One year ago, President Obama signed into law a “stimulus bill” that was supposed o have a price tag of $787 billion, to date it has increased by $75 billion. At the time President Obama signed the bill the unemployment rate was at 7.6%; he claimed it would not go over 8%; yet, 3.3 million jobs have been lost. Despite the fact that Recovery.org claims “2 million jobs have been saved/created.” While the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that the stimulus was responsible for between 800,000 and 2.4 million jobs in 2009. Regardless which statistic you believe, you cannot deny that any job that was “saved/created” by the “stimulus” is either a government job or dependent on a government contract; these are no private sector, small business jobs. In fact, USA Today reports, “About 389,000 jobs were reported saved or created in the last quarter of 2009 by recipients of $25.5 billion in aid from the Education Department.”
One year after it’s passage, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland touted the success of the stimulus. “The Recovery Act has already worked to save or create as many as 2.4 million jobs, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. In one year, the Recovery Act has provided $120 billion in tax cuts for 95% of working families as well as businesses across the country; loaned nearly $20 billion to small businesses to expand and create jobs; funded more than 12,500 transportation projects nationwide; kept teachers, police officers, and firefighters on the job; and accomplished much more.”
However, there is no verifiable evidence of the “much more” that was “accomplished” by this massive spending bill. And much of the data that claims to show a positive impact has been questionable. Recall the 440 non-existent Congressional districts that reported jobs that had been “saved or created”?
Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) recently said the problem is that the bill wasn’t “as targeted as it should’ve been” and “we need to go back to this and do this again. We need to do more of that.” In fact, Harry Reid is working on an $80 billion “jobs bill” that among other things, re-authorizes the “Patriot Act”. I’m still not sure how the “Patriot Act” helps create jobs, but then again, I’m still confused over how a ban on off-shore online gambling helps ensure the safety & security of ports (Security and Accountability For Every Port Act of 2006). But I digress.
Among the more intelligent comments by a congressman, Senator Evan Bayh said, “If I could create one job in the private sector by helping to grow a business, that would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months.”
If Congress really wants to create jobs they should abolish the IRS, allowing people to keep what they earn; and abolish the Federal Reserve, the private central bank that is responsible for a 97% decrease in the value of the “dollar”. Anything less is “playing politics” with the life, liberty & property of the American people.