Obama economic 'stimulus' cost jobs says his own council-Friday Holiday news dump

.
Given the most generous interpretation possible (his appointees), Obama's 'stimulus' has cost jobs. He could have given each alleged job winner a check for $100,000 and still had $427 billion taxpayer dollars left. Obama casually admitted his failure in joking jobs weren't "as shovel-ready as we expected."

7/3/11, "Obama’s Economists: ‘Stimulus’ Has Cost $278,000 per Job,'" Weekly Standard, Jeffrey H. Anderson

"The stimulus is now causing the economy to shed jobs."

"When the Obama administration releases a report on the Friday before a long weekend, it’s clearly not trying to draw attention to the report’s contents. Sure enough, the “Seventh Quarterly Report” on the economic impact of the “stimulus,” released on Friday, July 1, provides further evidence that President Obama’s economic “stimulus” did very little, if anything, to stimulate the economy,

• and a whole lot to stimulate the debt.

The report was written by the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors, a group of three economists who were all handpicked by Obama, and it chronicles the alleged success of the “stimulus” in adding or saving jobs. The council reports that, using “mainstream estimates of economic multipliers for the effects of fiscal stimulus” (which it describes as a “natural way to estimate the effects of” the legislation), the “stimulus” has added or saved just under 2.4 million jobs — whether private or public — at a cost (to date) of $666 billion. That’s a cost to taxpayers

• of $278,000 per job.

In other words, the government could simply have cut a $100,000 check to everyone whose employment was allegedly made possible by the “stimulus,” and

• taxpayers would have come out
  

• $427 billion ahead.

Furthermore, the council reports that, as of two quarters ago, the “stimulus” had added or saved just under 2.7 million jobs — or 288,000 more than it has now. In other words, over the past six months, the economy would have added or saved more jobs without the “stimulus” than it has with it. In comparison to how things would otherwise have been, the “stimulus” has been working in reverse

• over the past six months,
  

• causing the economy to shed jobs.

Again, this is the verdict of Obama’s own Council of Economic Advisors, which is about as much of a home-field ruling as anyone could ever ask for. In truth, it’s quite possible that by borrowing an amount greater than the regular defense budget or the annual cost of Medicare, and then spending it mostly on Democratic constituencies rather than in a manner genuinely designed to stimulate the economy, Obama’s “stimulus” has actually undermined the economy’s recovery — while leaving us (thus far)

• $666 billion deeper in debt.

The actual employment numbers from the administration’s own Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the unemployment rate was

• 7.3 percent when the “stimulus” was being debated.
  

• It has since risen to 9.1 percent.
  

Meanwhile, the national debt at the end of 2008, when Obama was poised to take office, was $9.986 trillion (see Table S-9).

• It’s now $14.467 trillion — and counting.

All sides agree on these incriminating numbers — and now they also appear to agree on this important point: The economy would now be generating job growth at a faster rate if the Democrats

• hadn’t passed the “stimulus.”"

---------------------------

7/3/11, "Down on the Fourth of July: the United States of gloom," UK Telegraph, Harnden

'To add insult to injury, at a recent gathering of his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, during a discussion about the length of time it took to get projects funded, a smiling Obama interjected: “Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected.” Members of the council sitting around him tittered but

• most Americans were not amused."...

---------------------------

Even the AP admits the bad news:

7/1/11, "The economic recovery turns 2: Feel better yet?" AP, News.com.au

"The jobs that are being created pay less than the ones that vanished in the recession. Higher-paying jobs in the private sector, the ones that pay roughly $19 to $31 an hour,

• made up 40 percent of the jobs lost from January 2008 to February 2010
  

• but only 27 percent of the jobs created since then."...

Obama has taken care of the richest Americans:

• AP: "The economy's meager gains are

• going mostly to the wealthiest.

Workers' wages and benefits make up 57.5 percent of the economy,

an all-time low. "...

------------------------------

7/3/11, "Down on the Fourth of July: the United States of gloom," UK Telegraph, Harnden

"A recent New York Times/CBS poll found that 39 per cent think that “the current economic downturn is part of a long-term permanent decline and

• the economy will never fully recover”.

That was up from 28 per cent last October. Last month, a CNN poll found that

48 per cent of Americans believe another Great Depression is somewhat
or very likely."...

• via Drudge Report

via Weasel Zippers