Why does Obama want credit for jobs he had no hand in providing? Can anyone shed light on this?

He thinks he deserves it! Even though he doesn’t!

…because he is a politician who wants to be reelected?

Is it normal for presidents to basically advertise themselves after they get into office when we don’t have another election for almost 4 years? I just don’t remember seeing much of this before other than bumper stickers. These are very expensive, nice looking signs though… quite a difference from a $1 bumper sticker

… what makes me mad is people will just drive by and say, “Oh, look at what our great president is doing.” and never give it a second thought

It seems all he knows how to do is advertise himself. It’s how he won the presidency, his ego! I despise O’Bama!

Do you really think Obama was the one who made the decision to put a sign up on a location he knew he didn’t actually deserve credit for?

I’d guess it was someone in his staff, or something of the sorts. I don’t think it’s in his daily agenda to go seek out jobs that were created and he just takes credit for it.

Maybe cause he supported these projects when he was a Senator, and deserves credit for fighting to get them.

@RandomMrdan and @skfinkel Good possibilities…. my question wasn’t to start an Obama bashing mess; I really wanted to know why. But do either of you agree with our government buying such expensive signs for the purpose of advertising??

I just think it’s petty to go out and assume the president is responsible for something like this. (I think people who don’t like him try and find more reasons to not like him)

And how much are these signs? How do you know in some way he isn’t responsible? He might possibly be supporting them now in other ways, maybe not when it started, but perhaps now.

I’m sure there could be better ways to spend our tax money, I’m sure our government has spent it in much worse ways than they have on this.

If we want to keep these projects going, we have to be clear about who is supporting them, fighting for them, behind them, and willing to put it all on the line for them. I’m not a fan of advertising, but this is information that people need to know.

Signage = jobs.

@RandomMrdan I guess the only way he could be some way responsible is like @skfinkel said if he voted for the jobs when he he was a senator. Who else would be responsible besides the president? The Federal Gov. paid for them, and the guy delivering the signs said they cost over $1k each

EDIT:
And could it be possible also that people who do like him make excuses for him??

oh I’m sure it’s possible, but I won’t defend him against obvious bad things… this is just petty though.

Was the funding about to be cut but was maintained as part of the Reinvestment act? Where the projects started sooner because they were shovel ready? Were they part locally funded and the Federal Government picked up the tab when local fund tanked? Were the projects expanded on account of the stimulus? There are all sorts of reasons why an already planned or even started project could have been part of the ARRA.

I’d need more details with respect to the actual projects before I got into pre emptive Obama bashing.

Bush fan?

just a joke

I don’t know, it doesn’t seem like an out of the ordinary occurrence, just the first time you’ve witnessed it. A lot of newly elected politicians take credit for what the past one did, this doesn’t seem any different…

@swuesquire The info I have on the subject is that the projects were funded around the middle of last year, and all of the projects have been progressing non-stop so no problems with funding being stopped and started. The Department of Transportation is who is doing these jobs, and the way I have extra info on it is my husband works hand-in-hand with DOT on these projects, and his best friend owns the sign shop where they were ordered. There are many signs at over $1k a pop that were recently ordered just locally, but only these 3 jobs that I know of that were going on way before Obama was prez.

Congress authorizes 10,000 toilets. Before that last stimulus check of G.W., a letter was sent out which costs over 20 million dollars to inform people that they would be getting a check in the mail! Our government loves to waste money. It’s all part of the voodoo economics. We don’t have to be concerned with it. Us peons can’t really appreciate these things. Just go back to sleep.

@RandomMrdan Our country is in a bad economic situation and you think complaining about who knows how many $1k advertisements for our president when we’re not even close to an election is petty??? Well you don’t seem to mind but I don’t enjoy paying for this stuff. A lot of money comes out of my paycheck each month and I have a big problem with seeing it wasted.

I know in Maryland it’s common practice for the governor to post signs at all major job sites saying something like “building Maryland’s future”. It does seem wasteful to me there, too, but it’s common.

@swuesquire hit the nail on the head. I am vying for ARRA funding for scientific grants, and it could very well be that these projects were destined to be put “on hold”. For example, decisions on whether to fund a science grant are based on the score your grant receives from a committee of your peers. Prior to ARRA, there were many circumstances where scientists received outstanding scores, but no funding due to the economy. Now, if your score was borderline (and was not going to be funded), the ARRA provides money for 2 years, starting right now.

I would also add that the morale of the country is low, and even the impression of improving conditions and a sense the government is doing something positive can lift morale and perhaps stimulate the economy.

@shilolo I don’t know if these could have been put on hold and the roads stay open, because they are all three bridges that are being built where very old bridges were. I don’t know what ARRA is, I just overheard the conversation today between my husband and his friend, and asked him what they were discussing. I hope you guys are right because I want to believe that our president or his team doesn’t intentionally take credit where it isn’t deserved. Glad some people in here know more about it than I do b/c I was very upset today about it.

@BBSDTfamily For clarification, the ARRA is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the funding for all these projects, large and small).

@shilolo Thank you for the info. Is there a way to find out if funding was stopped/almost stopped for the projects? Maybe my husband could find out from the proj. manager at the MDOT jobs. Just curious about this.

@BBSDTfamily

Take a look here and see if your projects show up. I poked around a little bit, but the best I could find was a breakdown of funds provided by state and federal agency. I’m not sure if it gets more specific than this, though it’s interesting to see even this much detail.

@swuesquire Thanks I appreciate it and will go look :)

President Obamanation help run Illinois into bankruptcy while a senator. now he’s spreading the waste and running up the debt for the whole country; while spreading his BS about how he is helping everyone.

