Stimulas
From the RNC…
THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY …
… Is Repeating The Same Lie About Stimulus Jobs Over And Over Again, And Expecting Americans To Believe It
“A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll Found
57% Of Adults Say The Stimulus Package Is Having No Impact On The Economy Or Making It Worse
60% - Doubt That The Stimulus Plan Will Help The Economy In The Years Ahead …”
(Brad Heath, “Poll: 57% Don’t See Stimulus Working,” USA Today, 8/17/09)
TODAY, WHITE HOUSE WILL CLAIM HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF JOBS CREATED BY STIMULUS
Obama’s Council Of Economic Advisors To Argue Stimulus Created 600,000 Jobs In Second Hundred Days. “A hundred days ago … I went on to say that will will create another 600,000 jobs in the second hundred days. On September 10th, the Council of Economic Advisers plans to report to the nation their projections of jobs created or saved as a result of the Recovery Act. I’m optimistic … that report will show that we will have met or exceeded that goal …” (Vice President Joe Biden, Remarks By The Vice President On The 200 Days Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Act, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, 9/3/09)
BUT THEY USE SAME JOB COUNTING METHODOLOGY THAT’S BEEN WIDELY DISCREDITED
FactCheck.org Debunks White House Claims Of 150,000 Jobs “Saved Or Created.” “A Republican Party Web site classifies as ‘fiction’ the president’s repeated claim that the spending already has ’saved or created’ a total of 150,000 jobs, and accuses him of ‘fuzzy math.’ The GOP has a point here. The fact is the economy has lost more jobs, and the unemployment rate is significantly higher, than the administration originally predicted would be the case if Washington did nothing. In fact, the original projections of Obama’s economic aides have turned out to be off by a very wide margin.” (Brooks Jackson, “Making Sense Of Stimulus Spending,” FactCheck.org, 6/16/09)
Bureau Of Labor Statistics Commissioner Says It’s “Very Difficult” To “Substantiate” White House Claim Of 150,000 Jobs Created By Stimulus. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX): “The administration, including the vice president, has claimed that stimulus policies have added 150,000 new jobs to the level of employment. We see this cited almost daily by the administration. Can you substantiate that claim?” Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Keith Hall: “No. That would be a very difficult thing for anybody to substantiate.” Brady: “And the chairman — who’s a highly respected chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Christina Romer — also cited that 150,000 job-creation figure in a recent testimony before this committee. You’re saying you can’t verify that the administration’s policies have created those additional 150,000 jobs.” Hall: “No. We’re busy just counting jobs.” (U.S. House Of Representatives, Joint Economic Committee, Hearing, 6/5/09)
Associated Press Says Job-Counting Formula “Being Misused” By Obama. “Few things in President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan have engendered as much skepticism or criticism as his oft-repeated promise to create or save 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year … The fight over Obama’s promise has thrust a mundane economic formula responsible for the jobs estimate into Washington’s political spin machine. The formula is being misused by the president, whose advisers acknowledge it was never intended as a way to count jobs.” (Matt Apuzzo, “Stimulus Watch: Follow Along As Obama Counts Jobs,” The Associated Press, 6/18/09)
Economists Say White House Job Claims Impossible To Verify. CBS NEWS’ WYATT ANDREWS: “[H]ere’s the reality: those 150,000 jobs are a guess …” MAYA MACGUINEAS OF COMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FEDERAL BUDGET: “There’s no way that an economist no matter how good can say, ‘this stimulus package created this many jobs.’ It’s just a jump that you can’t make with any certainty … It would be absolutely impossible to measure with any precision how many people have kept their jobs.” (CBS Evening News, 6/11/09)
AND THE PROOF IS IN THE NUMBERS
When Selling Stimulus In January, White House Predicted Unemployment Peaking At 8 Percent With Stimulus, 9 Percent Without Stimulus. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/10/09)
But Unemployment With Stimulus Now At 9.7 Percent. (U.S. Labor of Bureau Statistics, www.bls.gov, Accessed 9/3/09; GRAPH: Greg Mankiw, “Unemployment Update,” Greg Mankiw’s Blog, 9/6/09)