HE says Stimulus Bill "Working as Intended"

[Spark]

Last week the Obama administration began rolling out new campaign titled, we kid you not, “Yes, we did.” Did what exactly? Waste nearly a trillion dollars on an economic stimulus that by every objective measure has completely failed to perform as advertised? Then yes you did. A new CBS poll out today shows that 74 percent of Americans believe the Obama stimulus either damaged the economy or had no effect. Clearly the White House is on a different planet than the rest of the country.
In another dispatch from Planet Obama, the White House Council of Economic Advisers released a report today purporting to prove that President Obama’s stimulus has saved or created 3 million jobs and is on track to meet its goal of 3.5 million jobs by the end of this year. Where do they come up this slop? This White House has lost all credibility on economic issues. That is why a new Washington Post poll released Tuesday again showed that a majority of Americans disapprove of President Obama’s handling of the economy.
But forget the polls and the hype emanating from the CEA. Here are the cold hard facts:
The President’s original target for jobs creation set during the campaign in the fall of 2008 was 2.5 million jobs. But as employment fell at the end of 2008, he increased the employment target by 1 million to 3.5 million jobs. At the time, employment stood at about 135.1 million, according to the DOL’s most commonly used measure. This establishes the Obama jobs target for December 2010 at 138.6 million. It also establishes a basic trajectory for employment the economy would need to approximate to hit that target.
According to the latest jobs report, total U.S. employment stood at almost 130.5 million in June, which means the cumulative Obama jobs deficit—the difference between the end target and the current employment level—stands at almost 7.4 million

The reason why unemployment is a full two points higher than the administration claimed it would be right now, and the reason they are 7.4 million jobs short of what they promised the American people, is because Government Spending Does Not Stimulate Economic Growth. All it does is move resources away from one sector of the economy away to another. And governments have a horrible track record at efficiently allocating resources. All that really happens is that, on net, jobs got destroyed in the transfer process.
The CEA is even trying to claim that private sector has responded to Obama’s spending spree with a spending spree of their own. The facts don’t support this either. Heritage fellow James Sherk reports:
Low hiring is primarily a symptom of America’s economic weakness, not its cause. Businesses did not suddenly decide to stop hiring. Rather, economic and political conditions changed in ways that discourage investment and entrepreneurship. Annual private fixed nonresidential investment has fallen by $327 billion since the recession started— a 19 percent drop. Less private investment means less hiring.

The Obama administration’s massive spending and regulatory expansion is not helping economic recovery, it is thwarting it.
Oh No You Didn’t! | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.

[Spark]

Oh No You Didn’t! | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.


washingtonpost.com


Why Government Spending Does Not Stimulate Economic Growth: Answering the Critics | The Heritage Foundation

[grandmama]

I'm really torn between this issue. I generally believe in the methods of John Meynard Keynes, and I think that Govt spending during an economic downturn isn't a bad thing. the bad part is that spending doesn't turn the economy around over night, and in general we as Americans expect everything to be instant, which is not the case with our economy right now. In addition, the situations in Greece and Spain is not good PR for keynesian economics. One point is correct and thats the notion of huge unemployment, and I think that will be the last thing to go down, but it needs time, but I'm afraid we're not going to get that time we need to turn things around. Look, it took a long time to get us in this mess and it's going to be hard to get out of it. I'm not going to blame any administration for the mess we're in right now because that's not going to solve any problems, but I do not have a problem with short term deficts in order to dig ourselves out of this mess, I think we just need to be patient right now, and if we have to have more govt spending in the short term than so be it. I'm not a fan of running a defict for 15 years, but we need to look at the big picture right now. Short sidedness is what got us in to this mess: short term profits, tax cuts, etc. We just need to be patient, but I'm afraid we don't have the poise or patients or character for that matter to let it play out.

[flarendep1]

Spark,

Business is so afraid of this administration they dont know what to do. Now they have passed "financial reform" (aka, more government power) on banks which will tighten credit even more. Small business is in trouble as you know, big business will survive but the American dream is becoming extinct. Of course many Libs are just fine with that.

[husker]

big businesses aren't afraid of any govt. does anyone think they didn't have a say in this bill? look what concession scott brown got for his vote. more regulation will make it harder for small co's to get loans. banks have plenty of money to loan, they just don't have qualified customers with the tougher standards. these standards are how it should have been all along. idiot politicians are the saying banks should loan more money, but then say banks were wrong for making risky loans. they are all two faced POS.

the internet boom and then the housing boom supported a false economy and both crashed. this country can't support all the people coming here illegally without those kind of booms. we need to shut the borders, and send back all the illegals that have come here the past 5 years or more. the washington post had a article about a chinese co that is selling 3 month trips to the US for pregnant women for $1,500. come here two months before you give birth, and have your baby born with american citizenship. that natural born citizenship thing has to be amended to keep illegals from taking advantage of it.