I have written several articles about how American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a.k.a. federal stimulus, dollars are being spent in Florida.

In two previous articles I found that overall the State of Florida created no jobs but "saved" jobs according to the Recovery.gov web site. Each of the jobs saved cost $232,295.51 (read the article here). After contacting the Florida Department of Education I learned that 67% of the jobs "saved" were in education (government) positions (read article here).

Today I learned the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation recieved $43 million in ARRA funds for "summer youth programs". According to Denishia Robinson, Public Information Specialist, Agency for Workforce Innovation:

The following is information we reported on job creation using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.

• Full-time Equivalent count – 3,770

• Actual workers – 13,002

  • Summer Youth – 10,267
  • Workforce System - 1,128 
  • School Readiness Providers – 1,599      
  • Early Learning Coalition staff - 8 

More than10,000 jobs were short-term, summer jobs for youth in various occupations. Florida’s 24 regional workforce boards employed teens and young adults ages 14-24 in the Summer Youth Program. Summer Youth participants were compensated while learning valuable, “real world” workplace skills and making great business contacts. Florida's workforce system hired more than 1,100 new workers in One-Stop Career Centers, in the agency and at the Regional Workforce Boards using Recovery funds to assist Floridians and businesses with job placement/job training services. Additionally, more than 1,600 people were hired to provide childcare through Florida’s Early Learning System so parents can find or maintain employment. [Emphasis added]

That equates to $11,405.83 per job "saved". But note that of the FTE workers in this program 2,735 are government or government related jobs.

I looked at ARRA funds spent for this "summer program" in my area - Sarasota and Manatee Counties. According to the Agency for Workforce Innovation website:

Region 18 – Suncoast Workforce Board (Manatee, Sarasota)

The Suncoast Workforce Board program will provide work experience for 400 young adults ages 16 to 21 in local jobs starting June 15. Participants will earn a training incentive equivalent to $7.25 per hour for up to 20 hours a week for a maximum of five weeks.

This program, funded by federal stimulus dollars, will help distribute an estimated $700,000 to the local economy. For more information, visit www.swdb.org.

So, my local Suncoast Workforce Board got $700,000 to employ 400 young adults at $7.25 per hour for up to 20 hours a week for five weeks. Doing the math with my trusty calculator that works out to $290,000 in total compensation to the young adults. What happened to the remaining $410,000? It went to compensate government staff. So, 58% of the Suncoast Workforce Board money went to sustain government.

To do your own analysis of your county go here and run the numbers.

This is a failed way to "save" jobs, it only redistributes wealth, the program provides only temporary work for our young adults but keeps the bureaucracy whole. A very poor, if not wasteful, use of our tax dollars, don't you think?

U.S. Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis (R-Fla.), representing Florida’s 9th Congressional District, today issued the following statement after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed that the Republican health care plan will lower premiums by up to 10 percent and reduce the deficit by $68 billion over 10 years without raising taxes or cutting Medicare for seniors:

"The Republican plan lowers health care costs and expands access to quality care without raising taxes, cutting Medicare, killing jobs, or putting federal bureaucrats between patients and their doctors. 

“The trillion dollar Democratic plan raises taxes on individuals and small businesses, raids Medicare to pay for a government takeover of health care, and gives the federal government more power over personal health care decisions. The Republican plan clearly is the preferable approach, especially since it is the only one taxpayers can afford.   

“The GOP plan establishes programs to help people with pre-existing conditions obtain coverage through high-risk insurance pools, prevents insurers from unjustly cancelling policies because people get sick and need costly care, and prohibits insurers from instituting annual or lifetime spending caps for people with high health care costs.

“These consumer protections, coupled with common sense ideas like medical liability reform, strengthening association health plans, and allowing people to purchase health insurance across state lines will make health care more affordable without breaking the bank.”

NOTE: Read the full letter from the CBO here (PDF). Read a summary of the GOP health care plan here (PDF).

Column courtesy of Matthew Flaconer:

Milton Friedman said "the total tax on a people is the sum of all government spending." Government spending equals taxes. It does not matter what the government spends it on, how they collect the tax, or whether they call it a tax, a toll, a fee, an assessment or a revenue enhancement. Every nickel the government takes in comes from your pockets and more importantly does not go to a small business in our community.

