Who Does the Bailout Benefit?

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 1:18 PM

Yesterday, the House came back from recess to pass a $26 million education bailout for states.  Employing his ephemeral jobs metric once again, the President claimed this latest bailout will “save” 160,000 teacher jobs. This is simply not true - the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government released a report based on the July employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows nearly every employment sector has declined in size while education related state government has grown by 2.1 percent since December (Also notable: the federal government payroll grew by 9.5 percent, the same as the national jobless rate). While state education payrolls continue to expand, school enrollment continues to dwindle, providing further proof that the federal subsidization of state education programs is sophistry. Who are we really bailing out with this state spending bill? Well, the National Education Association and other teachers’ unions stand to profit by as much as $100 million from the legislation. These unions will funnel much of this money back into the political process by advocating on the behalf of endangered Democrats in Congress, their typical political allies. So if you’re looking for the real benefactors of this bill, look no further than the members who voted yea.

Tags: FederalSpending Bailouts | Comments (3)

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