Jun 08 2009
GOP Finally Declares Liberal Economic Experiment A Failure
Update: President Obama is scrambling and spinning as the reality of failed government stimulus experiment sets in:
Obama is ramping up his stimulus program this week even as his advisers are ramping down expectations about when the spending plan will affect a continuing rise in the nation’s unemployment.
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But Obama now promises an accelerated pace of federal spending over the next few months to boost the economy and produce jobs.
“We have a long way to go on our road to recovery but we are going the right way,” Obama said in a written statement prepared for his public announcement of the additional summer stimulus activity. “Our measure of progress is the progress the American people see in their own lives. And until that progress is steady and solid, we’re going to keep moving forward. We will not grow complacent or rest. Surely and steadily, we will turn this economy around,” the statement said.
Just a bunch of lies for the gullible and naive. I have been tracking the stimulus spending across 5 departments and one agency, and there is barely any money coming through the bloated and slow federal bureaucracy (click to enlarge)
The far left columns show the amount of stimulus money budgeted for these 6 government entities – that is the stimulus money meant to create jobs. The center columns represent the amount assigned to specific projects or programs; this is where the bloated bureaucracy has finally determined where and how to spend the money. The last set of columns on the right (which are basically flat lined) is the money heading out of the bureaucracy and being spent to create jobs.
The totals and percentages for the money budgeted, obligated and dispersed as of 6/2/09 are as follows:
- $105,335,650,000 budgeted (~1/3rd total stimulus ‘jobs’ package)
- $19.9 billion obligated (19% of the budgeted total)
- ~$201 million dispersed to actual work (0.2%).
As of today over 99% of the job creating stimulus money in these organizations has not been spent! This is why tax cuts are the only way to stimulate economic growth and job creation – the money is in the economy to start with, tax cuts leave it there to do its magic.
There will be no significant stimulus by the government over the summer – most of the bureaucrats will be on vacation. The liberals are so naive about the bloated bureaucracy they created it is frightening.
Update: Andy McCarthy nails the Obama administrations BS:
Goolsbee then laughably intimated that the steep jump in the jobless rate could be attributable to hopeful signs that the economy is improving. Huh?  See if you can follow this: he says flashes of hope that we are on the verge of a revival have purportedly caused previously uncounted jobless people to seek (but not find) work — that is, they waited out prosperous times, deciding to leap into the job hunt only when hundreds of thousands of heretofore gainfully employed people got pink-slipped and began competing for a declining pool of jobs. Of course, why shouldn’t Goolsbee think he can get away with these fables when the Obamedia has taken to repeating them verbatim?Â
People suffering and these buffoons just make stuff up, pretending all is good.
Update: The unemployment  situation is so bad even the Obama administration is admitting the liberal economic stimulus experiment has failed:
The White House says America’s employment picture is worse than the Obama administration had anticipated just a few months ago. The somber admission follows the latest jobless report showing the highest unemployment rate the United States has seen in more than 25 years.
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Economists point out that the current jobless rate is already higher than the hypothetical rate that was used to calculate the health of banks and other financial institutions in so-called “stress tests” earlier this year. And, the upward unemployment trajectory is expected to continue in coming months, even if the overall economy begins to recover.Â
“Even if” the economy recovers? Are American voters going to be cheering a recovery if it does not include new job creation? Just because the DOW goes up while people are suffering that is not a ‘success’ by any measure. The liberal experiment is a failure – face it. – end update
It took a while, but the GOP is finally making it clear that the Obama/Pelosi/Reid stimulus plan via government spending is a failure:
Rep. Dave Camp (R., Mich.), the senior Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, declared the stimulus plan a failure. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) proclaimed, “Washington is hanging middle-class Americans out to dry.”
“This is President Obama’s economy now,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R., Va.).
Republicans noted that a report by the Obama transition team in early January said that without a large stimulus plan, unemployment would go above 9%. It is now above that level, despite passage of the stimulus plan, though less than 5% of funds have been spent.
