Perry says stimulus didn’t create jobs; CBO says it did
Texas Governor Rick Perry, front-runner in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, said on Monday President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus program created “zero” jobs.
Not so, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the non-partisan budget arbiter for lawmakers.
Congress in 2009 passed the $830 billion economic stimulus, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which included both spending measures and tax cuts.
According to the CBO:
- As of June, between 1 million and 2.9 million Americans owed their jobs to the recovery act.
- In the second quarter of 2011 the recovery act added or preserved 550,000 full-time jobs.
- The recovery act brought down the unemployment rate by between 0.5 and 1.6 percentage points in the second quarter of 2011.
The Texas governor, who has touted his jobs creation record, gave his assessment of the U.S. economic stimulus program during Monday’s CNN/Tea Party sponsored Republican candidates debate in Tampa, Florida.
Perry shared the stage with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, business executive Herman Cain, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Washington Extra — Not another stimulus
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama plans to announce his latest package of plans to stimulate the sagging U.S. economy, most of which are already known. It was hardly a surprise to see Republicans quickly positioning themselves to block the plans, but more disappointing to the White House must have been the cautious response even from the president’s fellow Democrats on the Hill, who simply said they were looking at the proposals. Even more damning, perhaps, was the verdict from the financial markets, which greeted the news with a big yawn. Both the Dow and the S&P indices ended the day more than one percent lower, dragged down by fresh growth worries in Europe. Economists on Wall Street said the plans would not do enough for small businesses or to solve the Democrats’ biggest economic and political problem: finding work for the 14.9 million unemployed. There are big questions, too, about how the plans will be paid for. “If he chooses to take away a corporate tax break to pay for this proposal, the net gain is zero,” said Andrew Busch at BMO Capital Markets. “This is likely why U.S. stocks are not seeing much of a bounce on the news.”
Last week White House economic adviser Christina Romer left town with a plea for a new deficit-financed economic stimulus. Today it was the turn of former budget chief Peter Orszag to go public with his prescription for the economy and taxes, views which differ from those of his former boss. Orszag suggested that the Bush-era tax cuts should be extended for all Americans for another two years in an effort to spur the economy, with a promise they will be allowed to expire altogether at the end of 2012. It is a view which makes some economic sense, but is unlikely to get much traction with a president likely to be campaigning for re-election that same year.
Some interesting interviews on the first day of the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit here in Washington. The CEOs of Lockheed Martin and of Boeing’s defense wing said both companies were well aligned for the new reality of huge fiscal deficits and tight defense budgets. Both men expressed strong support for the administration’s recently announced export control reforms, as well as new plans to extend and expand tax credits on research and development. Lockheed Martin’s Robert Stevens said he also saw the global security environment changing significantly in coming decades: withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, coupled with threats from the Korean peninsula, Iran and China meant resources were likely to be shifted away from land and towards air and naval defense systems.
Finally, strong words today from State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley on a Florida pastor’s plans to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Crowley said the actions were “un-American”, and appealed to the world’s public not to assume that any action by the obscure Dove World Outreach Center, which boasts only around 30 members, represented anything larger about the United States. Sadly, one can only shudder at the thought of images of Americans burning the Koran being repeated endlessly on TV screens across the Muslim world.
Here are our top stories from today…
Analysis: Obama plan may miss the most important mark – jobs
Washington Extra – pain relief
Just a few quick thoughts ahead of the Labor Day weekend. President Barack Obama plans to unveil a package of measures to stimulate hiring and the economy next week, although we are assured this will absolutely not be a second stimulus. I guess that means it won’t have a major price tag attached, in terms of its effect on the deficit. But you also have to wonder how much effect it will have on the economy, even if Obama manages to get any of it through Congress.
Some relief, then, that this week’s economic numbers have not been as grim as many had feared. The private sector is not dead and buried, if today’s payrolls report is anything to go by. But don’t expect growth or hiring to pick up nearly fast enough to save the Democrats from pain in November.
Finally, take a look at our special report on the Food and Drug Administration’s efforts to crack down on increasingly aggressive marketing tactics by drug companies. Critics accuse Big Pharma of pushing medicines on people which they often do not need, without fully disclosing the risks. Sadly, even the FDA admits it is outgunned, and lacks the resources to keep pace.
Here are our top stories from today…
Obama says to address new economic ideas next week
President Barack Obama will outline new measures next week to boost the economy after August data showed again that jobs — the central issue in November elections — were being created too slowly. Obama, speaking to reporters in the White House Rose Garden, greeted a better-than-expected August employment report that showed thousands of new private sector jobs were created as “positive news.”
