Americans haven’t gotten much return on the $862 billion so-called “stimulus” that Democrats in Congress passed early last year.
Unemployment is 9.7 percent — far higher than the 8 percent maximum the Obama administration promised if the stimulus was enacted. The president’s claim that 90 percent of the jobs “created or saved” would be in the private sector was wildly inaccurate. Plus, claims about many of the jobs that supposedly have been “created or saved” were exaggerated or have been debunked outright. The main things “stimulated” have been government jobs and bureaucracy — and our country’s $12.8 trillion debt.
But now, 13 Senate Democrats say Congress needs to pass an additional “stimulus” — this one for $23 billion — to prevent layoffs in public schools around the nation once the “old” stimulus dollars they’re already getting run out.
No one likes the prospect of some school staff being laid off. But it would be even worse to add $23 billion more to our catastrophic national debt.
Millions of private-sector workers have lost their jobs in this recession. Surely no one would say it is better for a child’s parent to lose his or her private-sector job than for a staff member at the child’s school to be laid off — though both possibilities are highly undesirable.
For all that some state and local governments have been tightening their belts (even while Washington has continued its big-spending ways), families and businesses have been suffering even more. They ought not to be punished with a still higher national debt that will cripple hopes for economic recovery and job growth.