Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Unhappy Birthday Stimulus

The 862 Billion albatross is one year old today. President Obama is currently spinning this boondoggle as the savior of our nation. You see, if it hadn't been passed America would resemble the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max, complete with that wacky Thunderdome.

Mr. President, the American people simply aren't buying your snake oil anymore.

If you're wondering how such a large expenditure of the public wealth could have been frittered away to so little benefit I offer exhibit one from the Wall St Journal:

"Government data indicate that most of the jobs supported by stimulus spending belonged to public employees at the state and local level, including about 325,000 teachers and school staff.
Subsidizing those jobs avoided layoffs, or state and local tax increases that could have further undermined the economy. But they didn't result in substantial hiring of people who had lost private-sector jobs."

That's right the stimulus was meant to protect politically connected and Democratic supporting government employees from sharing the pain of the Great Recession with their fellow citizens. Sometimes, even with politicians at all levels of government watching their backs their arrogance will get the best of them and they will get their due. Like those teachers' at Central Falls High School in RI that refused to work an extra 25 minutes.

Exhibit 2:

A poll done by USA Today of 884 small business owners:

How has the Obama administration affected small-business success?

It has had a positive effect: 11%

It has hurt me: 77%

No effect: 13%

The majority of Americans work for and historically job growth comes from small businesses. The job market will recover when the Obama administration gives up its statist ambitions that are threatening to wipe out the small companies that enable the middle class to exist.

No comments:

Post a Comment