Amidst Questions About Their Numbers, White House Says Stimulus Will Save or Create 600,000 Jobs in the Next 100 Days

Akie Vet posted that the recession would have self corrected. Not everyone agrees that correction happens "Timely" enough without financial assistance, including my State government.

I live in Oregon and since our economy traditionally is dependent on Forest Products, it dips with housing. During our last recession we figured out that "Targeted" means increasing federal aid for food stamps and unemployment. Tax cuts alone will not stimulate the lumber industry, so instead we courted also high technology companies.

This recession has been painful - we have the second highest unemployment numbers. But the State knew from experience how to use stimulus money to fund jobs since April - providing stop gap jobs while building real High Tech family wage jobs like Wind Turbines and Microchips.

Today we are projected to lead the nation in new job creation out of this recession. Clearly, every state is different - look at how stupidly California borrowed to balance its budget - but Oregonians are rolling up our sleeves and working together with stimulus funding to repair our unemployment numbers. It's not as black and white as you paint.

Akie Vet posted that the recession would have self corrected. Not everyone agrees that correction happens "Timely" enough without financial assistance, including my State government.

I live in Oregon and since our economy traditionally is dependent on Forest Products, it dips with housing. During our last recession we figured out that "Targeted" means increasing federal aid for food stamps and unemployment. Tax cuts alone will not stimulate the lumber industry, so instead we courted also high technology companies.

This recession has been painful - we have the second highest unemployment numbers. But the State knew from experience how to use stimulus money to fund jobs since April - providing stop gap jobs while building real High Tech family wage jobs like Wind Turbines and Microchips.

Today we are projected to lead the nation in new job creation out of this recession. Clearly, every state is different - look at how stupidly California borrowed to balance its budget - but Oregonians are rolling up our sleeves and working together with stimulus funding to repair our unemployment numbers. It's not as black and white as you paint.

arkie vet- great post- very frustrating the media lets Obama get away with everything and practically campaigned for him.

Jared Bernstein must have to go take a shower after the contorted economic jibberish he just attempted to sell.Talk about mental gymnastics. He was wrong on his projections because of fourth quarter GDP (Blame Bush). Next year when un-employment is 11%, and no one wants long term Treasuries,& interest rates are double he will have to say it would have been much worse!! Keep that wonderful Economic team issuing propaganda & make sure CNBC does the interviews with Romer, Bernsein & Immelt. Everything will be okey dokey.

Lightduty--"Also, is anyone doing an investigative series on the stimulus spending? My guess is there a no scandals because no one is reporting on how the funds are being spent" -- Let me ask you this, Have you seen ANY scandals reported?? NO..

How about this, When Bush was in office all unemployment figures were reported with the addendum of "those who had stopped trying to get a job and had fallen off the roles" If his rate was 6% it was reported as 65 but the true figure is 9% due to those who have fallen off the roles".. I am sure you remember these types of reports.. NOW, we get a report of 350,000 lost jobs as "good news" because it is not 600,000 like it has been for the last three months and obviously it must be a sign that the recession is slowing.. no mention of the fact that if you apply the same set of standards to Obama's numbers (an include those who have stopped actively pursuing work) HIS unemployment figures are now sitting at between 14 and 15%.

We get 30+ reporters telling us about Sotomayors "wonderful life story" when Obama nominated her, but there have been scant stories on her actual record as a judge. If Bush had nominated a justice who had a 60% lower court appeal rate and had been overturned by the supreme court 4 times in the last 10 years, you can bet it would be all over the mainstream news. but then any judge nominated by a republican presidnet who had said what she said at university speech would never make it to confirmation to begin with.

How about Pelosci telling the nation that the mortgage industry collapse woul dbe investigated and those responsible would be held accountable, after a week of trying to hang it on republicans, it was determined that democrats were at the root of the problem (namely Rangle, Dodd, Waters and Reid) add to that the actual deregulation was voted on by the senate in 1998 (92-8 vote) and signed into law by Clinton and all of a sudden, amazingly, there have been NO investigations by congress on the mortgage industry crisis. And NO reports by the media as to why.

No one has comdemned the president for telling us to go green while he has a pizza chef flown in for family night at the white house? Sending nine planes to Denver to sign the stimulus instead of doing it from the white house? Sending the family on a Paris shopping spree while he meets in the middle east.