I have been saying this for weeks, especially the part about the lack of a stimulus on the economy. My last two posts were quite clear (here and here). I find it sort of stunning  it took the GOP this long to point out the obvious. All my posts on this can be read here – seems I was a bit premature in my conclusions. Even though I was also 100% accurate.
Many Republicans and economists have been yelling from the top of the mountains, that the stimulus would not work, and what has happened would happen. But there voices were drowned out with Obama adoration.
MSM loved the narrative, the evil, Hitler, lying, war mongering, CEO loving, little people hating, Bush/Cheney, Halliberton made it happen, we are only trying to clean up his mess and put in it’s place a “fair economy”. White guy, capitalist Bush is everything that Obama KNEW was wrong about America, and he was out to change it for the guys who have never had a chance to be powerful. Yes he can, and he did, and he is reaping what he sowed and so are all Americans.
I think the GOP was being patient to certain degree. Waiting until the 100 days were up, waiting until a couple of months of numbers were released, trying to get further away from the Bush Admin. Just a thought. Only meant as an observation. Thanks.
………..and Obama had the best economic team on the face of the planet. I’m wondering how this economic team is going to get their reputation back?
lacegrl130,
I think you may be right, and that does make some sense. I wish they had been (or will) track the lack of money moving through the bureaucracy more to hammer home why the experiment is failing.
AJ there is no way to “hammer” anything if it doesn’t get printed. The blogs are full of the potential failure and have been from the beginning.
Yes, the unemployment problem that Obama inherited from the Bush administration is even worse than predicted. That is a problem.
But if you expected the Stimulus plan to “fix” this problem in 4 months, then you are wholly unqualified to even speak about economics.
Guy Fawkes, wholly unqualified to speak about economics, attempts to speak about economics. Nice.
He is completely oblivious to the real point, which is that the so-called “stimulus” has actually made things WORSE, not better.
and it will continue to do so.
WWS:
You’re a moron. The fact that things are worse than predicted is in no way an indication that the stimulus *made* them worse. They aren’t related.
Let’s say, a building is on fire. The fire dept doesn’t think it’s that bad, so they send two trucks. It turns out to be much worse than expected, and they need the whole company.
Now – did those first two trucks actually make the fire *worse*? No – they simply weren’t enough, and the fire was worse than they thought.
This is not complicated, people – the fact that none of you can understand this concept is stunning.
THe building of your Socialist Ideology is what’s on fire, you Economic Imbecile.
A socialist like you must be very pleased with the way the European Elections have been going, HA HA HA!!!
Give up WWS. Everything is always going to be Bush’s fault. In 2012 Obama will still be campaigning against him.
AJ,
Anyone with a minor knowledge of the economic history of the early Clinton and JFK Administrations could see what was coming.
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Clinton’s arrival in 1992 resulted in something like 3% of all small businesses shutting up shop before the inauguration, and there was a small-business loss in 1960-61 as well (I think that was the first time it was noticed).
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There was a capital and small business expansion strike in the first six months of Clinton’s first term, which ended quickly because Clinton convinced them he was an economic moderate.
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Clinton’s bending to the will of the bond market brought those small business and financial capital types back into the economy and they were the initial impetus for Clinton’s good economic years.
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Obama is doing precisely the opposite. Obama scared the begeebers out of small business before he took office and he has done worse since. He is convincing capital and small businesses that they are right to fear the future, and to conserve their capital and energy because he will rob them of any return on their capital and personal labor investment.
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We now have a full scale, late FDR Depression Style “capital strike” in progress. This augurs for an economic disaster worse than Jimmy Carter’s.
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C. Edmund Wright wrote an article on the effect Obama was having on the incentives for small business owners to stay in business before Obama was sworn in:
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December 11, 2008
Blame me for job losses
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http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/12/blame_me_for_job_losses.html
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Like many business owners, we are no longer willing to take all of the financial and legal risks and put up with all of the aggravation of owning and running a business. Not with the prospects of even higher taxes, more regulation, more litigation and more emboldened bureaucrats on the horizon. Like others we know, we are getting out while the getting is, well, tolerable. Many who aren’t getting out are scaling back.
