Mark Steyn: Obama’s magical thinking on green jobs

Pass this bill now, or I’ll say “Pass this bill now!” another two dozen times! With this latest inspiration, Obama has taken the post-modern phase of democratic politics to a whole new level. “Pass this jobs bill”? Simply as a matter of humdrum reality, there is no bill, it won’t “create” any jobs, and it will be paid for with money we don’t have. But the smartest president in history has calculated that, if he says the same four monosyllables over and over, a nonexistent bill to create nonexistent jobs with nonexistent money will be yet another legislative triumph in the grand tradition of his first stimulus (the original Dumb And Dumber to the sequel’s Stimulus And Stimulusser). Read more at the Orange County Register...

(Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) Read More......

WaPo: Breaking down Obama’s jobs plan

President Obama urged Congress Thursday night to pass a $447 billion plan that he said will get the economy moving and create jobs. The proposal would cost a little more than half of the 2009 stimulus package and, according to Obama, be paid for by additional deficit reduction that he will outline Sept. 19.

See breakdown. Read More......

WSJ: Why the Stimulus Failed

New research on what actually happened to a trillion dollars - For readers who want to know, an important account is offered in a pair of new Mercatus Center working papers by the George Mason economists Garett Jones and Daniel Rothschild, who did field research on what they call the supply side of the stimulus.

The Keynesian theory was that a burst of new government spending would take up some of the slack in aggregate consumer demand. This was justified in 2008, again in 2009, and is still defended now based not on real-world observation but on abstract macroeconomic models that depend on the assumptions of the authors. The Congressional Budget Office's quarterly studies—often cited to claim the stimulus created tens of thousands of new jobs—are based on such a model. By informative contrast, Messrs. Jones and Rothschild interviewed actual people who received stimulus dollars and asked how they spent the money. Read more at the Wall Street Journal... Read More......

GOP.com: Obama By The Numbers

7/11/2011 - Obama’s Treasury Secretary Says It Is “Ridiculous” To Judge The President Based On The Facts – You Be The Judge... GOP.com/PDF

Eye-popping numbers! --bc
(Hat tip: D'Ann Mathews) Read More......

Williams: A Failed Obama Hero

TOWNHALL, Op-ed by Walter Williams - Let's think about President Obama's failed economic stimulus program. Before getting to the nitty-gritty of why stimulus packages fail, let's look at the failed stimulus program of Obama's hero, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR's Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau, wrote in his diary: "We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. ... We have never made good on our promises. ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started ... and an enormous debt to boot!" Read more at Townhall... Read More......

White House Claims Millions of Jobs ‘Saved or Created’ by Stimulus Bill

Washington (AP) - A new White House report says last year's $862 billion stimulus law has now "saved or created" between 2.5 million and 3.6 million jobs. Read more at CNS News... Read More......

Pelosi, Obama hail jobs news in turning attention to economy

THE HILL, 4/2/2010 by Ian Swanson and Sam Youngman - Democrats sought to capitalize Friday on news that the economy added 162,000 jobs in March. ∴ Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and President Barack Obama both hailed the $787 billion stimulus measure for spurring the creation of new jobs, the most the economy has seen in one month in three years. Read more at The Hill. House Minority Whip, Eric Cantor (VA) said,

“Yet we must set our sights higher, our goals larger, and our actions bolder. Americans deserve far more than the up-and-down, roller coaster-like unemployment reports of the past few months.”

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The Fake Jobs of Obama's Failed Stimulus

HERITAGE/THE FOUNDRY, 11/17,2009 - 440 Phantom Congressional Districts Get $6.4 Billion According to Recovery.gov. "The government’s Web site that is supposed to tell taxpayers how their stimulus dollars are being spent, and which spends $84 million per year to do so, shows that $6.4 billion of the stimulus has been spent in 440 congressional districts that don’t exist, according to a report by the Franklin Center, as reported by Watchdog.org.

The site, Recovery.gov, reports, for instance, that North Dakota’s 99th Congressional District has received $2 million in stimulus funding. But North Dakota has only one congressional district. The nation’s capital now contains 35 congressional districts, according to Recovery.gov.