Many taxes are hidden in the cost of everything you buy. Real estate taxes and impact fees are passed on to small business owners in the form of higher rents. The higher rents increase the cost of the goods you buy (which is why it is hard to get a lunch for $10 today). People are rightly upset about the recent toll increase, but you pay a toll every time you purchase something. At the gas station, at the grocery store, at your favorite restaurant. As much as 55% of every dollar you spend goes to taxes.

So what is wrong with this? The answer is high levels of government spending (taxes) are harmful to our economy. Government spending diverts money from small business and when you raise the price of goods people buy less of it. Taxpayers go out to dinner less and restaurants close. When restaurants close they lay off employees who are no longer going to the movies or getting their nails done. Increases in taxes create a downward economic spiral.

Putting numbers to this trend, government spending in all of Orange County doubled over the last ten years to $7,000,000,000 a year in 2008 (population increased about 15% using school population as a measure). If government spending increased only by the rate of inflation plus population growth, unemployment would likely be less than 8% like other states.

Nov.4^th, Wichita, KS – The crowd of about a thousand applauded warmly for my performances of the “Tea Party Anthem” and “2010”. After the rally, I was scheduled to leave my bus tour family for a day to fly to Washington DC. I had been asked to sing “God Bless America” at a huge rally protesting the latest health care nightmare bill at the U.S. Capitol.

At the Wichita rally a gentlemen and his wife offered to give us a ride to the airport in their pick up truck; Amy Kremer, founder of Tea Party Patriots, Deborah Johns, spokesperson for Tea Party Express and myself.

Like every rally, I signed several autographs, posed for pictures and shook hands. I called the tour my “Million Handshake March”.

With tears in her eyes, a middle aged white woman grabbed my hand with both of hers. She pressed something in my palm. “I wish I could give more. I just want to contribute to your efforts. God bless you”. With a line building behind her, without looking, I put her gift in my vest pocket and continued shaking hands.

“Excuse me Lloyd, but we have to get you to the airport”, said Jimmy, our bus manager.

Then, a heavy gentleman who was missing his front teeth pulling up on his bicycle. “Mr. Marcus! I rode all the way across town to meet you. Thank you for your columns and for what you are doing for our country. I love you and I am praying for you. You're my brother.”

I give my sincere white brother a hug, got in the pick up truck and rode to the airport to catch my flight to Washington, DC.

I only mention race because I am black. The Obama administration and mainstream media continues to shamefully portray the tea party protesters as racists.

On the plane, I reached into my pocket and found a five dollar bill. It was from the tearful woman in Wichita. I got the feeling that given her financial situation, it was a huge gift. And why did she feel the need to give me anything? I thought of the woman in the Bible, who also gave in her own humble way. Thank you very much, my Five Dollar Lady.

There are a few lesson’s we should take from NY-23. Bloggers, conservative activists and talk radio hosts made this race notable and forced the GOP establishment to open its eyes to what the base really wants. The mainstream media was too busy reporting the GOPs intra-party fighting to cover Dede Scozzafava’s position on the issues.

This race especially resonated with conservatives in Florida, where the same forces are in play. For months, the NRSC has been cramming Gov. Charlie Crist down voter’s throats proclaiming he’s the “only candidate who can win”.

In NY-23, I wondered if we really accomplished anything. What’s the point of trading one liberal vote for another. I posed that question to fellow blogger Erick Erickson at RedState. His reply “The GOP now knows it will either win with us or loose without us.”

Gov. Haley Barbour weighted in on NY-23 during the RGA victory conference call. “The state chairman in New York allowed a group of county chairman to decide who the nominee was. If that happened in Mississippi I would be mad too.”

And that’s exactly what the Florida GOP chairman, and the NRSC are trying to do -- pick the nominee and discourage a true conservative -- Marco Rubio from running.

But maybe the tide is changing. After the stinging defeat in NY-23 the GOP establishment seems eager to sooth the anger proliferating among conservatives.

Months after endorsing Crist, Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the NRSC made this statement today in an interview with ABC News about the Senate race in Florida.

"People shouldn't read too much into endorsements by the NRSC. We are encouraging people we think are the strongest candidates to run.", said Cornyn.

"We will not spend money in a contested primary. There's no incentive for us to weigh in," said Cornyn, R-Texas. Now that Crist’s poll numbers are in a free fall, I guess not.

Crist’s approval rating had consistently averaged around 68 percent for much of the year, but a St. Petersburg Times poll released Oct. 31^st finds that only 42 percent of likely Florida voters think Charlie Crist is doing a good or excellent job as governor -- a 26 percent drop.