For Alister Bull and Jeff Mason’s full story, click here.
Washington Extra -The audacity of hope?
If rescuing the U.S. economy from the Slough of Despond wasn’t enough, President Barack Obama took a stab at finding peace in the Middle East today. Obama is determined to forge a new relationship with the Muslim world, and presumably would like to unquestionably earn the Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded last year. But getting embroiled in the Middle East is a risk for the president, not least because failure to reach an accord could set back his efforts to win over Muslims and achieve solidarity over Iran. Ordinary Israelis and Palestinians are not optimistic about this latest peace effort, and experts say the one-year deadline to reach a deal does not appear very realistic. Nevertheless, it is hard to argue with Obama’s opening remarks today, and his hope that “extremists and rejectionists” should not be allowed to derail the peace process.
It is often interesting when high-ranking officials leave office and get the chance to unburden themselves. White House economist Christina Romer was no exception today, issuing an impassioned plea for more economic stimulus measures, even if they push up the fiscal deficit in the short term. “The only sure-fire ways for policymakers to substantially increase aggregate demand in the short run are for the government to spend more and tax less. In my view we should be moving forward on both fronts,” she said in a speech at the National Press Club. “I desperately hope that policymakers on both sides of the aisle will find a way to finish the job of economic recovery,” she added. WashingtonExtra won’t be holding its metaphorical breath.
Finally today, another win by a Tea Party favorite in Alaska this week underlines that the movement is not just a passing fad, and has the staying power to be a significant factor in November’s Congressional elections. What’s more, Democratic hopes that radical Tea Party candidates will alienate moderate voters and energize Democrats are not being realized. In fact, Tea Party favorites are already ahead of Democratic rivals in the opinion polls in Colorado, Kentucky and Florida, and only slightly behind in Nevada.
Here are our top stories from today…
Obama opens Mideast peace summit, says U.S. resolute
President Barack Obama vowed that “extremists and rejectionists” would not derail the relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations as he opened a peace summit shadowed by Middle East violence. Wading into Middle East diplomacy in the face of deep skepticism over his chances for securing an elusive peace deal, Obama condemned as “senseless slaughter” a Hamas attack on Tuesday that killed four Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Washington Extra
What do central bankers and slalom skiers have in common? Bobbing and weaving, for one thing.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sat in front of lawmakers for a second day on Thursday to deliver his semi-annual assessment of the economy, cleverly sidestepping the obstacles they placed to his right and left. With election season fast approaching, each side wanted ammunition for their campaigns, and for their partisan readings of the economy.
Not surprisingly, the resolutely apolitical Bernanke trod carefully. For the Democrats, there was comforting agreement that this week’s bill to regulate Wall Street had placed the financial system on a sounder footing and reduced the risk of another devastating financial crisis. Last year’s $862 billion economic stimulus had saved or created somewhere between one and three million jobs, Bernanke said, and the government was right to run a fiscal deficit in 2010 to support the economy.
But Republicans did not come away empty handed either, with Bernanke emphasizing that the medium and long-term fiscal path was unsustainable. Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas wanted Bernanke to agree that excessive government regulation, the costs of healthcare legislation and uncertainty about government policy had significantly constrained business investment and hiring, and went as far as to quote a 1979 Ph.D thesis on the effects of uncertainty.
“You know who wrote those words?” he asked. “And yes, it is a trick question.”
The answer of course was Bernanke himself, who after admitting that it was an “excellent thesis”, went on to agree that uncertainty was having a negative effect, even if that effect was tough to quantify.
Elsewhere in Washington today, Democrats all but gave up the fight for legislation this year to combat climate change, and President Barack Obama signed into law a bill designed to combat waste and fraud in government. Obama used just four pens to sign the legislation, a definite saving on the 11 he used for Wednesday’s Wall Street bill. Later, just to emphasize that even his vacations are not wasteful, he announced he would be spending the August 14 weekend along the hard-hit Florida Gulf Coast.
Road signs for stimulus
Have you seen these signs? They’re at the center of a running debate that flared up Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
The roadside signs are meant to show Americans construction projects funded by economic stimulus money, the Obama administration says.
But some Republican lawmakers have long argued that funds spent on the stimulus signs are a waste of taxpayers’ money and are politically motivated.
ABC News did some investigating to find out more about the roadside signs and included some interesting highlights (or low lights depending on your perspective) in a report that aired today.
ABC reports Illinois has spent $650,000 on about 950 signs. It also found a very pricey one planted near Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia. (The airport is run by the independent Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, not Virginia, which ABC says does not sanction any stimulus signs). Read the full story here.”
