This week will mark four months since President Obama signed the stimulus bill into law. Four months later, unemployment has reached a 26 year-high, and only $44 billion of ’stimulus’ money has been spent. Ironically, a recent Rasmussen poll shows that four months after passing the largest spending bill in history, 51% of Americans now favor cutting taxes to stimulate the economy.
Where is the stimulus money? Why is it taking so long to work its way through the system? One reason, according to The Washington Post is that spending stimulus money requires money. In other words, before it can be spent, stimulus money must first make its way out of the bureaucracy in which it’s trapped. While the national unemployment rate is approaching double digits, Washington D.C.’s unemployment rate has decreased to 5.6%, the lowest unemployment rate of any major city.
And there lies the problem that occurs when government spends large sums of money. As is usually the case, where government is involved, a large amount of red tape is also involved. Sure, strict regulation and oversight of the distribution of funds is necessary when spending such enormous amounts of taxpayer money. But, here is the fundamental problem that conservatives had with the stimulus to begin with – government is incapable of even spending efficiently and swiftly!
So, here are the facts. Stimulus money is lagging, and experts predict that unemployment is likely to continue to rise. 45% of Americans are now in favor of cancelling the stimulus altogether. 77% think the biggest problem facing the U.S. is the inability of government to control spending. These statistics show that the administration may soon deservedly face the wrath of an American public saddled with debt and still out of work.
Yet just this week, instead of looking at the grim statistics and implementing a new plan of action, the President promised to get more money out the door and create 600,000 jobs this summer. 600,000 jobs – another meaningless number not rooted in reality that is sure to have the administration eating their words again in a few months, as Vice President Biden did today on Meet the Press when he admitted that “everyone guessed wrong” in predicting the impact of the so-called stimulus bill.
*Originally published June 15, 2009 on the American Issues Project Blog, here.
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2 users responded in this post
That 600,000 job estimate is fictitious as well as meaningless. Biden's onto something there. No one in Washington, especially Obama's administration, has any idea of the impact of the spending package. They don't know if it will help. They don't know if it will hinder. It is a very expensive gamble.
Meanwhile, In Washington DC, the furious wringing of hands continues while jobs disappear.
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