Wednesday, July 08, 2009

BARACK OBAMA

Administration Using the Same Stimulus Job-Creation Number Obama Did on May 1

The ability of President Obama to get what he wants on a variety of fronts — cap-and-trade, health-care reform, card check, immigration reform — will be heavily impacted by the economy's performance in the coming months. The first, and perhaps signature, accomplishment of his arrival in office was the stimulus, which was touted as the antidode to economic ills, aiming to have "immediate" effects by funding "shovel-ready" projects.

Now they're left insisting today that the stimulus has "saved or created" 150,000 jobs, when they made the same boast on May 1, suggesting that it's done nothing in the interim. Even Democratic Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, attempting to defend the $787 billion spending bill, is insisting it was "misnamed" as stimulus. (Numerous more accurate titles come to mind.)

The same folks who insisted the stimulus would create many jobs quickly are now insisting we should trust them that cap-and-trade and massive changes to the health-care system won't end up destroying jobs.

Earlier today, Instapundit offered a roundup of gloomy economic news. But because the economic indicator on everyone's mind is the unemployment rate, perhaps we should keep our eyes particularly focused on news about additional layoffs. Looking at recent headlines . . .

Job openings in US remain at record low

Report: 1,200 more auto jobs to be lost

Harvard workers stunned by layoffs

Honeywell to layoff 148

Illinois: "Gov. Pat Quinn on Tuesday began the process of cutting 2,600 jobs while sending a portion of the budget back to lawmakers with recommendations on how to cut $1 billion to help balance it."

Dowagiac Daily News: "When Michigan Works! surveyed local employers about their future layoff plans, 43.7 percent of businesses indicated they were planning layoffs . . ."

WSJ: "It’s been a while since we had news of a big old three-figure law-firm layoff, but today such news has come our way . . ."

. . . it looks like we shoudn't expect much good news from the July unemployment number, either.

Across a wide variety of sectors, the tough times haven't ended; the best that can be said is that they're getting worse slower than they were a few months ago. The American people expected a great deal more when they elected Obama. It is now a contest between him and their expectations.

07/08 04:10 PMShare