Obama's Shovel Ready Problem

By Douglas V. Gibbs

When I first heard Barack Obama utter the words "shovel ready," it confused me. I was not confused because I am unable to understand the concept of creating construction jobs, but because as a 15 year veteran of the construction industry (13 years on the ground, 2 years in a truck) I had simply never heard of the term, and frankly, could not think of any job that is technically "shovel ready."

Shovel ready, to me, is something that is just waiting for the shovel to be dug into the ground. Construction doesn't work that way. Everything is carefully planned out for a long time ahead of the start of the project, requiring engineering that goes way beyond what most people realize long before the first grader's blade hits the ground - and this is not even considering the governmental fees, regulations, and approvals a job must receive. From plan-check to Environmental Impact Reports, getting a job moving is a long and painful process. Then, once things are rolling, collecting a team of contractors, sub-contractors, and specialty trades to perform each stage of the project takes even more time.

In short, President Obama's claim of shovel ready projects that needed a rapid fix of hundreds of billions of dollars of stimulus money just did not exist - partly because of the processes involved, and partly because of the problem of government intrusion.

Fact is, Obama, like most politicians, is completely ignorant of the outside world. I remember reading one time about a man who retired from politics, and tried to start a new business. He was amazed at how difficult it was to open a new business, with all of the fees, regulations, and bureaucracy imposed upon him by governmental agencies. "I never knew!" he proclaimed.

Now, rather than admitting his ignorance, Obama is claiming that when he said "shovel ready," he didn’t mean what he and most people thought it did.

As a result, there is no shovel ready jobs in process, nor will there be for a while. Simply put, whether the President is willing to admit it, or not, there is no such thing as shovel-ready projects.

Besides, when considering how the federal government wishes to take on an onslaught of Public Works projects, one must remember that doing so was one of the destructive strategies of the Herbert Hoover administration, a policy that was largely to blame (in addition to the intrusion into our financial system by the Federal Reserve, increased spending, high taxes, etc.) for The Great Depression; and in 1817 the U.S. Congress suggested a similar push for the federal government funding various public works projects for the infrastructure of the nation, and President James Madison, also known as the father of the Constitution, vetoed the bill, calling such spending "Unconstitutional."

Whether all of this spending on roads and bridges and sewers is good for the nation is only part of the point, however. One must remember that from a constitutional point of view, such spending by the federal government is illegal to embark on in the first place. One must also consider that we cannot afford to do pursue such policies considering how deep in debt this nation is at the moment.

Obama's only concern over this seems to be the necessary delay that accompanies such proposals, rather than the deeper impact of his actions.

“Did every project start as quickly as you would have hoped? No,” said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary.

When you are a liberal, everything looks good on paper. Plans on paper, for liberal Democrats, never seem to coalesce with reality, however. That is because their plans are not rooted in reality in the first place.

Notice, though, that Obama never technically admitted his error. He can't. Narcissists are incapable of admitting they are wrong. So, instead of changing his ways because of his failures, people like Obama just keeps shoveling the B.S., hoping nobody notices he is full of it.

But how was he to know there are no projects standing by and ready to go as he thought? Obama has no real world education. All of that Yale indoctrination did nothing for him. He has never run a lemonade stand, much less a business, so Obama does not understand the intricacies involved in doing anything in the real world. The closest he ever got to the real world was with his community organizing, and that experience is about as valuable as having experience as a babysitter before engaging in a multi-million project that requires thousands of workers.

Part of the problem is not only President Obama's inexperience, but also his naivete. He truly believed that all of the reports of shovel ready projects were true, rather than those calls for funding simply being a bunch of parasites eager to receive their stash of government money at the expense of the taxpayer.

If Obama was a man of the world as he claimed, he would have recognized he was being lied to, and shammed.

Conservatives told the Democrats from the very start that infrastructure projects take years of planning before they can get started, and years to complete once the process is begun. We also told them that these projects are not ones that can be undertaken at this time - not until the economy is straightened out, and spending is drastically reduced. Going deeper into debt for projects that are not absolutely necessary is simply a huge mistake.

Understanding all of this, it leads me to ask, "Did the Democrats not understand that there is no such thing as shovel ready jobs? Or did they lie to us, like they usually do?"

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Obama Lesson: ‘Shovel Ready’ Not So Ready - New York Times

Herbert Hoover's Depression - Lew Rockwell

Veto of Federal Public Works Bill March 3, 1817 - Constitution dot org