There are two articles posted this morning on Barack Obama's stimulus plan and its success (or lack thereof). One is at Bloomberg.com and the other is at the Washington Times. President Obama stated in his Saturday radio address that the economic stimulus is working as planned. I'm afraid I don't see this as a valid statement.
According to Bloomberg:
"Obama spoke after stocks fell for a fourth week on concern that an economic recovery will be delayed. A government report last week showed that employers cut 467,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, the highest since 1983."
According to the Washington Post:
In the Republican radio response, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican, said Americans are right to question Mr. Obama's spending bill.
"Remember the promises? They promised you if you paid for their stimulus, jobs would be created immediately. In fact, they said that unemployment would stay under eight percent. Yet just months later, they are telling us to brace for unemployment to climb over ten percent," he said.
He said Republicans' plan is to cut taxes to boost the economy.
But Mr. Obama said Republicans opposed him from the start, and haven't offered a real plan.
He also took aim at those in his own party who say the first bill has fallen short and are calling for another round of spending, telling them spending will pick up later this year.
The evidence shows that the stimulus package did not really change anything (other than the national debt). The Washington Post article points out that a large percentage of the stimulus money went to areas with low unemployment that supported President Obama during the presidential campaign rather than the areas hardest hit by the recession. It's about time we held this Administration and Congress responsible for the out of control spending.
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