The Stimulus Spending Delusion
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The justification for passing the $787 billion Stimulus Bill in February 2009 was that it would create millions of jobs.
“The report confirms that our plan will likely save or create 3 to 4 million jobs” - Barack Obama, January 2009
The report which President Obama based his projections on and used as a justification for the Stimulus Spending was “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan” created by his Administration. The analysis was prepared by Christina Romer, the Chairwoman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, and was released on January 9, 2009.
On April 14, 2009, during a speech at Georgetown University, President Obama shared with the country that his stimulus package is beginning to "generate signs of economic progress."
The chart below was assembled using data from the President's report.
In reality the Stimulus Spending is having no such positive net effect. Only two quarters and a month’s worth of unemployment data has been released since the Stimulus was proposed and passed, but the reality of this data is sobering. Unemployment is dramatically outpacing the President’s worse-case scenario despite the fact that we passed the Stimulus Bill and are spending furiously. "With Recovery Plan" unemployment was projected to peak at 7.9%. In the three months since the Stimulus Plan was implemented unemployment has already exceeded 8.9%.
In only a few months it should be evident to all intellectually honest people that the Stimulus Bill was an ineffective, waste of money relative to the professed benefit of such spending. Taking into account that we will be in debt by an additional $787 billion, which will act to restrain future economic activity, and the Stimulus Bill may represent the most egregious waste of money in U.S. history.
The justification for passing the $787 billion Stimulus Bill in February 2009 was that it would create millions of jobs.
“The report confirms that our plan will likely save or create 3 to 4 million jobs” - Barack Obama, January 2009
The report which President Obama based his projections on and used as a justification for the Stimulus Spending was “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan” created by his Administration. The analysis was prepared by Christina Romer, the Chairwoman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, and was released on January 9, 2009.
On April 14, 2009, during a speech at Georgetown University, President Obama shared with the country that his stimulus package is beginning to "generate signs of economic progress."
The chart below was assembled using data from the President's report.
In reality the Stimulus Spending is having no such positive net effect. Only two quarters and a month’s worth of unemployment data has been released since the Stimulus was proposed and passed, but the reality of this data is sobering. Unemployment is dramatically outpacing the President’s worse-case scenario despite the fact that we passed the Stimulus Bill and are spending furiously. "With Recovery Plan" unemployment was projected to peak at 7.9%. In the three months since the Stimulus Plan was implemented unemployment has already exceeded 8.9%.
In only a few months it should be evident to all intellectually honest people that the Stimulus Bill was an ineffective, waste of money relative to the professed benefit of such spending. Taking into account that we will be in debt by an additional $787 billion, which will act to restrain future economic activity, and the Stimulus Bill may represent the most egregious waste of money in U.S. history.
Posted by Whitney Ross at 5/8/2009 9:09 AM 
Categories: Barack Obama, Definitive Charts, Market and Economic Predictions, Stimulus Spending Fraud, Blind Leading the Blind
Tags: Stimulus Bill Unemployment Affordable Mortgage Depression Stimulus Spending 3 to 4 million jobs
Categories: Barack Obama, Definitive Charts, Market and Economic Predictions, Stimulus Spending Fraud, Blind Leading the Blind
Tags: Stimulus Bill Unemployment Affordable Mortgage Depression Stimulus Spending 3 to 4 million jobs
Good compilation of data. But I do have a question: Where do you get your figures from. Not the "actual data", but the "without recovery" and "with recovery" numbers - the percentage numbers? I would assume this is publicly available somewhere, but I have not seen it before.
In any case, if these projections are true, it is unconscionable that the major media is not reporting on this.
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I created the chart using data from Table 1 and Figure 1 on page 4 of "The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Investment Plan". I had to estimate the "With" and "Without" data points to reproduce the graphs as they were not publically released other than for 4Q10. As such, the chart isn't an identical reproduction but a close approximation. I may be off by as much as 0.05% on a few of my estimates but believe that such errors are immaterial to the overall analysis.
A link to a picture of the original figure is included below:
http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r237/selmon/originalobamaplan-1.jpg
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