How’s the stimulus doing?

According to the Obama administration, the stimulus reviews are in, and this plan receives an A+ (with a few minor issues).

Politico:

“White House officials announced Friday that they had counted exactly how many jobs were created or saved by recent stimulus spending: 640,329.

So how many were saved and how many created? They don’t know.

In a briefing with reporters, officials acknowledged they can’t tell the difference between jobs “saved,” and jobs “created” by the $787 billion stimulus package.

They said they also can’t tell the difference between private sector jobs and government jobs.

And they said that they had found and corrected significant errors in the data submitted in 57,000 separate reports to the federal government by Recovery Act funding recipients.”

It seems as though they don’t know a lot. But 640,329 sure sounds like a great number. And if it’s an accurate number, then that truly is good for the American people! Plus, it’s good for the Democrats, politically. They know 650,000 jobs gained sounds much better than the ten million jobs that have actually been lost since the Democrats took over in 2007. We tend to forget this key point, which is what Democrats desire. They want the public to believe that Republicans were in charge of everything budgetary in the country in 2007 and 2008. Unfortunately, it’s a lie.

2007, 2008, and 2009 – The Democrats controlled Congress, controlled the budget, controlled the purse strings, controlled legislation, and controlled the Capitol. By the end of 2007, their first year in charge of dominating Congress, the recession was beginning, and jobs were being lost.

See, the Democrats would LOVE to blame George W. Bush for this recession. In fact, it’s their favorite pastime. However, President Bush was not a dictator who controlled lawmaking (although many Democrats would have you believe that he was). He did not control the purse strings in this country. The Democrats did.

And the last 34 months of Democratic governance have NOT been very pleasant. Just ask the 10.2% of those who are unemployed.

So, here’s the recap:

January 1995 - Republicans take over Congress, the budget, and the country’s pocketbook.
Unemployment is 6.2%
November of 1997, nearly 3 years later, the Republicans are still in charge of Congress.
Unemployment is down to 4.3%

January 2007 - Democrats take over Congress, the budget, and the country’s pocketbook.
Unemployment is 5%
November 2009, nearly 3 years later, the Democrats are still in charge of Congress.
Unemployment has doubled to over 10%.



These are the facts, and they are indisputable. This is why there is so much concern among Democrats today. They fear that independent voters might discover this data from the Department of Labor. But judging by recent polls, plus the recent gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, Independents might already be realizing the governance by the Democrats is not the best solution.