Fool me once....

"As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress to send me a recovery plan by President's Day that would put people back to work and put money in their pockets. Not because I believe in bigger government -- I don't. Not because I'm not mindful of the massive debt we've inherited -- I am. I called for action because the failure to do so would have cost more jobs and caused more hardships."
President Obama address to congress February 2009

As we all know the congress gave Obama his money to allegedly save jobs and relieve hardships. Here we are over a year later and with all the attention on the Health Care bill rolling through congress this week, a very important admission has pretty much been ignored.

The Obama Administration's top economic aides now project that unemployment will remain high for the foreseeable future.

March 16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. employers won’t hire enough workers this year to lower the jobless rate much below the level of 9.7 percent reached in February, three Obama administration economic officials said today.

With interest the so called "Recovery" plan passed last year amounts to nearly a trillion dollars. This vast sum of future generations monies was supposed to stimulate the economy and create jobs. But what has the result been?

The proportion of Americans who can’t find work is likely to “remain elevated for an extended period,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, White House budget director Peter Orszag and Christina Romer, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said in a joint statement. The officials said unemployment may even rise “slightly” over the next few months as discouraged workers start job-hunting again.

Notice that little disclosure there "as discouraged workers start job-hunting again." Those are all the unemployed not counted in the 9.7% because they are not considered part of the work force because they are not looking for jobs.

Last year (as we have pointed out before) they sold this titanic spending spree on the idea that it would spur employment. Consider the above statement in light of projections by the very same Christine Romer last February.

Romer believes unemployment will hit 8.1% this year and be only slightly less (7.9%) in 2010. But then she expects it to fall to 5% by 2014.

So the very same person who is now notifying Congress (by letter) that unemployment would probably not fall below 9.7% for at least the rest of this year, a year ago told us if we would only give them a trillion dollars, this year we would be at 7.9% , at least they got the right numbers. It is not like people did not warn her that this was not realistic. But they knew better-trust them:

We're a little less pessimistic than some forecasts," says Christina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. She's expecting 3.2% economic growth in 2010, higher than most forecasts, and unemployment below 8% by then--lower than what many forecasters say.

A tall order? Romer doesn't see it that way. "I reject the premise that we're noticeably rosier," she says.

Don't worry Christine Romer was not alone , this from Peter Orszag a year ago.

WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) -President Barack Obama's budget chief said on Wednesday that economic stimulus money approved by Congress must be spent "quickly and wisely" if the administration is to boost the economy and create 3.5 million jobs.

So what are they saying now ?

“We do not expect further declines in unemployment this year,” the officials said in testimony prepared for the House Appropriations Committee. They predicted the economy would add about 100,000 jobs a month on average -- not enough to bring the jobless rate down substantially...

...The three urged Congress to pass Obama Administration job stimulus proposals including extended unemployment benefits, aid to state and local governments and tax breaks for businesses that hire new workers.

Excuse me? Didn't we just do that? Didn't we just give you a trillion dollars to stimulate the economy ? To "keep unemployment below 8%" To "boost the economy and create 3.5 million jobs"? They were either incompetent in their projections or disingenuous in order to secure the funds. Either way it is not what we should expect or tolerate from our employees, but sadly we do.

Only the Keynesian worshipers could be so ideologically blind as not to see that this "spend your way out of trouble" is not working-it never does. All this spending, all this government intervention is driving our economy deeper into debt for what purpose? So that elected officials can look like they are doing something, so they can look like they care? If they truly cared they would do what poll after poll of the American people shows we want, stop spending. So why do they do this in the face popular opposition and proof that that their schemes do not work? So they can expand the power of government over the lives of Americans thus expanding their own power.

Please note their idea of stimulus begins with "extend unemployment benefits" (dependency), "aid to states and local governments" (government growth ). We have already given billions and billions to local and state governments, it is time to start slicing governments at all levels not borrowing or printing more money to maintain their bloated bureaucratic sloth.

This path that our elected officials are following is, simply put, a coup and usurpation of our Constitution and republican form of governance. Unlike a military dictatorship we are witnessing a tyranny of dependence and regulation financed not with gold but with red ink. The taxes which must inevitably follow this massive sellout of the future will crush the American spirit of entrepreneurship and as is inevitable when individuals begin to believe that others are responsible for their needs it soon transcends from the loss of self-reliance and proceeds to the destruction of self-worth.

We can end where we began, last February and in the immortal words of a man who has never managed a single thing in his life yet somehow knew what was best for his loyal subjects:

“If nothing is done, this recession might linger for years ... our
nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse.”

President Obama Febrary 6, 2009

If we had done nothing we would be far better off than we are now. The solution fostered upon us is what is sinking us "deeper into crisis" which at "some point we may not be able to reverse." But the crisis is not found in the problem but rather in the solution.

So lets go fix health care.

Pathetic.

Via- Jer


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