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We learned just this week that getting out of business is harder than we thought. Take Republic Windows & Doors of Chicago, where being out of money and out of paying customers apparently does not give a business the right to shut down. Nor does it give that business’ bank the right to withhold credit. According to the unions, Jesse Jackson and the Governor of Illinois (yes, THAT governor), this company must continue to pay its employees salaries and benefits.
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But pay them with WHAT? Liberals seem to be clueless as to where “the money” comes from. They love to tax, regulate and redistribute wealth — all the while decrying the very profit motive that created it — something they do not understand. If they did, they would not naively insist that a business that is out of money, out of customers and out of credit stay open so as to pay employees.
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Wright prediction about small business sitting it out during the Obama Administration has been joined by big business doing the same thing:
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http://pajamasmedia.com/edgelings/2009/04/22/scared-ceos-hamper-economic-recovery/
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In her book The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes (now a Forbes columnist) wrote that the 1937-38 “depression within a depression†occurred when “capital went on strike.†President Roosevelt’s willingness to “try anythingâ€â€“including retroactive taxation, laws against discount pricing and an attempted Supreme Court packing–had businesses and their backers so confused about Roosevelt’s rules that they simply withdrew.
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This is the risk of Obama’s willingness to “do what it takes.†The words sound positive and action-oriented. But in practice, “do what it takes†really means “anything can happen.â€
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Tearing up of legal contracts … that can happen.
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Limits to salary and travel … that can happen.
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Bullying by the Environmental Protection Agency … that can happen.
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Nationalization of General Motors and Citigroup … that can happen.
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Nobody knows for sure. Government is sorting it out, day by day.
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The yield curve predicts good news. Consumers are bored with the recession and are ready to come back.
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But CEOs are nervous about deploying capital, and for good reason.
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The indications are that the Obama Administration was and is terminally clueless as to the economic incentives they were putting into the American economy.
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They were all for class warfare:
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http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96JD3E03&show_article=1
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Analysis: Obama plan brings cries of class warfare
Feb 26 12:30 PM US/Eastern
By TOM RAUM
Associated Press Writer
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His budget would benefit lower-income Americans at the expense of the wealthy and businesses, critics claim.
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Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the No. 2 Republican in the House, called the budget “not just misguided but dangerous” in seeking to raise taxes during a severe economic downturn.
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But the administration’s own economic forecasts suggest that the brunt of the tax increases, including allowing existing tax cuts from the Bush administration to expire, will occur when the nation is in recovery.
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The Obama budget forecasts that, despite the depth of the current recession, the economy will recover and grow by 3.2 percent in 2010, with even more robust growth in the years after that.
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And have no idea what poison they have made it for business to take government hand outs:
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http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/05/obama-talf-tarp-economy-uaw-opinions-columnists-chrysler.html
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Are There Any Rules In The Bailout Game?
Thomas F. Cooley, 05.06.09, 12:00 AM ET
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“Government interference in the normal conduct of business has had a chilling effect on financial markets and threatens the progress of the recovery. The Treasury and the Fed have created many new programs to provide liquidity to the financial system, to help banks restructure their balance sheets and to re-invigorate securitization markets.
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So far, the interest in these has been distinctly muted because potential participants fear the longer term consequences of getting involved with any of these programs.
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The Term Asset-Backed Lending Facility (TALF) is a good example. It was designed to stimulate an important part of the credit market–based on securitized loans–by providing a facility to lend up to $1 trillion in loans to buyers of top-rated securities that are collateralized by credit-card debt, auto loans, student loans, small business loans and commercial real estate loans.
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Because they are non-recourse loans, the investors have little downside exposure. But so far, they have stayed away. They are afraid of the strings that may be attached, since the loans are ultimately secured by TARP funds.
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… Investors, other than the banks who desperately needed TARP funds for survival, are leery of any program that uses them. Anyone who took TARP funds has been subject to government interference in managerial decisions. The restrictions on bonuses and executive pay have been widely discussed in the media. Less well known are restrictions on the banks’ ability to hire foreigners, and the constant harassment by Congress over internal management decisions on everything from the use of private aircraft to the locations of conferences. Some of these concerns are well justified, of course, but it wasn’t clear ex-ante what all of the rules were and it isn’t clear ex-post either.”
