All thanks to the stimulus package, of course. How does one prove that a job has been “saved” by porkulus? You can’t, of course, and that’s the point. As long as 600,000 jobs still exist come the end of summer — even if 30 million jobs have been lost in the same period — the Obama Administration will claim a success. Slimy but not unexpected.
Anyway, we all know how accurate any of these predictions are. As Ed Morrissey reminds us, Christine Romer predicted that unemployment wouldn’t hit such a crazy rate as 8.8%. The national unemployment rate is now 9.4% and growing, with many economists predicting that more than 10% of the country will be unemployed by December. Having said that:
Eager to show action on the ailing economy, President Barack Obama promised Monday to speed federal money into hundreds of public works projects this summer, vowing that 600,000 jobs will be created or saved.
Surrounded by his Cabinet, Obama emphasized what has become a dominant issue of public concern — an economy that keeps bleeding jobs — on the day after returning from a week of diplomacy and sightseeing in the Middle East and Europe.
He concentrated in his remarks on the billions of dollars from a taxpayer-funded plan that will be disbursed this summer, although much what he was described was already in the works, spurring new debate about just how much the $787 billion stimulus plan is helping so far.
Uh huh.
by Stephan Tawney on Mon, Jun 8, 2009