For those keeping score at home, there are really only 435 congressional districts, so adding 440 new ones effectively doubles the size of the House of Representatives. By the way, Recovery.gov also reports that the $6.4 billion spent in those districts has created 30,000 jobs, which works out to almost $225,000 per job created. Various news reports, however, show that many of the estimates of “jobs created or saved” are bogus, so that number, too is in doubt. (See the Washington Examiner’s map and chart tracking jobs created claims.)" Continue reading... Read More......

7 Months After Stimulus 49 of 50 States Have Lost Jobs

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON WAYS & MEANS/REPUBLICANS, 10/21/2009 (via Positively Republican) - America Now Over 6 Million Jobs Shy of Administration's Projections. The committee's table compares the White House's February 2009 projection of the number of jobs that would be created by the 2009 stimulus law (through the end of 2010) with the actual change in state payroll employment through September 2009 (the latest figures available). According to the data, 49 States and the District of Columbia have lost jobs since stimulus was enacted. Only North Dakota has seen net job creation following the February 2009 stimulus. While President Obama claimed the result of his stimulus bill would be the creation of 3.5 million jobs, the Nation has already lost a total of 2.7 million – a difference of 6.2 million jobs. To see how stimulus has failed your state, view table HERE. Read More......

A Clunker of a Stimulus

HERITAGE FOUNDATION, MORNING BELL (Hat tip: Jean Nelson) - Yesterday was the six month anniversary of President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package. Since the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” became law, the United States economy has shed nearly 2.8 million net jobs. When Obama signed the stimulus the nation’s unemployment rate stood at 7.6%. Today it is 9.4%. Nationwide, a total of fifteen states are now suffering from 10% unemployment. No wonder 57% of Americans recently told Gallup that the stimulus package is either having no impact on the economy or making it worse.

The White House has a different view than the American people. Last week when new data revealed that United States Gross Domestic Product fell by only 1% in the 2nd quarter of this year, President Obama rushed to the Diplomatic Reception Room to announce that, “in the last few months the economy has done measurably better than we had thought … And as many economists will tell you, that part of the progress is directly attributable to the Recovery Act.” Oh really? As stimulus tracker ProPublica points out, only 12% of the $580 billion in new spending of the bill has actually been spent. As New York University Associate Professor of Economics Mario Rizzo asks: “what is the mechanism by which about $70 billion in extra spending reduces the rate of increase in unemployment and reduces the rate of decrease in output in a $14 trillion economy? If my advanced arithmetic is correct this is ½ of 1 percent of the GDP. What kind of Super Multiplier is that?”

And that reduction in unemployment from a June high of 9.5% to July’s 9.4% is nothing to get excited about. The U.S. economy still lost another 247,000 jobs last month meaning the dip in the unemployment rate came entirely from the fact that 422,000 people stopped looking for work entirely. As a result the labor force participation rate fell to 66.5% which equals the lowest recorded number of the current recession. And when government workers are removed from the mix, only 59.5% of Americans are participating in the private labor market, the lowest level in 25 years. Worse still, new job creation continues to drop. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics Job Opportuni ties and Labor Turnover Survey, which shows the proportion of workers starting at a new job each month, a record low 2.9% of Americans found or switched jobs in June.

American eyes often justifiably gloss over when economic statistics are thrown around, which is why concrete examples like the Obama administration’s much hyped “Cash for Clunkers” program offer such valuable examples of why the left’s Keynesian policies are destined to fail. An Obama stimulus writ small, Cash for Clunkers seeks to rebuild the American economy and help the environment at the same time by borrowing money to spur new spending and car manufacturing now, while also simultaneously decreasing emissions. Cash for Clunkers has failed at everything but adding to the debt. It has not created any new car sales, but only shifted them into a narrow two month window. It has not stimulated any new consumer spending as consumers just cut back in other areas to pay for their new cars. And finally, it has done nothing for the environment since the new cars get driven more than the clunkers, and the clunkers are then destroyed a tremendous waste of resources that only hurts the environment. It is no wonder that the President did not celebrate yesterday’s stimulus anniversary more prominently. If this is what his relationship with the American economy looks like after just six months, the honeymoon is assuredly over. Read More......

Stimulus Jobs In Oregon Last Only One Week

GOOGLE NEWS, 7/28.2009 by Ryan Kost - (AP) In Oregon, Democrats are taking credit for a remarkable feat: creating 3,236 new jobs in the program's first three months. But those jobs last only one week. Read more at Google... Read More......