@ DrBill: what specificly did Obama do while he was a Senator in Illinois to run the state into bankruptcy? As a lifelong resident of the state, I think I would have noticed had we gone bankrupt. Maybe you have some info I do not?

@swuesquire Shhhh. It’s in the talking points memo. He’s really a Muslim too, you know.

yeah, lets not even talk about what country he was born in.

I doubt that the cost of all the signs paid for by the federal government equals the annual salary of a typical private military contractor in Iran.

@ratboy And what would that annual salary be? $100k? $300k? Let’s say it is $600k. If there are 3 of these signs- just that I know of, there could be more- just in the small town that I live in, you think there less than 600 in the US?

How many signs do you think are actually put up? The amount of money put into it is so minuscule if you compare it to pretty much anything else our government spends money on.

I’m sure anyone would want credit where credit is due, I don’t really see the big deal of putting up a sign to remind people that he supports the jobs here, and helped create jobs. Whether it was to get it setup, or to support it to make sure they don’t go away.

I think you’re trying to make a big deal out of nothing.

@RandomMrdan I agree with most everything you said except for the miniscule part… In case you have not noticed, our country is in debt and the “miniscule” wastes of money that add up really need to be spent other places. I guess when I see over $1000 come out of my check every month that I hoped would go towards education, military needs, food for a family etc., now I can assure myself that it went to pay for a dumb sign.

Of the 1,000 dollars that comes out of your check, I’d wager less than 1% of it went into signage in the united states for President Obama. So yes, I still think it’s miniscule.

@RandomMrdan I think you are trying to smooth over something just because you (I’m assuming) support Obama. I don’t necessarily like or dislike him, I’m kind of neutral on him. I just don’t like seeing tax dollars wasted right in front of my eyes no matter what it’s on. The signs are just one example, and Obama isn’t the only president who has wasted money. I didn’t intend for people to get on the defensive about Obama, I wanted answers to why this was happening, and if you think my question is so pointless then quit wasting your time answering it!!!!!

@BBSDTfamily It isn’t necessarily “wasted” money. Whomever works at the sign-making company benefited from the contract as well as whomever was paid to erect said sign. Those individuals then have money in their pockets to spend on food, clothes, gas, etc. That is the whole basis of the ARRA. Deliver resources so they can be spent on job maintenance and job creation. Similar to the New Deal, the idea is to stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment.

@shilolo That makes sense, but shouldn’t we get something more useful for our tax dollars than a sign?
I do understand this is a ridiculously small fraction of the budget

@benjaminlevi Perhaps. But, if your livelihood depends on the sign making industry, then you are stoked to have a job. I don’t pretend to be an economist, but I think that we probably need more stimulus right now, not less. The Nobel-Prize winning economist Paul Krugman of the NY Times does a better job of explaining it than I ever would.

@shilolo I’m not pretending to be an economist either (tho I did take about two weeks of an economics class two semsters ago, does that count?) I wasn’t trying to imply that it should not be spent, I was saying that there are better things it should be spent on, like building alternative energy infrastructure and more efficient transportation systems for example.

@BBSDTfamily I don’t think your question is worthless, but I think it should probably have been phrased differently. Perhaps something like “Why does our government spend money on unimportant things like signs?” instead of trying to place blame on Obama, and asking why he would want to assume credit for something he doesn’t deserve (when you in fact don’t know he is himself taking credit, and it’s not being give to him…and is likely to now be supporting those jobs anyways.)

I am an Obama fan, but it seems anyone who has an negative opinion likes to place blame on the president, when I doubt he had much to do with the placement of the sign. Just from the wording of the question I would likely assume you aren’t “neutral” to liking Obama.

I will agree that placement of the sign is wasteful, and I’m sure can have been spent on something better. But, if I were responsible for supporting those jobs, you can bet I’d want to take credit for it.

If you don’t want people to get defensive about your question, you should try to phrase them in an unbiased way.

i stopped reading somewhere way up there, but hey, i totally agree with the signs = unnecessary. waste of resources, waste of money, etc.
but i’m guessing that he ‘wants credit’, because: he was involved to some extent way back in august, a good reputation is a reputation to keep building on, and he probably didn’t personally ask for the signs to be dispersed (though i can’t promise you that). also, signs that encourage people to support the government, and put a positive spin on something, are better than signs that – well, don’t.

@RandomMrdan That totally makes sense, and I am glad you agree that money could have been better spent elsewhere. I thought you were just saying that it didn’t matter to you basically how our tax dollars are spent. And actually I have tried to remain quite neutral to Obama, and I actually want to really respect our president. But I don’t care who the president is at the moment, if I saw anybody’s face on an expensive sign when our country is in trouble it would make me shake my head a little…

If there is a lack of shovel ready infrastructure projects it could actually make sense to have a nice signage budget in order to maximize the immediate effects of stimulus. In an ideal world we could have started building high speed railway systems, new energy infrastructure, and other good investments immediately. Unfortunately, these projects take a long time to plan and initiate. So, obviously when planning the stimulus you would want to fund as many ideas as can be started immediately. Once you run out of these projects, you are left with a dilemma. You have to choose if it’s better to wait and fund projects that would leave behind a residue of useful capital projects but have a major lag before the stimulus hits the economy or fund simple but immediately stimulative projects (like big signs) who’s only goal is to get money circulating. Now, I really don’t think this is why the signs are in place. But there are grounds to argue that they are worth having if the goal is immediate stimulus.

Just like the Nobel Peace Prize,,something he doesn’t deserve.

It’s common that the presiding office is represented on federally funded projects. Maybe we should erect smiling Bush posters in Iraq next to continuing suicide bombings?