In what some see as tongue-in-cheek rhetoric and others see as downright deception, the Obama administration has declared that the $787 billion stimulus bill saved or created some 650,000 jobs by the end of last month.
In what has almost become a running joke and sure fodder for a potential Saturday Night Live TV skit, the ruling czar-laced regime continues to tout imagined “air jobs” recreated in the face of the fact that the economy has lost 1.3 million jobs since the president was elected. Yet, Obama’s starry-eyed disciplines go on to say that government and private forecasters estimate that Recovery Act spending has saved and created at least 1 million jobs!
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests a much grimmer reality with figures of about 3.3 million jobs eliminated since the stimulus act passed.
Steven J. Davis, a University of Chicago economist professor, tows the administration line by saying that it may be too early to talk about job creation (so when’s the right time?). Yet he does admit that President Obama has muddied the picture by inventing a new standard to measure success.
Tony Fratto, former Bush White House spokesman, was much stronger with his take on supposed jobs saved out of thin air. He sees the job-saving farce as a “breathtaking deception” and is appalled by the “gullibility of the Washington press corps” for reporting Obama’s claims with a straight face.
As the American public continues to grow poorer, spend less, see more freedoms lost and become increasingly restless, it still is being asked to stretch its willing suspension of belief beyond all limits. One wonders just how long the reality-challenged news media can continue to drink the communion wine and eat the bitter wafers of their newest political god. At what point will their stomachs turn and they see the light? For now, the media knows not what it does.
Comments
I've seen hundreds of workers on Northern California roads projects funded by the American Re-investment and Recovery Act. Its pretty obvious that most of that work wouldn't suddenly have started without stimulus funding. A better site than www.recovery.gov is www.recovery.org which shows bottom up projects all over the US.
Also, more than 65% of the ARRA money is going to extend unemployment benefits and discounts on health insurance - pretty critical stuff when the newspapers like Examiner lay off their writers.
Correction...$65B of ARRA going to extend unemployment benefits and discounts on Cobra. Full breakdown at:
wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009#Provisions_of_the_Act
Excellent rant, long overdue. But it is 'Toe the Line'.
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The $787 billion spent on the stimulus is more than all the money spent to date on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so naturally we should see an economic bounce. The problem I have is the way in which the money was allocated. It's a massive waste of taxpayer money and won't plant seeds of long-term economic growth. So when the last stimulus dollar is finally spent, the taxpayers will be saddled with a lot more debt. Obama is a fraud and so are Pelosi and Reid. These are the most corrupt, dishonest, arrogant, and idiotic people to ever lead this country. We are screwed. Obama's war on Capitalism will hurt the US for a very long time. And to think that we're stuck with the bastard for 3 more years.
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