The Squandered Stimulus

WASHINGTON POST, 7/21/2009 by Robert J. Samuelson - It's not surprising that the much-ballyhooed "economic stimulus" hasn't done much stimulating. President Obama and his aides argue that it's too early to expect startling results. They have a point. A $14 trillion economy won't revive in a nanosecond. But the defects of the $787 billion package go deeper and won't be cured by time. The program crafted by Obama and the Democratic Congress wasn't engineered to maximize its economic impact. It was mostly a political exercise, designed to claim credit for any recovery, shower benefits on favored constituencies and signal support for fashionable causes. Read more at the Washington Post...

Hat tip: John H. Detweiler
John says, "Surprise, surprise!" Read More......

Jobs?

President Obama says, "The Stimulus is working!"
John Boehner, GOP House Leader, asks, "Where are the jobs?" Read More......

Obama's job promises hit the floor

From PoliticalMath - When pushing the stimulus package, President Obama claimed that the stimulus would save or create 3 million jobs. How have his predictions turned out so far? This video compares those predictions with how the jobs numbers have actually turned out. (Great visual!)



Do you wonder if the numbers are correct? RNC Chairman Michael Steele wondered...

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Obama's "Saved Jobs" Lie

RESISTNET, 6/10/2009 by Steve Elliott (Hat tip: Hawthorne O'Rourke) - This week President Obama’s team once again repeated what I believe is the most outrageous lie of his Administration. The President and his team again claimed the stimulus has “saved” 150,000 jobs during a time when 1.6 million jobs were actually lost, and job losses were far worse than had been projected if there had been no stimulus spending. See proof at ResistNet... Read More......

Modern-Day Tea Parties Give Taxpayers Chance to Scream for Better Representation

FOXNews.com, 4/9/2009 by Judson Berger - So-called tea parties are sprouting up from coast-to-coast, city-to-city, providing a platform for taxpayers to voice their frustrations about spending in Washington. ∴ We're fed up and we're not gonna take it anymore. ∴ Such is the rallying cry building across the country as taxpayers take a stand against what they see as reckless spending in Washington -- all part of a peculiar and rather sudden movement called "tea parties."

Some small, some large, locals converge at the parties to voice their frustration over the federal government's economic policies. The protests have sprouted up from coast-to-coast and city-to-city since late February. ∴ The biggest one so far is scheduled for April 15, tax day, when hundreds of cities will play host to a coordinated, nationwide tea-party protest.

"People are getting killed -- they're getting hammered with taxes and it's not the way this country is supposed to be run. ... We want to fight back," said Kristina Mancini, who's helping organize the April 15 rally in Fishkill, N.Y.

"Sitting back and being quiet never helps."

The grassroots phenomenon, while largely ignored in the mainstream press, has caught fire on the Internet, where platforms like Facebook and Twitter have served as launching pads for demonstrations.

Though nobody -- so far -- is dressing up like a Mohawk Indian and throwing barrels of Darjeeling into Boston Harbor, organizers draw their inspiration from the original Boston Tea Party of 1773.

Whereas colonists back then were revolting against, among other things, unfair tax policies, the impetus now lies in federal spending and intervention that many fear will lead to a crushing tax burden.

"It's not exactly taxation without representation. It's more taxation with inadequate representation," said Michael DePrimo, with the American Family Association, which is helping promote the events. "People are really getting riled up ... people want to get involved, they want to help and they want to attend. I'm not so sure this'll be a one-time thing."

The historical parallels may seem sparse. America is no longer a colony. It is not ruled by a king.

But just as the 18th century decrees of the King of England drew outrage from American colonists, several acts of modern U.S. government intervention have stirred similar upheaval.

The Stamp Act? Now it's the Wall Street bailout.

The Tea Act? Now it's the $787 billion stimulus package.

The Quartering Act? Now it's the pork-filled omnibus spending bill.

The Boston Massacre? That would have to be the proposed $3.55 trillion 2010 budget, seen by tea partiers as a fiscal massacre.

The Sons of Liberty of today is led by people like Rick Santelli, the CNBC reporter widely credited with helping spark the tea-party fever nationwide (though tea parties were being held before Santelli plugged them).

During an infamous on-air rant on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in February, Santelli called for modern-day tea parties to protest the economic trends in government.

