As the first anniversary of the massively expensive federal “stimulus” approached on Wednesday, members of the Obama administration fanned out across the country for what looked like a “victory lap,” touting the supposed success of the stimulus.
In Michigan, where unemployment is about 15 percent, Vice President Joe Biden boasted that the stimulus had pumped nearly $11 billion into the state’s economy.
“It’s gonna take us a while to get us out of this ditch, but it’s working. It’s working,” he said.
Well, decide for yourself:
* President Barack Obama said nationwide unemployment would stay under 8 percent if Congress passed the stimulus. On an almost party-line vote, Democrats muscled the bill through Congress, and today unemployment is nearly 10 percent.
* The original price tag of the stimulus was $787 billion. But last month, the Congressional Budget Office said rising spending on government programs had pushed the actual cost $75 billion higher, to $862 billion.
* The president said 90 percent of the jobs “created or saved” by the stimulus would be in the private sector. Instead, the stimulus is propping up government bureaucracy, and the administration’s claims of real job creation have been debunked. Just one example: A Kentucky shoe store owner provided nine pairs of shoes bought with stimulus funds to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — and claimed to have created nine jobs.
* Lots of the stimulus money that was supposed to create U.S. jobs in the “green energy” industry has instead gone to foreign energy companies, while lack of domestic demand for costly alternative energy has led to thousands of job losses in the United States.
* The stimulus added to our appalling national debt, which is approaching $14.3 trillion.
The record of the stimulus, which most Americans sensibly oppose, is cause for regret, not celebration.