White House Admits That More Than 85% of Stimulus Projects Were Not ‘Shovel-Ready’ in 2009

At least that’s the way I read it. From the White House web site:

Highway Projects: There will be six 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.

There you have it – by their own admission, six out of seven highway projects were not ‘shovel-ready’ in 2009. 28 out of 29 clean water projects, 27 out of 28 home weatherization projects, and 8 out of 9 parks projects were not ‘shovel-ready.’ Nice sense of urgency, guys.

Let’s not get too critical, though – after all, we only had to wait another year before the “real” Stimulus kicked into gear. Another year of grinding unemployment and crushing deficit spending. But wait – wasn’t that one of the complaints that Republicans had about the Stimulus package? That it was too slow?

Looks like the White House finally agrees.

[Update: ND tells me I should include a link to my latest post on initial unemployment claims over at Innocent Bystanders, wherein I discuss the administration's failure to notice that the unemployment situation isn't getting any better. Hotay, Boss, you got it.]

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