
The left has lost any reason to demand tax hikes. This may not be the worst case of government mismanagement but it has got to be close. The City of Seattle was given a $20 million dollar federal grant to winterize homes. Three homes were winterized and a whopping 14 jobs created.
A green jobs program in one of America's greenest cities is being called a bust 16 months after a $20 million federal grant to weatherize homes in Seattle ended up putting just 14 people to work in mostly administrative jobs and upgrading only three homes in the area.
"The jobs are not there," Todd Myers, who wrote the book "Eco Fads," told Fox News. "So we're training people for jobs that don't exist."
Seattle is not alone. The Department of Energy has allocated $508 million to 41 states for its Better Buildings Neighborhood Program and 600 jobs have been created or retained.
"While communities are advancing their programs at different rates, we are pleased with the progress," the agency wrote in a recent statement.
One year into the three-year program, 9,000 homes have had energy audits and received some kind of upgrade. The goal is to weatherize 150,000 homes by 2013 and save consumers $65 million annually on energy bills.
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn says it's too early to declare the program a failure.
"We may have to adjust how we market it and the incentives we provide," McGinn said. "Nobody has really cracked the green jobs code."
Contractors who do the energy audits and home retrofits blame government for getting in the way. To be a participating business in Seattle, the contractor is required to pay workers $21 an hour with full benefits, including retirement pay. But according to several small business owners in the area, the prevailing wage for new workers who lay insulation is $12. per hour.
Is anyone else’s head about to explode over this? That is over $1 million per job. That is over $6.6 million per home.
Where did the money go? I doubt seriously any of those 14 people in those jobs were getting paid over $1 million a year. Where is the money? Where did it go?
And what about Seattle’s mayor? If it is too early to call this program a failure, when do you ever call a program a failure? Is it possible for ANY program to be a failure in his mind?
This is beyond mind boggling. The Congressional Super Committee is considering budget options and the members of the Committee from the Party of Treason are all committed to massive tax hikes. After seeing this kind of waste, there is no way the government should get another dime of tax dollars.
Earlier this year the Government Accounting Office reported there were hundreds of billions in wasteful government spending. As the left demands tax hikes, we need to be demanding the government use the money it has wisely. We also need to demand the government employees that manage to blow this much money be fired!
After all, it is our money.
Permalink Reply by Shirley Eliakis on August 30, 2011 at 10:30am This is why DC needs the Tea Party. Somebody needs to school these idiots, who "just cannot understand."
DC truly does NOT understand honesty, honor, truth and personal accountability. Stand up and fight for all that America was founded upon, patriots!
Permalink Reply by Al Newman on August 30, 2011 at 11:04am A LOT of discussion here will be avoided after you watch this documentary.
Watch it to the very end!:
This is an INCREDIBLE, FACTUAL, documentary!! The ship HAS sailed. We need some 'off the monitored internet' think tanks.
The authors/producers deserve our generous support!
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Permalink Reply by Dottie Prince on August 30, 2011 at 2:04pm
Permalink Reply by Dottie Prince on August 30, 2011 at 1:58pm
Permalink Reply by Shawn Huebler on August 30, 2011 at 8:50pm
Permalink Reply by Maria Rivero on August 31, 2011 at 9:34am
Permalink Reply by Darrell Russell on August 31, 2011 at 5:24pm
Permalink Reply by Al Newman on August 31, 2011 at 5:43pm © 2013 Created by Judson Phillips.