HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

“Stimulus” Continues to Fall Short as Millions of Americans Seek Work

The Administration famously claimed that Speaker Pelosi’s $1 trillion “stimulus” would “save or create 4 million jobs” and keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent - but with the unemployment rate currently at 10.2 percent and 15.7 million Americans without work, it’s clear that the “stimulus” isn’t working.  The following chart produced by the Ways and Means Committee Republican staff demonstrates just how far Democrats missed the mark on their “stimulus” program:

The 1,000 plus page “stimulus” may not be producing jobs or helping small businesses, but it sure is stimulating waste, fraud and abuse - as stories in papers from coast to coast over the past few days have confirmed:

In New England, the Boston Globe reported this weekend that: “[Massachusetts] is pushing through a plan to spend $9 million in federal stimulus money to build a walking bridge connecting parking lots on either side of Route 1 near Gillette Stadium.  The lots belong to Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, who is tied for number 468 on Forbes Magazine’s list of the world’s billionaires.”

In the Mid Atlantic, Saturday’s Washington Post reported that “Nine months after Congress passed the $787 billion stimulus package, there is little tangible to show for one of its biggest single areas of investment, the $25 billion energy-efficiency effort.”  The Post noted that the “energy-efficiency effort” has “so far not produced a single job.”

And out West, today’s Denver Post found that Colorado inflated the number of jobs “created” by the “stimulus” by “at least 1,000 jobs.”  The Post detailed the extent of the fraud, including:

Two child-development centers - one in Colorado Springs and the other in Saguache County - reported they had created or saved more than 292 jobs combined. However, the money - totaling about $650,000, or $2,226 a job - was used to give employees cost- of-living raises. Only three new jobs were created.

Yet the Administration continues to claim that the “stimulus” is working.  The Los Angeles Times recently noted that “[t]he vice president said that the administration’s efforts…are responsible for creating or saving more than 640,000 jobs directly and hundreds of thousands of additional jobs to bring the total to more than 1 million.”  Vice President Biden has also said that “In my wildest dreams, I never thought [the ‘stimulus’] would work this well.”

The numbers tell a different story.  Seven months after the “stimulus” was signed into law, 49 of 50 States have lost jobs - and the Wall Street Journal recently reported, “More than a third of the nation’s unemployed - 35.6 percent - have been out of work long-term, defined by the Labor Department as a period of 27 weeks or more - the highest proportion since World War II.”  The Journal noted in another story that the “broadest measure of unemployment produced by the government,” known as U-6, “stood at 17.5 percent in October, from 17.0 percent the month before, and shows the underlying nature of hiring in the U.S. is pretty bleak.”

Americans are hurting - and yet out-of-touch Democrats aren’t doing anything to stimulate small businesses, who traditionally create between 60-80 percent of new jobs.  Unfortunately, small businesses don’t think Democrats’ policies are making things better, as Market Watch reported today: “small-business owners haven’t seen much improvement in the U.S. economy and more are expected to cut jobs instead of adding them over the next three months.”  In fact, small businesses “have accounted for about 45 percent of net job losses” in the current recession, according to Dennis Lockhart, President of Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Perhaps the Lima News put it best in a recent editorial:

Industries are loath to invest because of the uncertainties of Washington’s proposed taxes and penalties in pending health-care and global-warming legislation. Rather than take money from real job creators to throw at doubtful job-creation and -saving programs, Washington should back off further economy-dampening proposals that penalize employers.

Republicans agree - which is why they’ll continue to oppose the Democrats’ job-killing agenda and fight for better solutions on job creation, health care, and energy.   It’s time to get our economy moving again by helping small businesses and entrepreneurs, not government bureaucrats and pencil-pushers in Washington, D.C.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 3:28 pm and is filed under Stimulus, Wasteful Spending. 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.

4 Responses to ““Stimulus” Continues to Fall Short as Millions of Americans Seek Work”

1. Stimulating Dishonesty Says:
   November 17th, 2009 at 11:05 am

   […] Leader John Boehner has a media wrap up of the news showing that the stimulus is NOT working. Read it here.  Print This Post This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 8:05 am and is […]

2. Aine Kee Says:
   November 17th, 2009 at 12:13 pm

   The Truth from Obama would be like a breath of fresh air!

3. The Baltimore Reporter Says:
   November 17th, 2009 at 11:58 pm

   […] House Leader John Boehner has a media wrap up of the news showing that the stimulus is NOT working. Read it here. […]

4. masa Says:
   November 20th, 2009 at 2:02 pm

   thanks very nice article, good post

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