He stirred up traders by shouting that the government was promoting "bad behavior" with its mortgage rescue plan. "This is America," he said. "How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor's mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can't pay their bills?"

Though he was mocked by the White House, Santelli might as well have yelled, "Give me liberty or give me death!"

Jenny Beth Martin, a Republican activist who's helping organize one of the higher-profile tea parties in Atlanta, said Santelli's rant led shortly afterward to a conference call of 22 activists, including herself.

From there, she said, organizers put together 48 tea parties -- from St. Louis to San Antonio to Chicago -- on Feb. 27.

There have been scattered tea parties since then, but the next nationally coordinated event is on tax day.

She said 360 events are on the books for April 15, with "dozens more" scheduled every day -- she anticipates more than 2,000 participants in Atlanta.

In the Boston spirit, Martin said they might even toss some tea bags, "maybe into a barrel."

The movement, while nonpartisan, has largely involved conservatives -- who are testing out a role long reserved for the other side of the political spectrum.

"Conservatives aren't known for their protest abilities, and protests in business suits and umbrellas, it was kind of a funny sight," Martin said, recalling the rainy-day event in Atlanta on Feb 27.

But the protesters have forged their own cheeky, anti-spending brand. In videos of the rallies on the Pajamas TV Web site, one protester sported an arm band that said "POOP -- Prisoners of Obama's Policies." Another held a poster that read "Let Them Eat Pork!"

The tea party movement has generated a host of unique Web sites dedicated to promoting upcoming protests and covering those that have already happened. The Pajamas TV site is even recruiting "citizen reporters" to cover the April 15 protests.

"This is about the people. This is about what we have to say," said Nancy Armstrong, who's organizing the tea party in Wichita, Kan. Armstrong, who attended one of the parties in northern Kansas in late February, said she's expecting at least 1,000 people at the local post office in Wichita on April 15.

Margaret Hyland, who's helping organize the rally in Astoria, Ore., said the parties are just gatherings for "regular people."

"We just feel that the government is not listening to the people," she said, adding that the stimulus package was a big factor in her decision to get involved.

"I do not understand how we can throw money at this problem and solve it," Hyland said. "If I was doing my personal budget and discovered I was deeply in debt, I don't think I would go out and borrow a lot of money to throw at it." Read More......

Stimulus Package Protest in Mesa Arizona

VIA EMAIL (H/t: Patrick Wills): Anti-Obama/Stimulus Protest in Mesa, Arizona, February 18, 2009 - At the Mesa AZ protest against President Obama, KFYI listeners brought signs telling Santa Obama what they wanted from the savior-based economy. Hats off to KFYI’s Bruce Jacobs and J.D. Hayworth. Reader Al Swanson sent these priceless pic[ture]s. Visit the Pesky Emotional Republican for great protest photos... Read More......

Ferrara: Reaganomics vs. Obamanomics

FOX News/AP, February 17, 2009 by Peter Ferrara - President Reagan’s economic recovery plan included four specific components on which he explicitly campaigned over and over and then implemented once elected.

These were [1 through 4]:
1. Reductions in tax rates to restore incentives for economic growth. This consisted of, first, a reduction in the top income tax rate of 70% down to 50%, and then a 25% across the board reduction in income tax rates for everyone. The 1986 tax reform then reduced tax rates further, leaving just two rates, 28% and 15%. Reagan also cut corporate income tax rates and capital gains tax rates

2. Spending Reductions. The reductions included a $31 billion cut in spending in 1981, close to 5% of the federal budget then, or the equivalent of about $150 billion in spending cuts for the year in 2008. In constant dollars, non-defense discretionary spending declined by 14.4% from 1981 to 1982, and by 16.8% from 1981 to 1983. Moreover, in constant dollars, this non-defense discretionary spending never returned to its 1981 level for the rest of Reagan’s two terms! By 1988, this spending was still down 14.4% from its 1981 level in constant dollars. Even with the Reagan defense buildup, total federal spending declined from a high of 23.5% of GDP in 1983 to 21.3% in 1988 and 21.2% in 1989. That’s a real reduction in the size of government relative to the economy of 10%

3. Anti-inflation monetary policy to restrain money supply growth.

4. Deregulation. Reagan’s deregulation plan has now saved consumers an estimated $100 billion per year in lower prices. Reagan’s first executive order, in fact, eliminated price controls on oil and natural gas. Production soared, and the price of oil declined by over 50%.