“Let the voters decide who the nominees will be.” said Barbour. Barbour said the nominee should not be chosen in a “back room deal” and stated the New York Republican state chairman had recently been removed over Dede Scozzafava’s nomination.

Is there room in the Republican Party for moderates? The question is -- is there room for conservatives in the Republican Party?

Column courtesy of Jim Gibbs:

Did you ever run out of gas and have to push your car to the nearest gas station? Up an incline? At night in the rain? Did you think about how much you’d pay someone to come along and give you a lift, fill your tank, or just help you push? My bet is that you’d have been happy to open your billfold or purse and empty the contents. On the other hand, have you ever considered how little gasoline it takes to power your car for miles at a time, up and down hills, at speeds of 70 mph or more?

The amazing fact is that with little more gasoline than would fill a coffee cup, you can cover a mile in less than a minute, at a cost of about a dime. (less than a tenth of what you’d pay for a cup of Starbucks). So much energy is contained in gasoline that few other available energy sources can match it.  Consider the following:

• Gasoline delivers 15 times the energy of an equal weight of TNT.
• Gasoline has 1000 times as much energy as an equal weight of flashlight batteries, and 100 times as much as an equal weight of expensive computer batteries.
• Liquid hydrogen, the key fuel for a future “hydrogen economy” has only about 20% of the energy per gallon that gasoline has. 

What about other energy sources? Here is a comparison with four important alternative fuels. For the same weight, gasoline delivers approximately:

• 2 times the energy of coal
• 2 times the energy of methanol (wood alcohol)
• 1.5 times the energy of ethanol (drinking alcohol)
• 1.1 times the energy of butanol (a likely future biofuel)

When thinking about alternatives to petroleum and other fossil fuels, it is important to know how the United States uses its current supplies. About 5% is used to manufacture materials such as fertilizer, chemicals, and plastics. The rest is used to generate energy. Here’s roughly how that breaks down for the U.S. use of fuel:

• 28% is used for transportation (gasoline and jet fuel).
• 40% is used to generate electric power.
• 20% is used for direct heating (natural gas, coal)
• 32% is used by industry.

These numbers add to more than 100% because of overlap; some of the electric power, for example, is used by industry.

Equally important is the broad spectrum of U.S. energy sources:

• 29% from imported oil
• 11% from domestic oil
• 24% from coal
• 19% from natural gas (methane)
• 8% from nuclear
• 8% from all others (solar, hydro, wind, biomass, geothermal)

Note that even doubling any of the alternative sources of fossil fuels does little to reduce our overall dependence on fossil fuels. 

What about energy costs? Not all energy sources are equally expensive; in fact for the same energy, coal in the United States is 20 times cheaper than gasoline. This is why coal reserves of the U.S., with an estimated 800 year supply, are likely to be an important source of our transportation and power requirements into the far distant future. 

The following list compares the cost of energy per kilowatt-hour from various sources. The list does not include the cost of the plants and the power lines that deliver the energy:

• Coal: 0.4-0.8 cents ($40-80 per ton)
• Natural gas: 3.4 cents ($10 per thousand cubic feet)
• Gasoline: 11 cents ($3.70 per gallon)
• Car battery: 21 cents ($50 per battery to replace)
• Computer battery: $4 ($100 per battery to replace)
• AAA battery: $1,000 ($1.50 per battery)  

Obviously, greatly increasing alternatives at the expense of fossil fuels will take time and substantially increase energy costs. In the meantime, it is in consumers’ best interests for U.S. energy producers to continue to develop all possible energy sources as rapidly and effectively as possible.

Proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress, such as the pending “Cap and trade” bill, will do little to change our nation’s dependence on fossil fuels or reduce carbon emissions, but will increase costs of energy, increase dependence on imported supplies, greatly inhibit producers’ ability to search for and produce energy, reduce employment of industry workers, and impose greater tax burdens on the consumer. 

For the statistics quoted herein, I am indebted to Dr. Richard A. Muller, professor of physics at the University of California, Berkley, for his excellent and readable recently published book, Physics for Future Presidents.      

James A. (Jim) Gibbs is the Chairman of the Board of Five States Energy Company, LLC. Jim established Five States Energy Company in 1985 to expand the scale of his ongoing business of purchasing producing oil and gas properties. Before forming Five States, Gibbs operated his business as an independent oil and gas producer and consulting geologist. In addition to his exploration activities, Gibbs actively sought opportunities to purchase quality, long-life producing oil and gas properties.