Summer of Recovery Continues: $276,000 of Stimulus Money Created Six One-Hundredths of a Job

I figure at this rate of progress we should be easing out way out of The Great Recession somewhere in the fall of 9826, by which time memory of this disastrous presidency hopefully has faded.

On the upside, if you're one of the many who do ant research for a living, somewhere a fortune awaits you.

A couple of Republican senators put out a report today spelling out how they say a lot of the money taxpayers shelled out for the stimulus package was wasted. CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson Follows the Money.

It may be called the Recovery Act, but to Pastor Greg Sheets - it's the law of unintended consequences.

A well-meaning stimulus project to improve the road in front of his Newark, Ohio home has led the city to take part of his yard through eminent domain. Sheets got a restraining order when workers got too close to his house. The mess is now in its fourth month.

"My grandmother owned this house when I was a child," Sheets said. "There's not much left here to keep in the family."

In the state of Washington, another stimulus project may be hurting those it was designed to help. Construction began one year ago today in front of the Archery Bistro Restaurant. The owner says it's shut off business like a fly in a bowl of soup. He's had to stop serving lunch, close two days a week and, ironically, lay off 12 workers.

See, it was a "couple of Republican senators" who had to do the work CBS News should have long ago unearthed, but now they feel compelled to report. Why haven't they and other media outlets been doing their job in the 18 months since this trillion-dollar boondoggle passed?

You know that answer.

Now for some fun with numbers.

A new report from Republican senators Tom Coburn and John McCain says too much of the $862 billion in stimulus money is being spent with dubious results: $700,000 for a researcher to study improvised music. For a project on interactive dance, 44 percent of the money goes to "overhead."

The $1.9 million spent to photograph ants in foreign countries has created two jobs created so far. That's better than other ant research stimulus projects: $451,000 has created one job, $276,000 spent on another created six one-hundredths of a job, and the $800,000 spent on a different one created no jobs.

The $144,000 spent to study the behavior of monkeys on cocaine created four-tenths of a job.

To study why monkeys respond to unfairness cost $677,000 - and has created no jobs yet - except maybe for the monkeys.

Read that part again: To study why monkeys respond to unfairness cost $677,000.

I can't wait to see how liberals respond to the unfairness of Republicans pointing this out in television ads.

Naturally, Obama and his minions want us to still live in the Land of Make Believe, a place emptying out quickly judging by his anemic poll numbers.

Still, Obama Administration economists say all the projects have valid goals, and the Recovery Act has put three million people back to work.

Jared Bernstein, chief economic adviser to Vice President Biden said, "If you look at the impact of the Recovery Act, including many of the projects that they're critiquing, these are projects that are creating jobs today, getting Americans back to work."

Back to work studying ants and crackhead monkeys whining about unfairness.

And they're the best and brightest.

In other reality-based news, a new poll shows two-thirds of the ruling class--that would be the Obama regime, Democrats and Journlisters--believe America is on the right track. That's apparently the fast track to statism. Meanwhile, 84% of Americans disagree with the elites. A slight divide there, it appears.