In fact, the whole comedy of errors is a fine illustration of just how much different (and more difficult)governing is when compared with campaigning. During the election, if team O stepped in it, they had a greater margin for recovery - all he had to do was stay one step ahead of John McCain. The tacit argument was, in effect, "Let's play it cool, what are they going to do - vote for the other guy?" In governing, however, the argument becomes more like: "What are they going to do - not pass our legislation?" It's like that old zen proverb about how the toughest race is against yourself.
I bet you'll never completely trust hyperlinks again, will you?
In any case, what's got me thinking about this political stuff is the fact that the clusterfuck is putting blood in the water around the centerpiece of Obama's first 100 days agenda - the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Understandably, in a bill of that size, there are going to be some items that a blockhead Senator or representative snuck in there that are politically embarrassing. In the spirit of this, GOP Senators, doing the job of a dutiful opposition, have cherry-picked what they think are some particularly bad items in the bill.
You can read this article on CNN for details, but here's one thing that stood out to me:
• $1.2 billion for "youth activities," including youth summer job programs.
The main reason this item jumped off the page at me is that it's quite closely tied to what I do for a living. I can't speak for other cities, but I know that Chicago has been working pretty closely with the Department of Labor to come up with very specific, clear and well-laid plans for what they're going to do with the summer jobs money and exactly to whom it is going (Rod Blagojevich needs a job!). In any case, I will be the first to admit that there is likely some stupid shit in this bill, but don't summer jobs for youth seem like a natural element of "stimulating" the economy? I seriously doubt that many kids are going to take the money they earn lifeguarding and stash it in an offshore bank account.
I can't really see the problem being with an outsized dollar figure, either. Taking away 10% for administrative costs ($120 million - yikes, that's a lot of money - but that's what 10% is.), the math works out like this:
"Teenager" (the jobs money is actually for individuals ages 14-24) paid at $9/hr x 40 hrs./wk = $360/wk.
$360/wk x 8 wks = $2,880 in wages per youth
$1,200,000,000/$2,880 = 416,666 jobs
It's an apples-to-oranges comparison, but to give you an idea of scale there are currently 11.1 million unemployed people in the U.S.
Now that we've established some ballpark numbers, let's discuss what's getting paid for with this dough. For the 10% administrative cost, you basically have folks figuring out how to make sure the jobs that are spoken of actually materialize. This obviously involves information systems, developing business processes, lots of other boring shit and, most of all, getting private companies to hire youth. This part is hard, especially when the economy is in the shitter. As a result, the youth workforce intermediary usually subsidizes most/all of the salary (that's why the final figure is so big).
Of course, once the term of the subsidized job is completed, workers who were good fits might be asked to stay on. Suppose this happens for 10% of the individuals placed. This means that, as of Labor Day 2009, you've not only pumped $1 Billion more or less directly into local economies (since young people spend almost all of what they make), but you've created 41,600 jobs ("You" of course being Barack Obama, who after today's events I'm sure reads this blog).
In a later, more joke-laden post, I will give a run at justifying some of the other pork-barrell(?) items the GOP Senate Caucus objected to as well.
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