Liberal Talking Points – The Economy

Posted by David Webb on Jun 27, 2012

With the onset of the general election campaign, the liberals will, at the behest of Team Obama, will resort to their daily dose of “kool-aid”…err, I mean talking points.
Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock knows that the cornerstone issue for this campaign is going to be about the state of the economy.
Liberals will tell you that Obama is clearly the man for the job and that a Romney presidency would be calamitous. Really? Obama’s the man for the job – we’re still talking about the economy over three years into his presidency, and they still will tell you that’s he IS the one.
Time to debunk the myth –
The Obama Administration put out a report in 2009 called The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. In it, the Obama Administration predicted that the stimulus package would keep unemployment under 8%. They even provided a graph on page 5 – shown below.

This is what they said the stimulus would do.

Obama said that without the stimulus – “…we could see a much deeper economic downturn that could lead to double-digit unemployment.” (Source) So, without the stimulus, the Obama Administration said that unemployment could have gone anywhere from 9-10% — if not higher!
Wait for it –
According to the NY Times: U.S. Unemployment Rate Hits 10.2%, Highest in 26 years
So, we spent billions and billions of dollars to keep unemployment from reaching double digits – AND IT STILL DID!!
The classic Liberal Talking Point from the Obama Administration – The stimulus created 3-4 million jobs.
Even Obama can’t get it straight…

But since the Obama supporters will say that since the video clip is clearly a GOP ad; it can’t be taken seriously. OK. Fine! Let’s debunk the myth using information from the Obama Administration itself.
Most of the people who believe this nonsense will send you to Recovery.gov where you can find all sorts of glowing platitudes, reviews, and results provided by none other than – drum roll please –the Obama Administration.
According to an Atlanta Journal Constitution article, the Obama Administration changed the way they calculated the number of jobs “created or saved” by the stimulus.

Here’s why: The Federal Office of Management and Budget previously told recipients of the stimulus dollars to count only jobs that were created and filled as a result of stimulus spending or existing jobs “that would not have been continued” if not for the spending. So, in English, if stimulus money was spent to create or “save” a job — then they could count that in their total.

Now, time for a change –
Now all jobs funded with stimulus dollars will be counted as created or saved, whether or not they were in jeopardy of being eliminated, according to new rules OMB released last month in a memo that drew little attention.
Huh? So, to count now — stimulus money has to be used in whole or part. Obvious impact — More jobs can be included in the count and up goes the total.
But wait for it —
Also, when stimulus money is used for pay raises, it will translate into a fraction of a job created or saved.
That’s right. Give four people a raise — you just created or saved a job. So, all of the executives the OWS protestors want arrested should be praised for saving so many jobs!! So, even more padding of the numbers of jobs created or saved by the stimulus.
I found the actual memo from Peter Orzag — Director of OMB — providing “guidance” on how to perform these counts. (For your viewing enjoyment:)

1st Page of OMB Memo about how to count stimulus jobs

Quoting from the memo:
Part 2…Reporting on Jobs Creation Estimates by Recipients…reflects important simplifications to the manner in which job estimates are calculated and reported…
So, no more running total — just a quarterly total. What about the jobs that are eliminated in one quarter and then re-created in the next? What does that equate to? One person getting to keep the same job — but no economic growth. But the numbers will look better though!
In addition, recipients will no longer be required to make a subjective judgment…(but) easily and objectively report on jobs funded with Recovery Act dollars.
So, this confirms what was stated in the AJC article and also by the liberal website, Mother Jones.com.
Then the calculation of jobs created or saved is based on hours worked — not the permanence of the job.
…to perform the calculation, a recipient will need the total number of hours worked by employees in the most recent quarter…The recipient will also need the number of hours in a full-time schedule for the quarter. (This is also spelled out on the Recovery.gov website.)
So, if a person works more than a 40 hour work week; then that one job can count as more than one job. Don’t you love that new fangled math? Better yet, don’t you love how that would increase the total number of jobs that have been created or saved by the stimulus?
So, the idea that the stimulus created 3 million jobs or more is completely ludicrous since the Obama Administration is not even trying to prove it.
You know what campaign propaganda Team Obama should put out –
The stimulus package created 3-4 millions, ended world hunger, and cured cancer because…

Because my name is Barack Obama and I approve this nonsense! (I felt the need to correct him.)