My take on: Unemployment and $787B Economic "Stimulus" Bill, Part #3

'Celebrating his first 100 days in office, President Barack Obama told the American people: “One hundred days ago, in the midst of the worst economic crisis in half a century, we passed the most sweeping economic recovery act in history…One hundred days later, we are already seeing results.” And he’s right, we are. Unemployment has risen to 9.5%, stocks fell to their lowest level in 10 weeks on Tuesday, and consumer credit delinquencies have hit a record high. Responding to the obvious failure of the Obama administration’s $787 billion stimulus package, some liberals in the House and Senate are calling for a second (really the third when you count President Bush’s 2008 effort)' (1 and 2).

Yes, that's right, some democrats in the House are already calling for ANOTHER "stimulus" package (3). Yes, believe it or not, at a time when 9 out of 10 Americans are worried about Obama's spending, the Democrats and Obama’s administration are actually thinking about another stimulus package (4).

Now, I'm not an economist, but it would seem to me that there too many problems to count with the first stimulus, and another one would be even more catastrophic.

Let's assume for a moment that passing a $787 billion stimulus bill was the right thing to do. It is a simple matter to determine that anytime the government is involved in something as big as a $787 billion bill, it is going to take time for the money and "help" to make an impact on the economy. With that understood, there should never have been promises made that the Obama Administration knew they could not keep. President Obama promised that unemployment wouldn't rise above 8% because of the immediate effect that the stimulus package would have on the economy. Unemployment is at 9.5% and shows no signs of slowing down. Besides, the jobs that the stimulus bill is creating by building bridges to nowhere, tunnels for turtles, and spending $18 million for a website (that Vice President Biden can't even name) are only temporary (5 and 6). Once they are finished, there is no need for the workers anymore. So, don't expect that unemployment rate to start dropping anytime soon.

Currently, Obama claims that 150,000 jobs have been created or saved... Well that's great, but how much money has it required to save or create those 150,000 jobs? So far, about about 6-9% of the money in the bill has been spent. That's 47-70 billion dollars. I'm not a mathematician either, but I think that my math is correct. Divide the $70 billion of the stimulus which has been spent by 150,000 jobs, and that's $466,667 per job! Even that number mocks the supposedly outrageous estimate by the Heritage Foundation that figured $223,000 of taxpayer money would be spent on every single job created (7). The worst part is that we, the American people, are paying the bill for all of this. And we don't even know where it's going or what is being done with all the money, because I'm guessing that they aren't actually paying $466,667 to those people with new jobs...

So where is the money really going (besides the turtle tunnels, of course)? Well, apparently most of it is going to the states that voted for Obama in 2008. As USA Today reports, "Counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration's $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain" (8 and 9). And another report says that states aren't even using the money as intended (though I wouldn't object to spending it on something other than turtles).

Here's the deal. The 787 BILLION dollar "stimulus" bill should never have been allowed to pass. Unfortunately, it was shoved through before anyone even had a chance to see where the money was going. This has resulted in billions of wasted taxpayer money and rewards for the people who voted Obama's ridiculous spending policies into office. All the while, unemployment has continued to skyrocket. America and its taxpayers are now buried under a massive amount of debt, and there is no way out. Until the people running this country realize that they can't spend their way out of a recession, there is no end in sight to the trouble they have gotten us into.

Sources:
1. http://blog.heritage.org/2009/07/08/morning-bell-the-obama-economy-is-failing
2. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Marks-100th-Day-of-Recovery-Act-with-Release-of-100-Days-100-Projects-Report/
3. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124680904844296383.html
4. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/22/AR2009062202000.html?hpid=topnews
5. http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=59af3ebd-7bf9-4933-8279-8091b533464f
6. http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/07/18m-being-spent-to-redesign-recoverygov-web-site.html
7. http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/13/sanford.economy/index.html
8. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-08-redblue_N.htm
9. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-07-07-stimulus_N.htm

ARC