Obama Descends Into Madness

How else to describe this proposal?

The government is handing out nearly $2 billion for new solar plants that President Barack Obama says will create thousands of jobs and increase the use of renewable energy sources.

Mr. Obama announced the initiative in his weekly radio and online address Saturday, saying the money is part of his plan to bring new industries to the U.S.

The two companies that will receive the money from the president's $862 billion economic stimulus are Abengoa Solar, which will build one of the world's largest solar plants in Arizona, creating 1,600 construction jobs; and Abound Solar Manufacturing, which is building plants in Colorado and Indiana. The Obama administration says those projects will create more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs.

First off, let's define terms - "the government is handing out nearly $2 billion" translates as "the government is giving away nearly $2 billion dollars in taxpayer-provided money to fund a project that has been spurned by both the public and the economic markets, and is favored only by politicians who have ideological allegiance to the concept that we are a nation of eco-criminals".

OK. Now let's do the math, for as Ed Morrissey reminds us, the biggest crisis now facing our nation is that we have elected a mathematical illiterate (which explains the economic idiocy).

Obama proposes spending $2 billion to create a total of 5,100 jobs. That will cost $392,156.87 per job. That kind of money, in the private sector at least, should fund several jobs. Heck, even a government bureaucrat costs less than that; even at the Department of Transportation, that would cover two and have enough left over for a secretary.

But that’s not the only folly in this proposal. Of the 5,100 jobs Obama promises, only 1,500 of them are permanent jobs. The others are construction jobs, which will only last as long as the money flows to the project. That means we will spend over $1.3 million per “permanent” job in building this “green economy,” which looks more like a red-ink economy with even a cursory check of the numbers.

Remember this, when Obama claims to be a "deficit hawk". Remember this, when the Democrats claim only government spending can create jobs, and mock the idea of tax cuts as a job-stimulating device. How many jobs could be created or saved with $2 billion in tax cuts? We'll never know, but I can guarantee you it would be more than 1500 of them. But again, a combination of economic illiteracy combined with rigid ideology is looting our treasury and bankrupting this nation quicker than a room full of coke fiends in Las Vegas drain their bank accounts and credit lines...

Which is just about at the point we are at. Careening towards rock bottom, let by a madman with no regard for consequences. And at this rate of acceleration, I no longer believe we can brake the fall...