Didn't we slam bush for trying to push the Dubai ports deal (after all why would we want Dubai muslims to be incharge of port security) -- but I guess its perfectly fine that Obama's has now committed to give nuclear technology to the very same people the dems said we could not trust to protect our ports...Think Bush would have gotten away with that??

All presidents will make mistakes.. any human will. the difference is that if you have an (R) by your name, the media will crucify you for any mistake you make. If you have a (D) beside it, your mistakes will not only be forgiven, they won't even be reported on..

Amidst Questions About Their Numbers, White House Says Stimulus Will Save or Create 600,000 Jobs in the Next 100 Days

I bet there are not 600,000 more jobs in the next 100 days. If there are 600, 000 fewer, Obama will say there would have been 1.2 million without his plan. To date, there has not been published 1 private sector job.

Obama has no clue.

You want to stop job loss and bri
ng jobs back to the US? Then do your part (1) start choosing USA made goods over foreign goods, locateamerican.com site gives a list of companies still making things in America. (2) demand stores carry US made products (
I already asked Home Depot to carry Wooster brushes, a USA brush manufactor and I purchase New Balance sneakers with USA lable

justi- Just a comment- The banks in November were told by Paulson to take the TARP money to open up credit. No resistrictions on their business practices. When they gave year-end bonus it was decided by the Administration and the Dems to vilify the banks as evil for taking Tarp money and giving bonuses. They became a good group to beat up for the Dems populist message. Also to avoid any discussion of Dodd and Frank taking bank money for campaigns and Dodd in Sept 2008 saying Fannie didn't need to be regulated. Other than that, most of the commenters here hit it correct. The stimulus is bogus and so are the jobs 'saved'. No one measures jobs saved.

ALUCEO -- WOW!!! I complement you on a very well written lucid and convincing set of statements. Unfortunately, they are almost completely void of substance and fact.
1.) " The stimulus plan in of itself has halted the dramatic plunge in business and consumer confidence with the very likely threat of an economic depression earlier in the year"-- Unemployment was at 7.2% when the Stimulas plan was set in motion. It is currently 9.4% and continues to climb at the rate of 350,000 to 600,000 jobs lost per month. Compare this to both Reagan's and Bush II 's tax cuts.. In both cases the unemployment rate stabilized within 2-3 months and was back to pre recession levels within 8 to 10 months ( check the department of labor website - unemployment figures for 1976 to present to verify this).
this scenario of continued job loss does not support your claim that the stimulus (through consumer confidence alone) has corrected anything.

2.)"The stimulus package has halted the lost of jobs in the areas of education and other state level services and enabled States to avoid budget bankruptcy (caused by the fall in revenues due to the economic downturn)"-- Actaully the New York time reported that as of 2 weeks ago, only 7%of the stimulus money has been spent to date. Of this, almost all has been spent to increase welfare and unemployment programs and NOT in the creation or sustaining of any jobs (state, education, or otherwise) and has not stayed any state budgets who were not already solvent to begin with (New York and california come to mind - as they are both struggling with solvency that is even more critical now than it was at the time of the passage of this package - in other words -it hasn't helped at all.
3.) "While the Stimulus Package has often come under this one-sided criticism of increasing the US deficit, such an argument can only be credible to the extent that it elicits how the results mentioned above which have been obtained (and are to be obtained) by the Stimulus Package could have been attained otherwise"-- fair enough, but just as happened in carters Administration in the 70's the printing of money to cover increased debt leads to increased inflation whick means that consumers who actually have a job are able to buy less with their paycheck. So the question becomes, why spend money in the hopes that it will create jobs (and at this point thats onaly a hope because it hasn't created any yet) if the result is that you money will buy significantly less. tax cuts on the other hand have proven to stimulate job growth without raising inflation AND once the job growth is realized, the additional tax revenue generated from the additional jobs offsets the revenue initally lost by the cuts. In most cases, tax cuts actaully lead to increases in tax revenue generation within 1 to 2 years (again - check the DOL website).
4.) "It should be noted that jobs created by the stimulus will have a multiplier effect in the creation of jobs by private enterprises."-- that principle usually works quite well when tax cuts are used to generate company growth and job creation. However, historically, it does not translate to the same "multiplier" effect when the job creation is primarily in the government employment/infrastructure area. Which ties into the next point of my counter argument -
5.) "it is the type of government investment required for renewing long-term economic growth. As was the case with FDR's New Deal in the 1930s"-- Again I refer you to the DOL to check your facts. Under FDR, the unemployment rate went from 5% to 9% at the time of the Stock crash in 1929. By 1931 the unemployment rate was 16%, as FDR began instituting the new deal, one would expect that unemployment would decrease over time (at least gradually) thsi was not the case. by 1934 when a large portion of the new deal was already in place, the unemployment rate had jumped to 20%. Even after all aspects of the new deal were up and running (including the TVA) the unemployment rate has stabilized at 19%. the best numbers the Roosevelt was ever able to sustain was 17% between 36 and 37 and then we suffered what was known as Rossevelts recession ( from all the spending) that brought the rate back to 19% by the end of 1937. It wasn't until PRIVATE business began ramping up for WW2 that any tgrue growth and reductions in unemployment were seen. By 1942 the rate was back to 5% but it was due not tot the new deal, but rather to a free flowing private capital system initally fueled by the war effort. A recent study by UCLA's history department concluded that Roosevelts policies actually prolonged the depression by at least 5 years and had it not been for WW2, the depression might have lasted an additional 10 years or more...

