For nearly eight years we heard the left scream, “Bush Lied!” over the decision to invade Iraq. One decision and the same refrain repeated over and over again. Where is the scrutiny of the truth police where President Obama is concerned?
In his State of the Union address he took the unprecedented step of calling out the Supreme Court and encouraging his minions to give that rebuke a standing ovation. Shameful. This is not to say that Obama cannot criticize other branches of government, but there is a time and a place. When Joe Wilson called out “LIAR!” during a previous speech by President Obama he was roundly criticized and rightly so. Not for the criticism, but for the time and the place. Joe Wilson called the president to apologize. Did Obama do the same?
The timing of the act was bad enough, but the accusation he made was not true, as Samuel Alito could be seen saying, if you can read lips. In the midst of his constitutional duty to report to Congress on the State of the Union, he uses a blatant lie to attack his guests. But that wasn’t all. His speech was sprinkled throughout with falsehoods, not least of which was his statement on jobs.
Counting the Uncountable
To try to put a positive spin on his porkulus bill, he had to make up a statistic that no reputable economist can endorse, “jobs saved”. In his State of the Union speech and on the Sunday morning talk show circuit, Obama and his team talked about 2 million jobs created or saved. But they weren’t all on the same page, some said 1.8 million, but regardless it is blatant dishonesty.
Jobs created is a real statistic. As a small business owner I can tell you that when you hire someone there are a number of government agencies that you have to report it to and you have a deadline in which to do so. There is also some paperwork involved when you eliminate a job. But I have never, never had to report to any agency when I thought about eliminating a job and then changed my mind. After all wouldn’t that be the definition of a job saved?
If I never thought about eliminating the position, then the job is not “saved” it just continues to exist. If I thought about eliminating the position and did so, it would not be a job “saved” it would be a job eliminated, no? So it is this two step process of thinking about the action and then not following through that could reasonably be thought of as a “job saved”. How do you measure that thought process? Hiring someone is an observable action. Eliminating a job is an observable action. Saving a job are two related thought processes not externally observable, they can only be “reported” by the decision maker and it cannot be independently verified. Is that the kind of statistic upon which you want your government to base billions of dollars in spending decision? The only added feature of Obamanomics is that some money changes hands. Money that comes from you, dear taxpayer, and goes to the businessman. Can you see why such a statistic is ridiculous?
Which One Is It Mr. President? Mr. Biden? Anyone?
Let’s pretend for a moment that “jobs saved” is a real statistic. If the president has a figure in his head of 2 million jobs created or saved, and for the aforementioned reasons the number of jobs created is a hard number reported to some agency, then the number of jobs saved should be a matter of simple math. 2 million minus the number of jobs actually created equals the number of jobs saved. So why not report it as such? 100,000 jobs created and 1.9 million jobs saved, for example. Why lump them together? Because when you lump them together its harder to tell how big of a lie the president is telling.
Stimulus recipients previously reported that they had directly “created or saved” 640,329 jobs by Sept. 30, but their filings were criticized after it emerged that some people had reported saving jobs when they had actually spent the money on pay raises or paying employees who were not in danger of being laid off.
In December, the White House Office of Management and Budget changed its guidance, telling recipients they should start counting every worker whose salary was funded with stimulus money, rather than guessing whether the jobs would have existed in the absence of the federal plan. Opponents of the program accused the administration of “moving the goal posts” to make the plan appear more successful. — Wall Street Journal, Latest Stimulus Report Fuels Jobs Pressure, Feb. 1 2010
So companies using stimulus money to give people raises was counted as jobs saved! We have 10%-17% of our workforce idled and taxpayers are being fleeced to give people raises and this administration is calling that successful policy. When do we start firing people in this administration? How about Janet Napolitano? How about Eric Holder? or are we saving their jobs too so that the numbers look good? The other reports are just as galling: $1000 purchase of a lawn mower is credited with saving jobs; using stimulus money to purchase boots with each boot (left and right) being counted as a job saved because someone had to make the boots; stimulus money going to create jobs in Congressional districts that do not exist. Does anyone have any confidence that this administration has a clue about how to run a government? This is beyond embarrassing.
The Next Stimulus
But fear not, since the first stimulus was so successful, President Obama is teeing up the next one, but don’t worry this one is only $100 billion. Doesn’t that just make you feel warm all over?
