As Jim over at Pretty Important Politics notes, there’s a bit of a problem with Terrence Wall’s stimulus math. In a recent tweet, Wall noted the following:
Feingold’s “stimulus” bill spent $245,807.51 per job in the 4th quarter. http://72.47.210.237/publication/stimulusfacts
However, as Jim at PIP points out, the $245,807.51 per job number seems excessive, without the proper perspective:
Without perspective, $245k per job would seem excessive. Wall has no desire to provide perspective, because doing so would undermine his assertion that the Recovery Act wastes your money.
For perspective, consider the materials that go into the construction of a road, bridge or building. Those materials cost money, and lots of it. Without materials to work with, construction workers have nothing to build. The government could pay a construction worker to do nothing (essentially unemployment benefits), or they could buy construction supplies and pay the worker to fix a road, benefiting both the taxpayers who use the road and the worker who was paid to build it. Teach a man to fish, as they say.
First Terrence Wall attacked Sen. Russ Feingold on terrorism, while in the process misrepresenting Sen. Feingold’s commitment to combating terrorism, and now he’s attacked Sen. Feingold on the stimulus. I’m beginning to think Terrence Wall’s campaign strategy amounts to attacking Sen. Feingold on every conceivable issue while hoping that something….anything sticks. Surely, that’s not a strategy that will pay dividends, but from what I’ve heard, Terrence Wall really isn’t running to win in 2010; he’s just trying to build up some name recognition for another race in the not too distant future.
Seems like a sensible strategy to me. After all, look how well it is working for Rush, Beck, Hannity et al in getting the Tea Baggers stirred up in their ongoing assaults on Obama. Keep throwing it out there and irrespective of factual accuracy, those who are ill-informed, uninformed or misinformed will happily gobble it up. To quote Will Rogers “If you injected truth into politics you wouldn’t have any politics.”
I’m increasingly convinced Terrence Wall really isn’t concerned about winning in 2010; he’s just trying to build some name recognition in advance of a run in 2012 against Sen. Kohl or for an empty seat if Sen. Kohl retires.