Finally, remember that recessions ARE cyclic, and yes, despite wht you said, this "disaster" would have self corrected eventually.. the question is, At what cost? Stimulus packages are needed to meet three sets of criteria, calle the three T's. They are to be targeted, timely, and temporary. Obama's stimulus was none of the above. Targeted means that the stimulus should be designed to help those who need the help most.. in almost all cases, the citizen who has lost their job. Tax cuts aid in this.. while increases in welfare and pork barrel projects such as money for teachers unions and community organizers do not. Timely means that it helps NOW.. Most recessions will self correct in a year or two even if we do nothing. If the majority of the stimulus is infrastructure spending that will not take affect til 2010 or 2011, what good does it do people who are hurting NOW? Finally, temporary means just that - if your stimulus is made up primarily of items that will continue to pull tax dollars from the government pockets long after the recession is over, not only are you not addressing the problems at hand, but you are committing years of additional debt for policy that does not serve any real purpose to begin with.

You can communicate it any way you wish, but the bottom line is that this "Stimulus" has cost us dearly and we have VERY little to show for it..

Jake, ask them how they figure the number of jobs saved. Here's my understanding of how they do it.

They assume that X dollars create Y jobs. They know the amount they spend, so they divide the dollars by the “investment” per job, and voila! A number of jobs created or saved.

The number is in no way tied to BLS figures. And there’s no list of PEOPLE who’s jobs were created or saved.

Also, is anyone doing an investigative series on the stimulus spending? My guess is there a no scandlas because no one is reporting on how the funds are being spent.

It is a flat out lie that he will create 600,000 jobs as the lie about 150,000 saved jobs was.
Any economist, and an article today in the wall street journal will tell you that these numbers are pure fantasy.
Obama relies on the media to not call him out on his lies, but to promote them.
He guaranteed that if we rush rush rushed to pass the pork barrel stimulus that unemployment would never exceed 8%. Well we are at 9.4% and rising.
Obama is doing his dirty work while lying to the public and cementing his power with taxpayer funded payoffs to special interests like the UAW, the SEIU and so on.
Wake up you sheep. Unemployment will rise above 10%, inflation will be drastic and cost of living will rise precipitously beyond the tax increases we will ALL endure.
Obama has endowed the EPA with the unprecedented power for these unelected appointees to impose taxes.
Today the EPA gave us a heads up that they are going to tax farm animals for their "gas emissions" that contribute to global warming at the following rates:
Cows $175/head/year
Pigs $20/head /year
and so on.
Meat and dairy costs will rise precipitously but we have no recourse and the EPA is appointed, not elected. So you can thank Obama, and you can bet this is the tip of the iceberg. Since when do we get taxed and it isn't even up for a congressional vote?

Never in history has so much illegal power been grabbed by a president. He has a multitude of taxing plans to make up for all of his pork barrel and earmark spending, while he quietly soothes us with pretty speeches that never come true.

Obama is personally killing thousands of jobs today as Chrysler dealerships, even 5 star highly successful ones are forced to close.
Here is what we know. The auto czar made the decisions. The auto czars wife was head of DNC (democratic national committee) fundraising and also head of Hillary Clinton's campaign fundraising.

The dealerships closed were republican donors. If you picked a dealership owned by a dem insider, such as Mack Mclarty, every other dealer around him was closed while they were given, at no cost, the terrority of the republican donor.

