HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

Despite Claims to the Contrary, Democrats’ $1 Trillion “Stimulus” Continues to Fall Short

This afternoon the White House claimed that Speaker Pelosi’s $1 trillion “stimulus” spending program “has saved or created nearly 650,000 jobs through aid to states, infrastructure projects and federal contracts,” the New York Times reported today.  In fact, according to the Times, the Administration is alleging that “640,239 jobs were created directly” thanks to the “stimulus.” 

That’s a remarkably precise number, particularly in light of an Associated Press report published yesterday reviewing the Administration’s first accounting of jobs which found that “some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs.”  Specifically, the AP found that:

• “A company working with the Federal Communications Commission reported that stimulus money paid for 4,231 jobs, when about 1,000 were produced.”
• “A Georgia community college reported creating 280 jobs with recovery money, but none was created from stimulus spending.”
• “A Florida child care center said its stimulus money saved 129 jobs but used the money on raises for existing employees.”

Obviously, the Administration has misplaced its faith in its methodology.  Dr. Alan Meltzer, a highly-respected economist and professor at Carnegie Mellon University, noted in a memo to House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today that:

There is no greater recognition of the failure of the stimulus program to create jobs than the efforts to mislead the public into believing the program had saved thousands, or millions, of jobs. One can search economic textbooks forever without finding a concept called ‘jobs saved.’  It doesn’t exist for good reason: how can anyone know that his or her job has been saved?

That’s not a point that Democrats appear to have considered when Speaker Pelosi first alleged in February that her $1 trillion “stimulus” would “create and save 3.5 million jobs.” 

Instead, with unemployment nearing 10 percent, the only thing the “stimulus” seems to have “created” is waste, fraud, and abuse.  This week, the Senate Republican Conference unveiled a helpful list, “10 Stimulus Projects To Remember” highlighting the extent of “stimulus” waste:

1. $300,00 for mapping radioactive rabbit feces
2. $4,200-$5,500 tax credit for purchasing golf carts
3. $219,000 to study the sex lives of female college freshmen
4. $1 million to renovate “the sunset strip”
5. $2.3 million for bug research in Connecticut
6. $6 million for a snowmaking facility in the 15th snowiest city in the country
7. $500,000 to study “social networks like facebook”
8. $380,000 to spay and neuter pets in Wichita, Kansas
9. $3.4 million for a turtle tunnel in Florida
10. $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies

The problem with the Democrats’ failed economic experiments - from their $1 trillion “stimulus,” to their $3.6 trillion tax and spend budget, to cap and tax and their $1 trillion 1,990 page government takeover of health care - is that they all increase the role of government in the economy, and in everyday Americans’ lives.  Democrats seem to think the answer to every problem lies in the hands of a bureaucrat in Washington, D.C.

House Republicans unequivocally reject that premise.  Republicans know that the American people - small business owners, family farmers and entrepreneurs - want very little out of Washington, D.C. other than to do the basics and get out of the way.

Republicans have consistently offered better solutions that reflect those quintessentially American values, from a better economic recovery plan that focuses on small businesses and families, to an energy policy focused on building an energy independent tomorrow, to health care solutions that increase coverage, reduce costs, and improve the best health care system in the world. 

President Reagan, in his farewell address to the nation, said “There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: ‘As government expands, liberty contracts.’” 

Republicans today couldn’t agree more.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Stimulus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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