Yesterday, Joe Biden visited Ohio to ask Americans for patience as the stimulus spending picks up.

 

Biden said money from the $787 billion stimulus bill is flowing and will flow faster, directly saving public service jobs. He urged Americans to recognize the severity of the administration’s inherited problems and promised, “You’re going to see more pace on the ball.”

 

This prompted House Minority Leader John Boehner to ask, “The people of Ohio — like people all over America — have a right to know: Where are the jobs?”

 

I have been visiting my parents in Ohio for the past week.  I don’t typically read the local newspaper while I’m here, but my mom wanted to show me the front-page photo of our new library.  I have been hearing about the library ever since I got home. 

 

The community is excited.  The old library was small and didn’t have a great selection.  The new building, however, is spacious and will provide far more room than this small town will ever need.  The building itself is paid for, but to go along with the new building, new furnishings and equipment are needed.  How do we pay for this? Stimulus money.

 

The latest local recipient of federal stimulus money is the Leetonia Public Library, which will receive $204,000 to purchase new furnishings and equipment to go along with its new building.

…

The following is a breakdown of how the money will be spent: furniture, $71,212; metal shelving, $64,300; three servers and 25 new computers, $28,832; signage, $28,234; security system, $5,130; phone system, $4,520; and book trucks, $1,340.

 

Note that the library itself was not built on stimulus money.  They’re primarily just buying furniture and “signage.”  I want my hometown to have a nice new library, but I question whether stimulus money should pay for it.  America is suffering from record unemployment.  The stimulus bill was supposed to be about creating jobs.  Barack Obama explained this when he signed it:

 

And what makes this recovery plan so important is not just that it will create or save 3.5 million jobs over the next two years. … It’s that we’re putting Americans to work doing the work that America needs done, in critical areas…in critical areas that have been neglected for too long; work that will bring real and lasting change for generations to come.

 

I fail to see how purchasing book shelves and phones is going to help put people back to work.  More spending is not going to create jobs, and this is a primary example.  If we want to stimulate the economy, we need to cut taxes for small businesses and middle class Americans.  Instead, Obama has thrown money at projects that have no direct effect on creating jobs.  America has an economic crisis, and the Administration is buying furniture.  And we wonder why unemployment continues to rise…