Posted on July 22, 2010 by Erin in News Clips, News Clips, Press Room
The Iowa Republican – I-JOBS? More like no jobs
There has been a lot of talk about the number of jobs Governor Culver’s I-Jobs program is responsible for creating this week. I-Job’s is Culver’s signature accomplishment during his first term as Iowa’s governor.
The program borrowed almost $1 billion to fund projects around the state. After being in existence for a year now, intrepid reporter Dave Price of WHO-TV began his quest to find out how many jobs were actually created. Price has found it difficult to track down specifics on this program as Culver’s office has blamed everything from staff turn over to bad weather conditions for the reason no solid numbers exist.
While the number of jobs created by the program seems to be elusive, like many things in life, there is a simple answer to what seems to be complicated question. I can tell you exactly how many permanent jobs I-Jobs has created – not a single one. I can also tell you exactly how many permanent jobs it will create in the future – zero.
You shouldn’t be surprised that the program will not create even one single job. I-Jobs was never designed to create jobs, rather, it was designed just to spend money on government projects. The only thing this program has to do with jobs is that it’s called “I-Jobs,” and Governor Culver and the Democrats who voted for this monstrous program want voters to believe it has created jobs. The only thing it has created is more government spending.
I-Jobs is a misleading name since all the program does is spend money on construction projects, not create or even maintain any permanent jobs. Building storm sewers, floodwalls, public works buildings, city halls, or fire stations doesn’t create jobs, it only creates temporary work.
On Tuesday, Governor Culver issued a press release claiming that more that 23,000 Iowans worked on I-Jobs projects in June. I actually think that is an honest number, but realize that he didn’t say it created jobs, he says it created work. There is a big difference between the two.
