Obama Stimulus Turns Three: What Has It Achieved?

Obama Stimulus Turns Three: What Has It Achieved?
By JOHN MERLINE, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 02/17/2012 03:25 PM ET

Without any fanfare whatsoever from the White House, February 17 marks the three-year anniversary of the day President Obama signed the much ballyhooed stimulus into law.

At the time, Obama claimed that it would "create or save" up to 3.5 million jobs, and that "a new wave of innovation, activity and construction will be unleashed across America." The stimulus, would, he promised ""ignite spending by businesses and consumers" and bring "real and lasting change for generations to come."

So three years later, how do the stimulus results stack up? Here's where various indicators stood in or around February 2009, and where they stand today.

Unemployment rate: The jobless rate is unchanged from February 2009 to January 2012, the latest month for which we have data. Both stood at 8.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Obama's economists had initially predicted that with the stimulus, unemployment would stay below 8%.

Number of long-term unemployed: The number of workers who have been unable to find a job in 27 months or more has shot up 83%, with their ranks now at 5.5 million.

Civilian labor force: It has shrunk by 126,000. In past recoveries, the labor force climbed an average of more than 3 million over comparable time periods.

Labor force participation: The share of adults in the labor force — either looking or working — has dropped 3% — also highly unusual in a recovery. At 63.7%, labor force participation is at a low not seen since the middle of the very deep 1981-82 recession, when fewer women were in the work force. A lower participation rate makes the unemployment rate look better.

Household income: Median annual household income is about 7% below where it was in February 2009, according to the Sentier Research Household Income Index.

National debt: Up $4.5 trillion, or 41%, according to the Treasury Department's monthly reports. The latest Treasury figures put the national debt at $15.4 trillion, larger than the entire U.S. economy.

Deficits: The deficit for fiscal year 2009 totaled $1.4 trillion. The Obama administration's proposed deficit for 2012 is $1.3 trillion, which would mark the fourth year of deficits topping $1 trillion.

Gross Domestic Product: Real GDP has climbed just 6% between Q1 2009 and Q4 2011, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Spending by consumers and businesses: Personal consumption has managed to climb 10% in the past three years, according to the BEA, but companies continue to hoard cash, with cash on hand up 27% since Q1 2009, according to the Federal Reserve Bank.

Stimulus price tag: The original estimate for the cost of the stimulus was $787 billion. Now the Congressional Budget Office says that, when all is said and done, it will have cost $825 billion.

Perhaps the best measure of the success or failure of the stimulus, however, is the fact that President Obama in his latest budget plan has called for still another round of stimulus spending, this time totaling $350 billion over the next four years, for what is labeled "short-term measures for jobs growth."

http://news.investors.com/article/601526/201202171525/obama-economic-stimulus-turns-three.htm

 

First google:

Many Americans don’t let truth get in the way of a good story. They cling to silly political myths despite overwhelming evidence: The president isn’t a U.S. citizen. He’s a Muslim. Death panels will put grandmothers to death. And, the stimulus and Troubled Asset Relief Program were failures.

A new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 1.4 million to 3.6 million people currently employed owe their jobs to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus plan.

Not bad for a program labeled a political catastrophe, huh?

This stunning arithmetic — when paired with the CBO prediction that, worst-case scenario, the Troubled Asset Relief Program will cost only $25 billion — debunks popular fantasy: that the money was wasted.

In addition to saving and creating jobs, the stimulus fattened existing paychecks — increasing hours worked at a time when many workers’ hours could have dwindled. Without stimulus money, the CBO says, many full-time employees would have been reduced to part-time, and fewer would have worked overtime.

Critics call the stimulus plan a failure because the administration predicted the $800 billion would keep unemployment from rising above 9 percent. That, of course, was wrong. But economists now estimate that without the stimulus, unemployment — which last month stood at 9.6 percent — would be at least 12 percent. Stimulus money saved GM and Chrysler and the jobs of construction workers, teachers, police officers and firefighters.

Economists Mark Zandi and Alan Blinder say that without the stimulus and bailouts, unemployment could have risen to as high as 25 percent.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2010/12/stimulus_funds_tarp_helped_sav.html

Now you can go ahead with your premise. But, just because the right keeps repeating things over and over, doesn't make them, well, right or even factual.

As I said, just a start, I'm sure there will be more.

And, I wish he would have done more with infrastructure repair, railway, and all the rest, and that's why I'm not real happy with him either.


c

 

The stimulus was just a giant payoff to Obama donors and other cronies of the administration. This has been proven by many reports and analysis.

For the rest of us: Another Day Older And Deeper In Debt

 

Oh come on, I expected more from you on this. I just presented a few fact, and even explained that I'm not too happy with Obama. Anyway, I like GM being in business, I own a few classics.



c

 

Obama is
1) not American
2) Muslim
3) anti-Israel
4) useless
5) a terrorist-lover

Obama should be caged in Guantanemo for 10 years and then shipped back to Africa.

 

Get off your high horse, c. We all know what Obama did with the stimulus money. It pretty much went to his donors like the Solyndra people, et al. Where's the infrastruction that was promised with the over $800 billion dollars Obama spent?

All he did was pay off his cronies and give the American people the shaft and you know it.

 

americanhero is

1)NOT American
2)NOT a hero
3)NOT intelligent
4) very gay
5)NOT old enough to shave

americahero should be beaten with a rubber hose until he begs for his mother.

 

I said I wished he would have done more, and he may in the next 4 years, unless someone replaces the current crop of GOP candidates.

Cronies? Not so much, pretty much just rhetoric, I checked a few times for solid proof of anything out of the ordinary.

Solyndra? Yep, a bad investment, we've all made those kind of mistakes while trading.

No high horse, just chatting, seriously.


c

 

Getting to the point that I have to agree with you, yet again.


c

 

C, which fact in the OP do you take issue with and why?

T