Free Republic

So many billions out the door — and nary a clue about what Americans got in return. That’s the tragic-but-too-true story of last February’s $787 billion federal stimulus program — the first major legislative package out of Washington after the Democrats took control of the city. What a monumental waste. The Obama folks claim that, as of Oct. 30, stimulus funds “created or saved” 640,329 jobs. They might as well claim 640 billion. The truth? No one really knows if the package “created or saved” any jobs. And that’s now crystal clear, after reporters checked out the Obama team’s claims.

Financial And Economic Situation Could Get Ugly Fast Economics / Economic Stimulus Nov 21, 2009 - 03:27 AM By: Mike_Whitney Things could get ugly fast. With the Democrats backing-off on a second round of stimulus, the Fed signaling an end to quantitative easing, and Obama moaning about rising deficits; there's a good chance that the stumbling recovery could turn into another sharp plunge. Bank lending is shrinking, consumers spending is off, housing prices are falling, unemployment is soaring and the wholesale credit markets are in a shambles. This isn't the time to slash government support in the name of "fiscal...

[V]oters have consistently believed that tax cuts would do more than increased government spending to stimulate the economy and create jobs. Now that the nation’s unemployment rate has reached 10.2%, voters continue to hold that view. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 62% believe tax cuts are a better way to create jobs and fight unemployment. Only 21% believe that additional stimulus spending is a more effective tool. Earlier this year, as the first stimulus package was being debated in Congress, 62% of voters wanted the plan to have more tax cuts and less spending. Given a...

President Obama and his flacks constantly have claimed that the government's $787 billion stimulus package has created or saved hundreds of thousands of jobs. The numbers don't back up the claim. In fact, the numbers don't clarify anything. For example, on Oct. 30, Mr. Obama claimed the massive government spending program had already created or saved 640,239 jobs. California supposedly saved the most jobs, with 110,185 rescued workers. But this job "creation" involves some very creative accounting. The 110,185 number does not reflect new jobs or even jobs that likely would have been lost, according to the Sacramento Bee. About...

One of the strongest factors promoting recovery from our 10 post-World War II recessions was an unshakable conviction that, regardless of the immediate trouble, the American economy is fundamentally strong. Based on this underlying confidence, recessions and recoveries roughly conformed to the principle of the bigger the bust, the bigger the boom, and vice versa. Thus real growth in the four quarters following postwar recessions averaged 6.6% and 4.3% over the following five years. As the chief economist for Barclays, Dean Maki, said in this newspaper on Aug. 19, "You can't find a single deep recession that has been followed...

Let me get this straight. Obama insisted that we immediately mortgage unborn generations lives to squander trillions of dollars on misbegotten bills which no one had a chance to read in order to enact stimulus programs and socialist interventionist programs not scheduled to fully fund until the next presidential campaign for the sake of corrupt businesses which he and his tax-cheating minions insist are "too big to fail" (or file bankruptcy) and because "we cannot afford to do nothing." And yet he has all the time in the world to decide whether or not to issue an order to man-up...

As experts debate the potential speed of the US recovery, one figure looms large but is often overlooked: nearly 1 in 5 Americans is either out of work or under-employed. According to the government's broadest measure of unemployment, some 17.5 percent are either without a job entirely or underemployed. The so-called U-6 number is at the highest rate since becoming an official labor statistic in 1994. The number dwarfs the statistic most people pay attention to-the U-3 rate-which most recently showed unemployment at 10.2 percent for March, the highest it has been since June 1983. The difference is that what...

Echoing comments made by a Democratic lawmaker Wednesday night, two Republican members of the Joint Economic Committee today called for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to resign.

Comments by Rep. Tom McClintock: November 19, 2009 11:10 AM House Chamber Remarks, Washington D.C. M. Speaker: The unfolding scandal of phony or inflated job claims from the so-called stimulus bill should shock the conscience of the nation and permanently stain the reputation of the 111th Congress and this president. But it gets even worse if we take them at their word. As of this morning, the administration claims that in my 4th Congressional District of California, the brain trust at the Treasury Department has spent $182 million to save or create all of 168 jobs. That’s $1.1 million per...

