Ever since the Recovery Act passed last February, Congressional Republicans who opposed this economic rescue plan have had to do an awkward dance around the truth. After all, when you declare from the beginning that the Recovery Act won't create a single job, you're going to be forced to do a little two-step around the facts as week after week leading economists, the nation's governors, and even your own constituents say otherwise.
But yesterday, when Representative Boehner declared that "all this 'stimulus' spending has gotten us nowhere" on the same day the nonpartisan CBO said the program has created or saved as many as 3.3 million jobs nationwide and his own home state's Department of Transportation said nearly 9,500 construction workers were on the job in July just on Ohio Recovery Act transportation projects alone... well, let's just say that dance got a little more... awkward.
Now, Representative Boehner was one of the first to declare the Recovery Act dead on arrival -- the day it was signed into law, he declared it would "do little to create jobs." But as soon as June 2009, as funding for Recovery Act transportation projects began to flow into Ohio, he said those dollars would be used for -- get this -- "shovel-ready projects that will create much-needed jobs."
And then when the nonpartisan CBO, Congress's top watchdog and an institution widely respected on both sides of the aisle, began weighing in on the job impact of the Recovery Act, the dance got a little more complicated. Check out these quotes from Rep Boehner, followed by the facts:
And then, of course, yesterday was the most difficult dance step of all: on the very same day that he declares in a major speech that the Recovery Act has "gotten us nowhere," first,the nonpartisan CBO announces that the Recovery Act has created as many as 3.3 million jobs nationwide and lowered the unemployment rate by as much as 1.8 percent through March of this year, and then the Ohio Department of Transportation announces that nearly 9,500 construction workers were on the job on Ohio Recovery Act transportation projects in July, the highest monthly total since it began.
I suspect those nearly 9,500 Ohio construction workers and 3.3 million Americans at work thanks to the Recovery act would disagree with Rep. Boehner's statement that the Recovery Act has "gotten us nowhere."
And then to make his dance even more complicated, leading economist Mark Zandi said today that the Congressman from Ohio was "just wrong" that the Recovery Act has "gotten us nowhere:"
Asked about Rep. Boehner's claim that "all of this 'stimulus' spending has gotten us nowhere," Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics said "that is just wrong, the stimulus has been very helpful."
And let's keep in mind who we are talking about here. This is the same Republican leader that actually said he wanted all of those people to lose their jobs earlier this month when he called for stopping the Recovery Act - a claim that got him in some hot water with independent fact-checkers who rated his rhetoric flat-out false.
The true facts of the case are that this economy has undergone a major turnaround from the very deep recession that greeted President Obama when he took office, and the Recovery Act has been a major factor in that reversal. Yes, we've still got a long way to go, but we're moving in the right direction.
While it's bad enough that Rep Boehner refuses to accept these facts, what's worse is that he and his Republican colleagues have only one solution: a return to the same Bush economic policies that got us into this mess. As the head of their campaign committee, Rep. Pete Sessions, said, if they take control of Congress, they will go back to "the exact same agenda" they were pushing before President Obama took office.
Mr. Boehner and his colleagues may well be the only Americans nostalgic for the economic policies of the Bush era. But we can't go backwards. We need to recognize the positive impact of the Recovery Act and build on the momentum we've established.
Jared Bernstein is Deputy Assistant to the President on Economic Policy
This post originally appeared at the White House Recovery Act Blog.
In a recent speech to the National Association of Business Economics, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf confirmed this by stating:
[W]e don't think one can learn much from watching the evolution of particular components of GDP [gross domestic product] over the last few quarters about the effects of the stimulus … so we fall back on repeating the sort of analysis we did before. And we tried to be very explicit about it that it is essentially repeating the same exercise we did rather than an independent check on it.[1]
When asked if this means that any actual underperformance of the stimulus would fail to show up in the CBO's stimulus jobs count, Elmendorf replied "That's right." This means the 1.5 million jobs saved estimate was pre-determined.
Let me type is real slow for you so you can understand it - "Elmendorf has confirmed that the CBO's stimulus analysis consists of little more than re-releasing its pre-stimulus projections."
Nice attempt at your version of the "truth".
The reality is that we have had many jobs lost in the public sector (police, fireman, and teachers) in the last 18 months while the so called stimulus was in effect.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/01/09/bush-on-jobs-the-worst-track-record-on-record/
They had eight years to do literally everything they wanted, and all they accomplished was destroying the US economy and more than doubling the national debt AGAIN. Every time conservatives get in control of the White House, they run up the national debt.
What's amazing is how anyone could possibly look at anything conservatives say with any credibility. In the last 30+ years, they've been completely wrong on every economic prediction they've ever made.
Reagan did more damage to the US than three Soviet Unions could have done in 100 years.
President Clinton raised the top marginal income tax rate
for those making more that $250,000/yr. from 33% to 39%. It
even produced record budget surpluses.
You didn't get the surpluses JUST because of the income tax rate increase.
4th quarter of 2009: 5%
1st quarter of 2010: 3.7%
2nd quarter of 2010: 1.6% (revised downward from 2.4%)
Mr. Jared, I read your book and I understand that you are committed Keynesian. But you have to admit that the economy is coming off the sugar high of the stimulus and now it looks like job creation in the private sector has stalled. Creating public sector jobs won't do when they depend on tax revenue from the private sector to exist. Please, for the sake of the country, rethink your economic policy.
They have not learned from history at all.
Hoover's politics of not stimulating the economy was what made a recession become the Great Depression. The New Deal created a recovery. Granted, it was long-winded, but still, things improved after the New Deal was put in place.
You should check your history. The Republican Hoover led the way into the Depression. The Democrat FDR led the way out of it, slowly but steadily.
Good thing is that November is about 8 weeks away. All of those people can show how displeased they are with this Government.
But the administration's cowardice and pathetic lack of principled leadership are about to catch up with it.
The sad part is, it will likely ruin America for a very long time.
It's time to grow a pair.
Biden also promised earlier this year in hos typical bar room style boasting that we would add 500,000 jobs every month this summer and more in the fall.
Here is an eye dear since you advise Biden - get him to tell the truth.
Here is some truth Dude.. most of those jobs fell into two categories
1. unsustainable government jobs
2. unsustainable make-work construction jobs
Here is a more poignant realityy.. the GDP shrank from original projectiosn by over 50%
The housing market is in the toilet
Real unemployment is around 16-17% nationwide
Unemployment in the inner-city and amongst inner city youths is at record high numbers
The federal deficit is reaching record numbers
Businesses know that big tax increases are coming to pay for the mess that is Obamacare and are afraid to hire people even if they need them
Start to tax companies like Dell and Microsoft who export tech and support jobs to India. Call a help line to see what I am talking about.
over-aged
under-educated
(formerly) blue collar
(now) retired and on the dole
white
males
who make up the T-Party and the Republiklan Party:
THE SIMPLETONS
The MSM, Democratic leadership, the WH and President, have done our country a great disservice in not holding these liars accountable. They say things without fear of consequence, seemingly having impunity from punishment, and continue to lie to over and over again regardless of truth and facts, to fit that days narrative and little if anything is done to refute their baloney.
The republicans are saying some blatant crap served on a silver platter but no one really seems to want to be in the public's eye, connecting the dots, and showing everyone how really self-serving these liars really are, and it is unconscionable - That is other than Jon Stewart, Rachael Maddow and Keith Olbermann.
It is mind boggling beyond belief.
It almost appears inevitable that we are heading without fail to third world status, as there seems to be little in power fighting for democracy and We the People; I guess corporate America is in control, there is no other explanation - we've been bought and paid for.