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And hammering the U.S. economy with higher taxes just as it starts to pull out of of a recession (2011-2012 per the normal time frame for such cycles) is suicidally insane.
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There simply is no excuse for this. It really does appear that Obama & Co. believe all this marxist economic cant, and that will tank the economy through November 2012.
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Furthermore the Democrats in Congress just love higher taxes so they can sell tax deductions. That is what “Cap & Trade” is all about.
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Do you really see now what Wright said about small business confidence?
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Obama could not be doing a better job of hammering their confidence. And he still hasn’t settled on anything to settle the financial market’s uncertainty. Just look at his non-handling of the upcoming California state bond default.
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The American economic “bounce” that everyone in D.C. and the NY City financial markets has “programed in” for the second half of this year is not going to happen because the people who are expected to do it — small business — have taken their toys home to the house to wait out the Obama Admistration.
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The American big boys who have not taken government coin are doing the same and the foreign investors are buying oil commodity futures as a hedge against American inflation.
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It will require an immense amount of work and willful foolishness to bring about a depression, but the Obama Administration has shown itself capable of such greatness.
Let me make sure I follow your logic:
Bush was President for 8 months when 9/11 happened. But, that was not his fault.
Bush was President for 7 years when the economy collapsed. But that was not his fault.
Obama has been President for 4 months, and the economy, which was tanking when he took over, is still bad. That, of course, is all his fault.
You’d be funny, if you weren’t so pathetic.
AJ:
A question for you: if the stimulus really was such a terrible idea, and the economy is in such bad shape…
Why is the GOP pushing the idea that the economy is actually improving?
“Construction spending is up slightly for the second straight month, factory orders rose 0.7 percent in April, existing home sales were up three months in a row, and banks have begun raising capital again and showing signs of growth. These and other economic signals have sparked a rally on Wall Street that has raised stock values by more than 30 percent since March.”
Guy, how do you like the way the Supreme Court just bi-yotch slapped Obammy???
And it was Ginsburg, too – the most liberal justice there!
“Bush was President for 8 months when 9/11 happened. But, that was not his fault.”
Can you name one policy Bush implemented in those 8 months that would have made America less save and more vulnerable to the events that took place on 9/11?
That is the difference. As conservatives we believe the polices of Obama are not only destroying what is left of the economy but making it impossible for a true economic recovery to take place.
If Bush had tried this the Congress would have impeached him in a second … The Obama Administration argued Monday that no court, including the Supreme Court, has the authority to hear a challenge by Indiana benefit plans to the role the U.S. Treasury played in the Chrysler rescue, including the use of “bailout†(TARP) funds. The Indiana debt holders, U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan wrote, simply have no right to raise that issue, thus putting it out of the reach of the courts.
California is considering cutting off welfare. That brought a thought to my mind. Why would 12 million people risk life and limb to come to the US to work while people in Los Angeles are sitting on their butts collecting a check? If California cut off welfare you might see Americans picking strawberries or hanging out in front of Home Depot.
The paper plays it as some kind of tragedy … (gasp) some of those people might have to go from LA to Bakersfield and actually work at a job that might get their hands dirty. There’s plenty of work, we have people coming from thousands of miles away to do it. Cutting off welfare might be the best thing they could do.
Well, I borked that post. Link works though.
CP,
Fixed.
Neo:
“If Bush had tried this the Congress would have impeached him in a second … ”
Oh, right – because the Bush Administration never argued anything like that, especially concerning subjects like executive privilege.
Jeezus – it’s like you forget the last 8 years even happened. Bush spent 8 years lying to this country, ruining our reputation around the world, crashing the economy, watching New Orleans drown, and starting a war of choice that killed 4000+ American soldiers and untold tens of thousands of Iraqis — and never got so much as a slap on the wrist from Congress.
So stick your ludicrous “If a Republican did this…” crap where the sun don’t shine.