Birds are singing, the sun is shining and life is beautiful again. On the surface, the vital signs of our economy are improving with every economic report. In some areas, like unemployment, the rate of decline is decelerating; in others, like GDP, decline is turning into growth. The stock market is behaving as if the history of the last twenty years is about to repeat itself: recession will turn into a robust expansion. Stock prices are discounting an expectation of robust earnings recovery to a level only slightly below the pre-financial crisis level, and risk taking is in vogue again...

Colorado has received millions in stimulus funding for projects in the 8th, 24th, 45th and 64th congressional districts, according to a federal website tracking the money. But the state has only seven districts. It turns out that the misclassifications were the result of mistakes, faulty interpretations and even guesses born of frustration with the stimulus-reporting software, said recipients of the money who were responsible for reporting to the federal government where it was spent. By late Wednesday, all of the payments to nonexistent congressional districts had been removed from the website, lumped together and labeled as "unassigned." It's the latest...

American Voters have an idea about how to save jobs, especially Congressional Jobs. According to the latest report from Rasmussen voters believe that to create Jobs, cut taxes and stop spending. Lets face it, it worked when Reagan did it, it worked when JFK did it. 62% of all voters believe tax cuts will "save and create" Job. Only 21% believe that a new porkulus plan will be more effective. This number is exactly the same as it was when the first stimulus package was being debated in Congress, 62% of voters wanted the plan to have more tax cuts...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- So just how many jobs has the $787 billion stimulus package created or saved? A new government report raises a new round of questions on the Obama administration's figure of 640,000 jobs, saying there are many concerns surrounding the data recipients reported.

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- AOL may lay off a third of its staff as part of a restructuring related to the company's upcoming spin-off from Time Warner Inc., the unit told regulators Thursday. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, AOL said it had informed employees of the layoffs, which are conditioned upon its successful spin-off from Time Warner (TWX 31.86, -0.96, -2.93%) . The transaction is slated for Dec. 9. AOL told employees it has announced a voluntary layoff program that starts Dec. 4 and goes through Dec. 11. The company is offering buyouts to as many as...

Those who know stats of the US job market are aware of the bitter fact that during the eight years of President George W. Bush, the economy gained only 2.58 million jobs... But a new complimentary way of counting jobs shows, that during President Bush’s tenure, the economy actually gained 12.9 million jobs, which GWB says is the credit of his tax cuts. The new model was designed by Chicago economist Barack H. Obama who calls his new system “Jobs Saved or Created.” This model calculates minimum x5 to the positive side the numbers produced by the Bureau of Labor...

Vast Errors in Reporting Jobs Data Leave Lawmakers Angry at Recovery.gov Numbers Leading members of Congress from both parties are promising increased scrutiny of the Obama administration's data on job creation, amid widespread errors in official stimulus data reported by the federal government. A raft of reports of questionable or downright faulty jobs numbers -- including many uncovered by ABC News that show dozens of jobs created and millions of dollars spent in congressional districts that don't exist -- has cast a harsh spotlight on the jobs claims connected to the $787 billion stimulus package. The Obama administration stands by...

AARP, which has given its full-throated support to Democratic health care legislation even though seniors remain largely opposed, received an $18 million grant in the economic stimulus package for a job training program that has not created any jobs, according to the Obama administration's Recovery.gov website. The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), according to the website, is "a work training program for unemployed mature workers who are 55+ and are at or below 125% of the poverty guidelines." So far, $6.5 million has been spent on the program, and it has not reported creating any jobs. In February, the...

The Effectiveness Of Fiscal And Monetary Stimulus In Depressions Miguel Almunia Agustín S. Bénétrix Barry Eichengreen Kevin H. O’Rourke Gisela Rua 18 November 2009 There is one important source of information on the effectiveness of monetary and fiscal stimulus in an environment of near-zero interest rates, dysfunctional banking systems and heightened risk aversion that has not been fully exploited: the 1930s. This column gathers data on growth, budgets and central bank policy rates for 27 countries covering the period 1925-39 and shows that where fiscal policy was tried, it was effective. The debate over the effectiveness of stimulus rages on...

