Aug 18 2009
America Understands: The Liberal Stimulus Bill Is A Failure
Update Below!
It is clear now that our young President probably blew his whole first term when he handed over to the liberals in Congress the design of an economic stimulus package. These people are so wrapped up in fantasy they actually thought government spending, as sluggish as it always has been, could ‘stimulate’ job creation. They were, of course, spectacularly wrong and naive in this assumption, as is clearly evident in the fact we are ending the summer of 2009, 6 months after the bill’s passage, and no money as been spent on job creating projects.
Now large majorities have come to realize what a failure this liberal experiment has been:
A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll found 57% of adults say the stimulus package is having no impact on the economy or making it worse. Even more —60% — doubt that the stimulus plan will help the economy in the years ahead, and only 18% say it has done anything to help improve their personal situation.
I feel for that 18%, they will have a challenge getting through life if they still think the stimulus bill has done a damn thing to date. I have been tracking the recovery spending directed at creating jobs for 6 government entities which represent a third of the job creating stimulus money. To date 98% of the job creating money authorized by congress is still unspent, and will not be spent for months and months to come.
In the first graph there are 4 sets of columns showing: (from left to right) (1) the amount budgeted for stimulus programs for that organization, (2) the amount allocated to to date to specific programs, (3) the amount actually spent to date creating jobs and (4) the amount left unspent from the total budget. (click image to enlarge)
The second chart translates the dollar amounts for the last three sets of columns in the previous chart into percentages of the budgeted amounts for each organization, showing what is the percent allocated, spent and unspent. (again, click image to enlarge)
Summary:
- $105 billion was budgeted for job creation efforts across the 6 organizations (1/3rd of all job creating stimulus programs in the stimulus bill)
- Nearly 1/3rd, or $33 billion, has been allocated to programs (the only bright spot in this bleak picture)
- Just under 2% has been spent creating jobs, which totals $1.9 billion
- Over 98% of the money, or $103 billion of the money budgeted for job creation, has yet to make its way out of the federal bureaucracy.
It is not surprising most people want this doomed effort to be stopped and the money given back to the people to spend, stimulate the economy and create jobs. In fact, if the liberals weren’t so short sighted and arrogant, they would have used the tried and true method of tax cuts to individuals and small businesses to get the economy back onto its feet. But they could not resist their fantasy, where government comes riding to the rescue of the little people and they get to play Santa Claus.
What we have here is a failure of hubris.
Update: This is a great video ‘history’ of the failed liberal stimulus experiment (H/T Gateway Pundit)
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When you take from the productive to give to the non-productive you create nothing.
All this stimulus bill was meant to do was to pay off everybody who helped monetarily or with time served to elect Obama and the dems. All the hype about job creation was just that…hype. I’ll bet the libs really believe their dumb mantra that government creates jobs. They and the media went on and on about Bush creating jobs for the last 8 years. Government only passes laws that enables private industry to create jobs. If government passes laws that put obstacles in the way of business no jobs will be created. This is common sense. A quality the dems are way short of. I don’t count government jobs as job creation in any form or fashipn. There are too many of them already.
I weill say this, however, no one can say that the dems don’t look after their members. Not for them to toss their fellow dems out the window. No matter how crooked they are the other dems circle the wagons and protect and excuse them. Mainly, I suppose because they all have the goods on each other. BTW, the 18% AJ talked about are mainly the recipients of all this largesse and don’t want the gravy train to end.
In watching the video I am struck by Obama’s statement, over and over again, talking about the “state” creating jobs. He is giving himself away with these statements. We don’t have a “state”. This is socialist-marxist-communist talk. We don’t have a “state” and American citizens are not “workers”. This guy and the rest of the dems must think if they repeat this garbage over and overagain that theses phrases will become acceptable as the norm. Communism is insidious.
These multi trillion dollar bills have nothing to do with stimulating the economy. The Democrats have the power and they know they have the power. So they are doing what all tyrants do when they acquire absolute power. They loot the treasury. Obama, like other African leaders before him, is either incapable of preventing his Dem cohorts from bankrupcting the country or he is complicit in their actions. Either way, we are well on our way to becoming a carbon copy of the pathetic basket case ,Zimbabwe, which was once known as Rhodesia, the breadbasket of Africa. What we have is a charismatic, glib talking , affirmative action product of our public education system who thinks he is smart because he was taught that in his self exteem c lasses. He is ignorant of history, geography, and economics. And I would like to add that he apparently can’t tell the diffefrence between a lie and the truth. He just makes up stuff as he goes along. This is what the affirmative action products of our public education system do. It doesn’t matter if they know anything so long as the feel good about themselves. One thing is for certain. He sure got that self esteem thing down pat.