While 25% of dealerships are owned by dem donors only .04% of those were closed. In every instance the dems won out.

This is what happens when the government owns the car companies.

You dems probably don't care, but remember you will not always be in power and your turn will come. Of course the media will yell and scream but Obama has set this amazingly partisan hack job, retribution for being a republican precedent.

These people paid a small fortune to purchase the franchise, build the buildings and buy the cars. They will get not a single cent back. Their employees, thousands in numbers are out of jobs.

In the alternative, the dems are being handed those dealership franchises at no cost.

Obama belongs in jail. This is third world thuggery the likes of Chavez and worse.

Debt on debt. Bailouts on Bailouts for the richest of the rich. These things are fixing us. Don't worry, be happy.

Now I read in the sagacious words of one of your "commentators" here that the stimulus is really "anticipatory"...to save us all from a "depression." What in hell is going on here? Some of the big banks( which, not so very long ago, we had to "save from failure", TODAY are going to repay ALL or a major portion of the TARP money they received in order to continue their usual money-making activities....at guess who's expense?
Combine this with our Community Organizing President's failure to define his numbers when he talks of "creating" and/or "saving" hundreds of thousands of jobs through (genuflect) efforts of government actions in this economic downturn, and you begin to get the picture. Turn the whole damned thing over to Congress, where it belongs.....no date specific when something has to be on the President's desk.....just a return to the old principle that our government is a three-legged stool....the legislative branch legislate, NOT THE EXECUTIVE. It may be messy at times, but I prefer that Congress, which really represents me and you and you, do their job in our behalf, and not sit silently as the Executive branch grows in power and frightening scope...and spends, spends, spends. Republican...or Democrat...or (thank God) just a plain old thinking Independent...let's get our house in order by not leaving our direction to folks planning the next big political campaign, or the next big trip out of the country. Let's focus on America._

We are losing jobs. So what good is it to create 600K that I doubt will reach people. 600 K jobs and employment daily. He needs to do something besides waste statistics on how many jobs he is creating and help the unemployed who have no income right now. Our government has spent enough. Europe just held elections and the conservative parties won. The ones that don't want to spend. This is totally crazy. As for the congress and senate they need to think long and hard about the suffering of the voters in their home districts. This is truly the most out of touch administration I have ever seen. Corporations have wasted the money ex Chrysler, Banks. This has gone to far. I will remember as many of the voters suffering right now the reality of what we have representing us in Washington. I know all aren't guilty but I do keep up with how my representative votes. Everyone else should too. The middle class are not getting any help at all.

"and businesses and consumers taking a less weary and more upbeat attitude to the future."

Here is the dirty little secret everyone. Stimulus, is an influence event. It has very little physical impact. It is a mental impact designed to boost confidence in the consumer and business owner. In 1993, the stimulus was 16 Billion dollars... yes 16B, no more '0's. Clinton understood its purpose, to influence people.

This administration and this President, and many of his followers, believe in the physical impact of the Stimulus and ask everyone to "wait and see". Well guess what, there isn't anything to wait and see. Because the administration has put so much focus on the actual physical impact instead of the cerebral impact of confidence boosting, they have missed the entire purpose.

Which makes me think that they actually BELIEVE in command economics of the government, which has shown the world over to fail and fail and fail again. The foundation of our economy is the consumer, not the road he drives on. While it does have a minimal impact, the more drastic impact is people buying stuff. When people buy things, people become employed, money moves through the system, growth occurs, and jobs are created. The MIND of the consumer is the keystone of a market economy.

Unfortunately, the administration has taught the consumer to look to the government for answers, when the answers are really within themselves. This is why the stimulus will never achieve the impact, the idea, of what a stimulus does, no matter how big it is. In fact, because of it's emense size, the take over of corporations, it has scared consumers and investors. People will be sitting around waiting for a train that will never come.

Eventually, the consumer, will lose this ill found faith in the government and move on their own and the economy will recover from that, the mind and will of the consumer.

The truth is the stimulus was not working, that is why there is a grand reopening. Most of the money wasn't even going to be allocated until 2011 just in time for the next election so the stimulus was a political goody bag of campaign cash and nothing more. What we got was a blow to businesses, investors and tax payers who see no reason to spend or invest under this administration because you will be penalized for doing so. If you make money it is going to be taxed. If you spend money it is going to be taxed via possible VAT. If you invest money you are going to be last in line if your investment goes south because of Obama's treatment of the Chrysler investors. The energy fears are also putting a damper on spending. In short Obama's first six months have been a disaster and there is none of it he can blame on Bush because his policies quite frankly - suck.