Minnesota's 27th Congressional District has snared just over $3 million in federal stimulus money, five times as much as the 57th District has gotten. One problem: Neither district exists -- except on Recovery.gov, the Obama administration's website that tracks the flow of stimulus cash. Beyond Minnesota's eight actual congressional districts, which have gotten the lion's share of the money, the website list 11 phantom districts that supposedly have been awarded more than $7 million in grants.

More stimulus stupidity from our wizards at the Obama administration. This stuff would be laughable if it weren't true. According to the government's $84 million website, Recovery.gov, IF you can believe their numbers, the federal government gave just under $2.3 billion (Reminder: This is with borrowed money that the government doesn't have) to the 4th congressional district in Washington state that supposedly created 1,487.10 jobs.

Dear Lloyd Blankfein: You know it, don’t you? You know that it doesn’t matter. You can’t win. You could shed tears in an hour-long mea culpa on Oprah! You could pay yourself no more than one dollar for the next ten years. You could pledge $5 billion to a hundred of Barney Frank’s favorite charities. meanstreet And it still wouldn’t matter. The public anger towards Goldman is just too hardened. In an economy full of losers, everyone is fixated on hating the winner. And that kind of hate doesn’t just go away. It takes time to dissipate. And, unfortunately, the...

John Stossel debunks the bogus job "creation" numbers. Explaining how government does not create real wealth and they discuss another stimulus.

The chief federal oversight official for the stimulus program said in a letter Wednesday that he can’t certify whether the number of jobs “created or saved” by stimulus funds is accurate. Recovery Board Chairman Earl Devaney was responding to a request for information by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In a letter to Issa dated Nov. 17, Devaney wrote, “Your letter specifically asks if I am able to certify that the number of jobs reported as created/saved on Recovery.gov is accurate and auditable. No, I am not able to...

On November 11, I wrote of the statements that Charlie Crist made denying that he ever supported Obama's $787 billion stimulus bill in his role as Florida's Governor. Unfortunately for his obfuscation, though, I noted that he and 17 other governors signed a letter in February of this year announcing support for the Stimulus. Apparently Crist forgot that he signed this letter... conveniently. Yes, he was for the porkulus bill before he was against it. Well now there is even more proof than that mere signature on a piece of paper showing Charlie's support for the porkulus bill. From Ed...

The Economy: We knew something was funny when the White House claimed that 640,000 to 1 million jobs had been created from this year's stimulus. What we didn't know was that it would turn into a massive fraud. Not only have 640,000 new jobs not been created from the stimulus - an absurd claim, given the economy's loss of nearly 4 million payroll positions this year - but it now seems that even the jobs themselves are fictional. Thanks to the digging of a number of data sleuths, it turns out that many of the jobs reported by states come...

Even the government-controlled media has had to take note of the wildly inaccurate numbers on the government's recovery.gov web site, and the stunning incompetence of listing tens of millions of dollars of stimulus as being spent in congressional districts that do not exist. Even Democrats are calling it sloppy and unacceptable. I'd suggest that it's worse than that, even. It's a small window into what Obama thinks of you. He holds those who distrust him and his policies in utter contempt and he doesn't feel accountable to those people at all. But possibly his greatest contempt is reserved for those...

But many of the ideas on the table so far are extensions of last February's $787 billion economic stimulus package -- such as unemployment benefits and subsidies to help the jobless pay for health insurance. They maintain the social safety net for the 15.7 million Americans out of work but they don't directly create new jobs. "I wouldn't characterize it as a second stimulus," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday. "I don't want to be as broad as that, I want it to be very targeted on jobs." House Democrats debated ways to address job creation at a caucus...

Since President Obama took office, the American people have been subjected to an aggressive propaganda campaign designed to convince them that the $787 billion stimulus bill is working. Month after month, as unemployment continues to rise, the administration has sent its spinmeisters out to trumpet an altogether dubious number of jobs "created or saved." Vice President Biden -- the man appointed by the president to oversee the recovery effort -- has shamelessly continued to claim credit for as many as one million jobs that the administration argues the stimulus has "created or saved." Meanwhile, unemployment hit the highest point in...

