DOT-launched 'media stars' say stimulus is working

When I introduced Willie Fort to a National Press Club audience, I didn't know he'd become a media star. And when I wrote about Pike Industries, I didn't know its president, Christian Zimmerman, would also hit the big time.

You can read more about how each champions the benefits of stimulus funding from Reuters' Lucia Mutikani, Time Magazine's Stephen Gandel, and the New York Times' Patrick McGeehan. Christian was also featured on Fox Business Television.

Mutikani supports what I've been saying on this site all along: Stimulus spending is saving and creating jobs in the construction sector. She quotes Associated General Contractors of America chief economist Ken Simonson as saying:

Early reports indicate that the infrastructure piece of the stimulus is beginning to do exactly what was intended, to put construction workers back on the job.

In Time, Zimmerman explains:

At our company alone, the stimulus bill has amounted to a 250-person swing in the economy.

Simonson told Reuters' Mutikani that "about 85 percent of construction companies have indicated they were scrapping layoffs or adding new employees because of the stimulus funds."

That's America at work again.

Comments

[Barbara Bowen]

We are happy to see that the construction industry has benefited from the stimulus money. The State DOT offices have also benefited. Unfortunately these projects have had an adverse affect on the Utility Agencies (Water, sewer, phone, cable, electric, etc). They did not receive any funding but had to expedite relocations of their facilities to accommodate the construction of the Roadway projects. This has sent many into financial hardships. Layoffs and rate increases for consumers are inevitable.