The results were spectacular. These four components produced a 25-year economic boom from 1982 to 2007. In their new book, “The End of Prosperity,” Art Laffer and Steve Moore call these years “the greatest period of wealth creation in the history of the planet.” They note that — adjusted for inflation– more wealth and income was created during this Reagan boom than in any other prior period in U.S. history. That’s right, than any other entire period dating from President George Washington all the way up to Ronald Reagan.

But Barack Obama is doing exactly the opposite on each of these four points:

–He is still promising tax rate increases, at least by letting the Bush tax cuts expire.

–He just passed the greatest increase in government spending in the history of the planet.

–He is promising massive increases in regulatory burdens, including global warming cap and trade regulation that would cost the economy another trillion dollars a year.

–The Fed is already furiously reinflating the money supply, sowing seeds of further havoc in the future.

Even the Obama tax cuts do not follow the Reagan economic recovery plan because they are not reductions in tax rates, which is what drives the incentives that govern the economy.

A reduction in tax rates increases incentives by allowing people to keep a higher percentage of what they earn from productive activity. But Obama’s tax cuts are all based on tax credits, which do nothing to improve incentives. They are really just the same as his government spending in terms of their effect on the economy, just like sending more welfare checks out to everyone.

At AmericanSolutions.com, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has proposed an updated version of the Reagan economic recovery program for today. It includes, among other items, a reduction in the federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to the 12.5% rate that over the past 20 years has lifted the standard of living in Ireland from the bottom of the EU to the top. It would eliminate the capital gains tax to match rates in China, Singapore, and other international competitors — a move that would entice capital investment from the world over to America. It would provide middle class tax relief by reducing the 25% income tax bracket to 15%, establishing a flat rate tax of 15% for close to 90% of American workers. Gingrich also proposes that a cut in the payroll tax by 50% for 2 years. He also proposes that our government work to control government spending to balance the budget, something Gingrich himself achieved when he was Speaker of the House. Under his plan, the United States would also adopt a real, comprehensive energy program that would allow production of domestic U.S. oil and natural gas, as well as nuclear power, clean coal, ethanol, and renewable fuels.

Obama keeps saying he is only interested in what works, not ideology. So why doesn’t he include any of the above components that have a proven track record of effectiveness? Why is our president ignoring what works and insisting on embracing an ideology that will simply expand big government?

Peter Ferrara is Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy at the Institute for Policy Innovation Read More......

Obama signs stimulus bill in Denver

Obama Signs $787 Billion Stimulus Package - President Obama on Tuesday signed into law the largest spending bill in U.S. history, a package he pledges will save millions of jobs and bring the country back from the brink of economic catastrophe.

In doing so, the president marked a huge legislative victory less than a month into his term. He and Democratic congressional leaders won approval for the $787 billion plan late last week, despite having the support of just three Republicans [Snowe, Collins and Specter] in the Senate. Read more at FOXnews...

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Spending Sparks 'Socialism' Claims - Questions raised on whether government intervention is taking country down the wrong path.

ADDED 2/27/09
Bedtime Stories by vanderluen

Hush, little baby, don't say a word.
Papa's gonna buy you a mockingbird
-- Traditional American lullaby

The Senator stands before the fixed gaze of the CSPAN cameras in the always empty Senate chamber. His hands hold a stack of paper over a thousand pages thick. He observes, in a voice shaded with resignation and contempt, that no member of the Senate, himself included, has read the endless laundry list of fools’ gold nuggets that a majority are about to vote into law. Then, in what is less a gesture than a simple removal of his hands, he lets the pile drop to the floor where it lands with a sodden thump. The future of what was once a republic is smeared on the sheets of tumbled pile of paper on the Senate floor.

We do not know what this "future" holds within its pages. We know only that no one with the power to approve or disapprove this future that has now been decreed has read it. Like the future it represents the “bill” is obscure and unknowable. Like some czar’s whim it has simply been decreed by those who have made themselves master. Read more at American Digest...

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$789 Billion with a 'B'

The House and Senate agree on an $789 billion stimulus bill.

Photo source: Iowahawk
Adapted from Margaret Bourke-White's Bread Line during the Louisville flood, Kentucky
1937 Read More......