Keeping track of Obama's phony "Stimulus" jobs "created or saved," is getting more difficult by the day, especially since there is no recognized method of measuring "saved" jobs. It has never been a valid statistic, but the administration finds it convenient to use this imaginary statistic to pump up their failed stimulus plan.

U.S. House plans jobs bill before year end....

(snip) Dickinson posted the transcript of that question and answer yesterday at Rolling Stone: Rolling Stone: Just a final question: Had you been in the Senate, would you have voted with the other Republicans for the stimulus package? Crist: Absolutely. (snip)

I don't know what's loonier about this ABC report by Jonathan Karl; the idea that the federal government doesn't know much about itself or that some people who got this stim money are really, really stupid:

PHOENIX - Congressman John Shadegg is calling out Recovery.org. The website explains where stimulus money has been allocated to and how it is helping the economy to rebound. "Somebody is incompetent at best and deceitful at worst," Shadegg said. Shadegg blasted the site for what he says is presenting false information. According to the site more than 30 jobs have been saved or created with stimulus money in Arizona's ninth congressional district. Problem is, there is no ninth congressional district in Arizona. "This is a government-funded website to which the congress just appropriated $18 million to tell the American people...

Why did the unemployment rate rise so rapidly -- from 7.2 per cent in January to 10.2 percent in October? It was clearly the administration's "stimulus" bill -- which in February provided $40 billion to greatly extend jobless benefits at no cost to the states. As Larry Summers, the president's top assistant for economic policy, noted in July, "the unemployment rate over the recession has risen about 1 to 1.5 percentage points more than would normally be attributable to the contraction in GDP." And the rate has moved nearly a percentage point higher since then, even though GDP increased. Countries...

Report: More Americans going hungryBy Amy Goldstein Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, November 16, 2009; 3:14 PM The number of Americans who lack dependable access to adequate food shot up last year to 49 million, the largest number since the government has been keeping track, according to a federal report released Monday that shows particularly steep increases in food scarcity among families with children. In 2008, the report found, nearly 17 million children -- more than one in five across the United States -- were living in households in which food at times ran short, up from slightly more than...

Would The U.S. Start A War To Stimulate The Economy? Politics / US Politics Nov 16, 2009 - 08:08 AM By: Washingtons_Blog I've written two essays attempting to disprove "military Keynesianism" - the idea that military spending is the best stimulus. See this and this. In response, a reader challenged me to prove that anyone would advocate military spending or war as a fiscal stimulus. In fact, the concept of military Keynesianism is so widespread that there are some half million web pages discussing the topic. And many leading economists and political pundits sing its praises. For example, Martin Feldstein...

Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 9th Congressional District, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the website set up by the Obama Administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says. There's one problem, though: There is no 9th Congressional District in Arizona; the state has only eight Congressional Districts. There's no 86th Congressional District in Arizona either, but the government's recovery.gov Web site says $34 million in stimulus money has been spent there.

Second U.S. Economic Stimulus Package Headed Our Way? Economics / Economic Stimulus Nov 16, 2009 - 02:37 PM By: Money_Morning Jon D. Markman writes: Is the recent market softness something to be worried about? Not if U.S. President Barack Obama & Co. comes through with a second stimulus package – as I’m expecting. Let me explain … There are a few reasons to suspect that the softness we’ve been seeing will continue for a week or so. Small-cap stocks – which continue to drag along like road kill caught on the rear bumper of the market – are our main...

When President Obama started backpedaling on the number of Jobs his economic stimulus would create he started using the bogus term "Saved or created." This is how William McGurn described the term for the Wall Street Journal: "To begin with, the number is pure fiction -- the administration has no way to measure how many jobs are actually being 'saved.' And if we had tried to use something this flimsy, the press would never have let us get away with it." “How do you know what a saved job is? How do you know what jobs would have been lost...

More than ten percent of the jobs the Obama administration has claimed were "created or saved" by the $787 billion stimulus package are doubtful or imaginary, according to reports compiled from eleven major newspapers and the Associated Press.

