'big business?' This whole love fest thing sorta puts the democrats in the position of talking out of both sides of their mouth at the same time doesn't it?

Ishmael

Funny that you have to go tell the people that you love the demons of business...

For the first time in his life, words really mean things and he still has to figure out that all of his speeches in November '08 caused the panic that created and maintains the lack of faith business has in his "green,*" centrally-planned economy



* not just ecological, but inexperienced...
__________________
The US economy for a long period of time was the engine of world economic growth. We were sucking in imports from all across the world financed by huge amounts of consumer debt. Because of the financial crisis, but also because that debt was fundamentally unsustainable, the United States is not going to be able to serve in that same capacity to that same extent.
Barack Hussein Obama

The want of confidence in the public councils damps every useful undertaking, the success and profit of which may depend on a continuance of existing arrangements. What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not but that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed? What farmer or manufacturer will lay himself out for the encouragement given to any particular cultivation or establishment, when he can have no assurance that his preparatory labors and advances will not render him a victim to an inconstant government?
Madison, Federalist 62.

 

[Ishmael]

Obviously Madison doesn't count, he's just an old dead white guy.

Ishmael

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

With each trip down main street, there's a new vacancy that would be perfect for a new business.

We have blocks of houses for sale.

Meanwhile, we see the stories of businesses sitting on their cash just waiting to see what new taxes, regulations, and stimulus programs they will have to contend with...

They just don't know what tough love Obama and the Democrats are going to inflict upon them next.
__________________
The government that can tell you what to do, will tell you what to do.
A_J, the Stupid

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Obviously Madison doesn't count, he's just an old dead white guy.

Ishmael

You left out slave-owner. They were all slave owners...

 

[Luk]

It's really pathetic that this is what you two do first thing on a Saturday morning. Really.

 

[Karen Kraft]

My summer of recovery is marked by my making strawberry-rhubarb cobbler. It's very good.

 

[Liar]

My summer of recovery is marked by my making strawberry-rhubarb cobbler. It's very good.

Bugger. Now I want rhubarb.

 

[Karen Kraft]

Bugger. Now I want rhubarb.

Sour but sweet. Mmmmm....

It's SO good!

 

[Saint Peter]

It was the summer of '89. I was playing drums in a band and drinking like a fish. No real world responsibilities. Life was just one big ass party.

Driving home from a long night at a bar, actually racing a drunk friend home, I rolled my truck. It landed on the roof, wedged between two big trees. I did not get a scratch.

I quit drinking and got a real job.

The end.