Hi Aluceo

The stimulus route has never worked long term, and will not work now. Handing out free money is like a drug - it makes you feel better now, but when there is no more, you feel worse than ever. Mr. Obama is borrowing 50 cents of every dollar he is spending. When he finally runs out of money and credit, we all are going to be stuck with one heck of a hangover!

HOW THE STIMULUS PLAN HAS BEEN WORKING ALREADY AND WHY IT IS BOUND TO GATHER PACE

The stimulus plan in of itself has halted the dramatic plunge in business and consumer confidence with the very likely threat of an economic depression earlier in the year, and businesses and consumers taking a less weary and more upbeat attitude to the future. Maybe more than anything else this will be the most significant impact of the stimulus package in the long-run enabling a spectacular recovery from the real possibility of depression before its passage. Businesses and consumers have become more and more confident that spending from the stimulus in the upcoming months will provide a solid environment for economic activity thus encouraging investment, reducing the pace of job losses and encouraging consumer spending. In other words, the stimulus package has avoided “a cycle of economic downturn to depression” and is now about to engender “a cycle of economic upturn to recovery”.

The stimulus package cash handouts and other social initiatives have played no minor part in lessening the burdens on individuals of the economic downturn and the consequent increase in the number of people unemployed thus palliating the effects with regards to mortgage, health coverage and consumer spending.

The stimulus package has halted the lost of jobs in the areas of education and other state level services and enabled States to avoid budget bankruptcy (caused by the fall in revenues due to the economic downturn) with the result of avoiding indirect job losses in the private sector as well.

The stimulus package is bound to lead the way for new jobs creation to be followed suit by direct private sector investments with the consequence of increasing spending in the economy and accelerating economic recovery. It should be noted that jobs created by the stimulus will have a multiplier effect in the creation of jobs by private enterprises.

Perhaps more fundamental for long-term economic recovery, given the areas of investment of the stimulus package (infrastructure, energy and green jobs, education. etc.), it is the type of government investment required for renewing long-term economic growth. As was the case with FDR's New Deal in the 1930s and Eisenhower building of interstate highways and investment in the sciences in the 1950s, the stimulus package is bound to restructure the foundation of the US economy within which private enterprise will thrive.

The fundamental element in the criticisms levied against the stimulus package that it will increase the US deficit is the total disregard by most critics of what would have happened without the stimulus with respect to avoiding the real threat of a depression, raising business and consumer confidence and restructuring the economy. Thus providing a good foundation for real growth in the long-run (boostered by the Stimulus and led by private enterprise) with economic growth by itself and healthcare reform allowing for deficit reduction in the long-run.

While the Stimulus Package has often come under this one-sided criticism of increasing the US deficit, such an argument can only be credible to the extent that it elicits how the results mentioned above which have been obtained (and are to be obtained) by the Stimulus Package could have been attained otherwise. Most critics of the stimulus package seem to think that this economy which was at the very brink of collapse simply avoided a depression by some miracle and that by the same token recovery is bound to occur by magic. To the extent that their arguments fail to answer these fundamental facts about avoiding a depression and beginning a recovery, to that extent, such arguments can hardly be considered credible.

Actually, the initial impact of the stimulus for private enterprise and consumers has been “anticipatory” in that it arrested a situation where business and consumer confidence was heading the economy to a depression. That is why the statistics point to the fact that business and consumer confidence stop plunging after the stimulus plan was passed and the stock market has been “going north” since then. It is the anticipation of the impact of the stimulus plan that has stabilized business and consumer confidence, heading off the real prospect of a depression. In other words, the stimulus package first impact was to act as the brakes for an economy that was heading to a depression disaster.

I think the press reported this story correctly from the 'getgo'.. there wasn't going to be any real employment help - as a result of the stimulus package.. but our leaders were already sending up the Stimulus II trial balloon.. (French: ballon)...

Basically, the government is printing money, posturing and crossing their fingers.. and hoping that the economy will improve on it's own (which has always been the case)...they are in the business of preening, getting re-elected and feathering their own beds (which has always been the case).

Probably the interest groups, who direct the political thinking, know something about improving the economy.. and they have a way of getting the politicians' attention. I may be changing my attitude toward these groups.