Excuses for 'Stimulus' Errors Widen Obama Administration's "Credibility Gap"
Editorial Boards Speak Out: Obama Administration “May Have Done Irreparable Harm” To Credibility, “Debacle,” “Casts Huge Clouds Of Doubt” Over Another ‘Stimulus,’ “Concern Extends Beyond Partisanship,” “Who Will Pay For All This?”
Washington
(Nov 20, 2009)
A growing “credibility gap” is plaguing the Obama Administration as its trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ continues to produce countless instances of wasteful or unaccounted-for government spending while more than three million Americans have lost their jobs. The “credibility gap” brought on by the errors themselves – which include phantom congressional districts to phantom jobs – has only been widened by the excuses employed by the Obama Administration to explain away these discrepancies. From blaming the states to ‘who knows, man,’ the excuses range from the absurd to the offensive.
For his part, the President has called these errors a “side issue.” Tell that to American families asking ‘where are the jobs?’ when all they are getting from out-of-touch Washington Democrats is crooked statistics, unsustainable spending, and more debt piled on our kids and grandkids.
This "credibility gap" is taking center stage as Washington Democrats consider “more expensive” plans for another ‘stimulus.’ Republicans are offering better, fiscally responsible solutions to help small businesses create jobs and get the economy moving again. The Associated Press breaks down the challenges facing President Obama as House Democrats push for a “new and costly” ‘stimulus:’
"President Barack Obama will have scant time to rest up from his eight-day Asia trip. … And he faces a problematic push by House Democrats for a new and costly jobs bill. … ‘Americans are asking, 'Where are the jobs?’' said House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. ‘But all they are getting from out-of-touch Washington Democrats is more spending and more debt piled on our kids and grandkids.’” EXCUSES, EXCUSES:
WAIT ‘TIL NEXT YEAR. Larry Summers, the president’s chief economic adviser, told The Washington Post earlier this month, “We designed the Recovery Act to ramp up over time, through 2010.” Remember that when asked, just days before the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ passed, how soon before the American public would “feel results, the creation of jobs,” Mr. Summers responded: “You’ll see the effects begin almost immediately.”
WASN’T REALLY ABOUT JOBS ANYWAY. President Obama told Fox News this week that the “the first measure of success of the economic recovery is, did we pull ourselves back from the brink?” Note that at a press conference just four days before Congress passed the trillion-dollar stimulus, the President said, “I think my initial measure of success is creating or saving 4 million jobs. That’s bottom line number one.”
“WHO KNOWS, MAN.” When asked by the New Orleans Times-Picayune to account for taxpayers, the spokesman for Recovery.gov – which bears the tagline, “TRACK THE MONEY” – responded: “Who knows, man, who really knows.”
IT ALL BALANCES OUT IN THE END. White House stimulus adviser Ed DeSeve said that overcounting issues “would be balanced out by errors that underreported jobs,” according to the Associated Press.
BLAME THE STATES. The Vice-President’s chief economist, Jared Bernstein, was asked to explain the lack of direct job creation in the ‘stimulus’ earlier this fall at an event at American University in Washington, DC. His response, according to The Washington Post: “What [governors] were describing as shovel-ready wasn't really shovel-ready.”
A RAISE = A JOB. DOESN’T IT? After the Associated Press determined that thousands of ‘stimulus’ jobs were counted as ‘saved’ if the employees simply received a pay raise, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human services responded, presumably with a straight face: “If I give you a raise, it is going to save a portion of your job.” Indeed, one of the programs that reported the raises as jobs ‘saved’ told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “I called Washington. And I talked to a young man up there and he seemed as confused as I was, but he was at the help desk. ... He said, ‘I would put the number of people who got the raise.’ And that is what I did.”
WE’VE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE. Mr. DeSeve tried to explain yesterday why the Obama Administration has had such trouble defining ‘job creation’ under the ‘stimulus:’ “This has never been done before. You can't name another government program that has done this.” (The Washington Post, 11/20/09) There’s probably a good reason why.
COAST TO COAST, EDITORIAL BOARDS SPEAK OUT:
“Credibility suffers with bad figures. In a rush to prove that the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package is working to create or save jobs, the Obama administration may have done irreparable harm to its credibility. … Such slipshod accounting only casts large shadows over the administration’s push to make the stimulus package work. And casts huge clouds of doubt over even suggesting that another stimulus package be prepared, especially when no one can keep track of the first one.” (Bemidji (MN) Pioneer editorial, 11/20/09)
“…[T]he concern extends beyond partisanship. U.S. Rep. David Obey, a liberal Democrat from Wisconsin, called the inaccuracies ‘outrageous.’ … This is a setback for Obama, who is considered the first truly digital president, with his BlackBerry, massive e-mail lists and overhauled White House Web site.” (Philadelphia Daily News editorial, 11/20/09)
“Stimulus aid isn't creating jobs. … While it still is early in the process, this trend suggests there's political spin at work designed to improve on results that likely will fall well short of President Barack Obama's declared intent to create 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010. This only adds to skepticism about the benefits of the massive stimulus spending program. … Jobs are what matter most to taxpayers buffeted by unemployment rates exceeding 15 percent here and 10 percent nationally. If the stimulus spending is not having an impact on job creation -- and it appears not to be -- that fact should not be hidden by bad numbers that only serve to perpetuate bad policy.” (Detroit News editorial, 11/20/09)
“Too little of the stimulus has gone into similar investments in sustainable productivity. Obama’s brazen overestimate of jobs he produced is demoralizing, especially to those who have been laid off. Many examples of overstatement have been in the news, including the riding lawn mower purchased for a national cemetery with $1,047 from the stimulus - and credited with saving 50 jobs. The White House also was wrong that stimulus spending would hold the unemployment rate at no worse than 8 percent. It is 11 percent in Florida and probably going higher.” (Tampa Tribune editorial, 11/15/09)
“Shocking. The so-called stimulus bill President Obama said would pull the economy out of the recession has not had the advertised effect. Meanwhile, remember that the Obama legislation is being paid for through borrowing. Which means largely that foreigners are underwriting even more of our government's debt – notably the Chinese government. On top of this, there is the health care legislation that would add trillions of dollars of new federal deficit spending and hugely increased taxes. But with 15.7 million Americans out of work, and perhaps even more, who will pay for all this? All bills come due. The deficit and debt that Congress and the president are racking up mean there will be extreme sticker shock when those bills are called in.” (Pueblo Chieftain editorial, 11/16/09)
“At best, the government hasn’t shown much competence in counting these jobs. At worst, it’s guilty of at least a little fraud. Either way, this debacle doesn’t inspire much confidence in the administration.” (Dalton (GA) Daily News editorial, 11/18/09)
“The Phantom Jobs Stimulus. The nonexistence of the jobs and places allegedly stimulated by the Recovery Act doesn't necessarily mean the money was misspent or stolen. But it does indicate that the claims made on its behalf are a political illusion. The true jobs measure of an economic recovery is the unemployment rate, which rose to 10.2% last month. No matter how hard or imaginatively the Administration spins, the reality is that the stimulus has been the economic bust that critics predicted it would be.” (Wall Street Journal editorial, 11/19/09)
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