As FDR Tinkered with the Economy, the Depression Dragged On for Years

As pointed out in a previous post, the Department of Labor does not and cannot count the number of jobs that have been saved by any action or policy.  But that doesn’t stop the svengali of spin Barack Obama:

“Now I know that there are some who {THERE’S THE STRAWMAN – notation mine}, despite all evidence to the contrary, still don’t believe in the necessity and promise of the recovery act,” Mr. Obama said, “and I would suggest to them that they talk to the companies who, because of this plan, scrapped the idea of laying off employees and in fact decided to hire employees. Tell that to the Americans who receive that unexpected call saying, ‘Come back to work.’ “ — NY Times June 9, 2009

He knows he is spending an enormous amount of money, it is having little effect, and people are beginning to notice.  Only about 10% of the money has been spent, unemployment continues to rise, interest rates are starting to climb due to the massive borrowing by the federal government, so what’s the President to do?  Go back on the campaign trail and once again convince the American people he is someone he is not.  An inexperienced executive, who wants government to tighten its grip on our lives and squeeze out the last drops of our liberty.

“The president’s top aides spent the weekend trying to tamp down expectations that the unemployment rate would turn around anytime soon. One adviser, Austan Goolsbee, told Fox News the nation was in for “a rough patch,” a phrase often invoked by Mr. Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush” — NY Times, June 9, 2009

Tamp down expectations?  Wait a minute.  Wasn’t this the stimulus package that had to be past immediately?  Wasn’t this the plan that no one in Congress had time to read before voting on it?  Wasn’t this the plan that Congress had to sign immediately or catastrophe would result, but President Obama could wait four days to sign so that the photo op could be set up and the teleprompters put in place?  Now his aides are telling us it’s not going to work as they told us?  I’m shocked, shocked!

“The Obama administration is continuing to fabricate job creation numbers related to the stimulus,” Tony Fratto, a deputy press secretary in the Bush administration, said in an e-mail message to reporters. He added, “Their so-called models would not stand the light of day.”

The administration maintains that 150,000 jobs were either created or saved in the first 100 days after Mr. Obama signed the stimulus bill on Feb. 17. The 600,000 figure the president discussed Monday is not new; it was made public by Mr. Biden on May 13. It includes 125,000 part-time summer jobs for teenagers, which the administration counts as 62,500 full-time job equivalents.

Created or Saved?

Well which is it, were jobs created or saved?  Created jobs are counted by the Department of Labor.  As a small business owner, I know the paperwork that has to be prepared when you add a new employee: W-4, W-9, state filings,etc.  However, if I am a business owner and I am thinking about laying people off and I change my mind, where is that reported?  If I want to know that, President Obama tells me to go take a private poll of companies and ask them if they changed their minds. ARE WE SUPPOSED TO FALL FOR THIS?

So while the economy sheds hundreds of thousands of jobs, he tells us don’t worry, his plan is adding 125,000 part time summer jobs for teenagers.  Have you gotten the hope and change you voted for?

Obama's Sales Pitch for the Stimulus Bill

The latest unemployment numbers are in and you can forgive the fervent Obama supporters for having buyer’s remorse. The main stream media, that he holds in the palm of his hand, is playing down the darkening employment picture, focusing instead on the silver lining that it’s getting worse at a slower rate.  The jobless rate hit the highest level it has been since February 1983, hitting 9.4%.  The good news is that we only lost 345,000 jobs last month.  Here is how the spin-master puts lipstick on this pig, or should I say, pork?

“In these last few months, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has saved or created nearly 150,000 jobs,” Obama said, touting spending on alternative energy, keeping teachers and police officers in work and small businesses. — Las Vegas, May 27, 2009

There is one small problem with this statement as pointed out by Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal

As my former White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto points out on his blog, the Labor Department does not and cannot collect data on “jobs saved.” So the Obama administration is asking that we accept its “clairvoyant ability to estimate,” and the White House press corps has let Mr. Obama’s ludicrous claim go virtually unchallenged.

So if the Labor Department, the keeper of the unemployment statistics, cannot collect data on jobs saved, where does President Obama get his figure that he saved 150,000 jobs?  We can only assume it is an outright fabrication, unless he can tell us otherwise.  Will we start hearing a chant “Obama lied, our future died”? Not likely from the obsequious press.

Buyer’s Remorse

In pressing for his pork filled stimulus package, Obama insisted that it was necessary, it was needed immediately, if not sooner, and if we didn’t do it, it would turn crisis into catastrophe.  I direct your attention to the graph above.  This graph was included in the stimulus package to point out that in the absence of the stimulus package the unemployment rate would rise to 9% by the middle of 2010.  However, get behind the stimulus plan and voila, the unemployment will top out at a mere 8% in the third quarter of 2009 and you get all of this for a mere $787 billion.

As conservatives pointed out at the time this made no sense, since the bulk of the stimulus spending, chock full of pork, would not be spent until 2011 and beyond.  As of today, less than 10% of the money has been spent, and the unemployment rate has past both the peak Obama sold to the American people, as well as what he predicted would happen without the stimulus.

Of course the statists will roll out their tired old argument that it wasn’t enough.  With every government program that fails they always tell us we didn’t spend enough…if we only spent enough…

Look back to February 1983, the last time the unemployment rate was this high, and what we see is Ronald Reagan in charge.  His solution was to cut taxes, cut spending, and reduce the size of government.  Today, President Obama’s plan is just the opposite.  It is to raise taxes on the most productive among us, spend our money like it has never been spent before, grow government without bound, and lay the burden of paying for it on generations to come.  We do know this, Reagan’s plan worked, ushering in the longest peacetime expansion in history.  Are we to believe that doing the exact opposite will also work, or work even better?

The slowing of the job losses and the advance of the stock market foretell that our economy is starting to turn of its own accord, as little of the stimulus has taken effect.  Conservatives said to get out of the way, reduce the tax burden and the economy will recover on its own.  The statists said no, now is the time to advance our agenda and our power grab.  Take advantage of the crisis.

Interest rates are starting to climb as massive government borrowing crowds out private borrowing.  The flooding of dollars into the economy is starting trigger inflation as can be seen in the increase in oil prices.  With Reagan, the best was yet to come, since Obama has chosen the exact opposite path, we can only fear for the future, when his programs take full effect.  As can be seen by the chart above, their plan is already way off course and with the massive inexperience of Obama and his team, how much confidence do you have that they can find their way back?