This afternoon I made a trip to North Carolina’s stimulus tracker website. It is amazing how much money has been spent in this state by President Obama’s February 2009 stimulus bill formally referred to as the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.”
Our state is in the process of spending nearly $9 billion in grants and stimulus funds – all paid for using borrowed money. You will be happy to know that $344,750 of the “recovery and reinvestment” funds have been spent on some non-descript “promotion of the arts.”
How effective has the Keynesian spending been in our state? Employment figures released this week indicate that North Carolina’s unemployment rate is 9.7%. The unemployment rate when the stimulus package passed through Congress in February 2009 was 9.8%. So, $9 billion later, the state’s unemployment rate has dropped 0.1%.
When our economy finally does recover, it will do so in spite of the stimulus package and Keynesian deficit spending – not because of it.
Great.