The Obama administration, under fire for inflating job growth from the $787 billion stimulus plan, slashed over 60,000 jobs from its most recent report on the program because the reporting outlets had submitted "unrealistic data," according to a document obtained by ABC News. The Office of Management and Budget document shows that before an Oct. 30 progress report on the program the administration asked the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board to remove information from 12 stimulus recipients that contained "unrealistic data," including "unrealistic job data." One recipient – Talladega County of Alabama – claimed that 5,000 jobs had been saved...

The Obama administration, under fire for inflating job growth from the $787 billion stimulus plan, slashed over 60,000 jobs from its most recent report on the program because the reporting outlets had submitted "unrealistic data," according to a document obtained by ABC News. The Office of Management and Budget document shows that before an Oct. 30 progress report on the program the administration asked the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board to remove information from 12 stimulus recipients that contained "unrealistic data," including "unrealistic job data." One recipient, Talladega County of Alabama, claimed that 5,000 jobs had been saved or created...

DETROIT - An analysis by The Detroit Free Press has found that most of the federal stimulus funding that's reached Michigan has created few private-sector jobs. The Free Press examined more than 1,800 awards to agencies, departments, municipalities and firms in Michigan under the stimulus act. It found that the biggest impact was spurring or protecting public-sector or summer jobs-not private-sector jobs. Of the 22,513 stimulus jobs reported in Michigan, 13,555 were tied to state money for education, doled out to local school districts. The Free Press also reported Sunday that its analysis shows that some recipients of the stimulus...

You know the old saying "while the cat's away, the mice will play." With Obama safely bowing his way through Asia, Sheriff Joe Biden sneaks into the Oval Office and plans to fix all Barack's problems. I saw this Saturday Night Live opener last night and thought there were parts that were very funny. The end tends to fall a bit flat but the Biden commentary on the "stimulus is working," and "we're going to cave like crazy on health care," make this clip worth a watch.

Of the $1 billion in clean-energy stimulus money spent since the beginning of September, $850 million has gone to foreign wind companies. It doesn't take a bunch of experts at a hastily planned "jobs summit" to discover this isn't the way to bolster employment in America. Indeed, the 11 U.S. wind farms that received stimulus money from the Treasury have imported 695 of the 982 wind turbines to be installed, creating 4,500 jobs overseas. That's far more overseas work than the stimulus money has created in the United States.

Barack Obama is going to change the United States...one condom at a time. These real condoms wrapped up in Obama endorsed packaging will have everyone longing for some stimulus. You can either buy them separately or in packs of 3. The condoms inside are Durex brand latex condoms. These Obama Condoms are the ultimate stimulus package!

Originally, President Obama promised the $787 billion Stimulus Act would save or create 3.5 million jobs. As of today, recovery.gov has posted that 640,329 jobs were saved or created. However, yesterday, President Obama referenced a much larger number:

Where You Find Inflation In A Deflationary World By Rocky Vega 11/13/09 Oslo, Norway – Deflation or inflation? It’s the ongoing debate that Dr. Duru tackles in tracking creeping inflation throughout the economy. Sure, deflationary fears have been stoked by credit destruction, but he believes quantitative easing and stimulus are causing inflation to rear its ugly head, “here and there.” And far beyond “here and there,” his biggest concern is of inflation “here, there and everywhere.” He cites Bill Fleckenstein to explain… “[I]n a period where fears of deflation rage and too much capacity exists for so many products, it...

Christmas classics are getting stale, so we've put a call out to readers to send us their original holiday tunes. Here are a few of our favorite festive entries. Keep checking back daily for a new song to get you into the holiday spirit.

When the military trains its pilots, the trainers have observed a phenomenon called "I got it-itis" (pronounced I-got-it-eye-tis, sort of like appendicitis) that sometimes afflicts very confident newbies. Most of the training jets are two-seaters, with the newbie up front and the trainer in the back, and a joint control that allows the trainee to fly it but allows the trainer to take over just by grabbing his end of the stick. "I got it-itis" occurs when the instructor on a training flight orders the trainee, for example, to dive for the ground and then level off at the tree-tops....