A New York Times survey last fall found that at least half a dozen states were not erecting the signs, which they see as a waste of money.
California Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (described in a recent Washington Post item as “one of the president’s chief antagonists”) has been a leading voice for the forces against the signs and he’s asked the stimulus watchdog for an investigation.
Obama hits back at Republicans over stimulus
The White House is stepping up its efforts to call out Republicans for what Democrats see as hypocrisy over the $787 billion stimulus package.
Republicans have slammed the bill as wasteful and ineffective at creating jobs but the Obama administration says some of the same politicians who have lambasted the package have lined up for a share of the money for their states and districts.
“Independent economists credit the Recovery Act with growing the economy and for two million jobs that otherwise wouldn’t exist,” President Barack Obama told a gathering of the nation’s governors at the White House.
“Now, I understand that some of you still claim it’s not working or wasn’t worth it, but I also know that you’ve used it to close your budget gaps or break ground on new projects,” he added. “I’ve seen the photos, and I’ve read the press releases, so it must be doing something right.”
At a conservative gathering in Washington last week, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney blasted the stimulus package, saying it had failed to spur private-sector hiring.
Obama got some support over the weekend from California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who credited the stimulus with creating 150,000 new jobs in his state.
We are a great team, but only because we deal in facts, not opinion. After reading through this long thread, it seems that Get added much to the discussion, to which TC merely added his honest opinion after ignoring several undisputed facts.
Student lightbulb for Obama: use stimulants to stimulate economy
A student in Pennsylvania offered President Barack Obama a way to boost the economy that probably hasn’t been on the table at the White House.
“Mr. Obama, I really appreciate how you’re trying to stimulate the economy to help this country out,” the second-year student began in addressing the president on his visit to Allentown.
Then he noted that in college he had been studying “some criminology…”
(Remember those student eureka moments in solving the world’s problems?)
And here comes the thesis: “I was wondering if, maybe if you checked out some of the statistics about legalizing prostitution, gambling, drugs and nonviolent crime in order to stimulate some of the economy?”
Hmmmm … So how is a president to respond?
“I think, first of all, part of what you’re supposed to do in college is question conventional wisdom,” Obama said. “And so you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing — which is thinking in new ways about things.”
Our States Attorneys do not prosecute very much in this country any more. They persecute. Ninety-two percent of all cases are plea bargained. What would happen to our criminal justice system if most of the accused demanded a trial.
Has stimulus become a dirty word at the White House?
If it walks like a stimulus and quacks like a stimulus, is it a stimulus?
That’s the question being thrown at White House spokesman Robert Gibbs this week. And he has so far refused to bite.
In yesterday’s White House media briefing, “stimulus” came up five times, but never once uttered by Gibbs.
His responses were “recovery plan” and “safety-net policies.”
On Monday, a reporter asked about programs included in the first economic stimulus package that may be considered for extension such as homebuyer tax credit and jobless benefits.
“Why is that not a stealth second stimulus?” a reporter asked.
“I appreciate the connotation,” Gibbs replied.
Re: Posting by Liz
Do you really think you know what you are talking about? The stimulus was rushed through Congress and signed by obama. Get informed dork.
Honestly, the populace is getting dumber and lazier with every passing day.
No sequel to ‘cash for clunkers’ but…
While the $3 billion “Cash for Clunkers” blockbuster is over, Congress is not finished with Detroit.
No one is talking about a “Return of Clunker” or “Son of Clunker” sequel, but it still looks as if car companies will renew their part in the congressional agenda even as another humongous production — healthcare — threatens to swallow the Capitol whole.
A priority for Democrats everywhere is to push the benefits of economic stimulus and pound the podium on job creation. Thursday, the focus is on the future of manufacturing in the economically hard-hit Midwest — a battleground in any election scenario.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer will travel to Michigan to discuss legislation working its way through the chamber that would provide hundreds of millions of dollars to help spur development of advanced technology vehicles – like better hybrids and all-electric cars.
A fellow Democrat who is the driving force behind the bill, Representative Gary Peters, will join Hoyer and auto and supplier execs at a late-afternoon news conference in Troy. Peters’ district includes facilities operated by Chrysler and General Motors — both of which have cut tens of thousands of jobs and are trying to find their way after bankruptcy.
The Obama administration and fellow Democrats in Congress have pushed for billions in battery development and other projects this year to jump-start a new generation of fuel efficient vehicles and plant seeds for a “green” economy in Michigan, Ohio and other states where traditional manufacturing jobs have disappeared.
Photo credit: Reuters/Rebecca Cook (crushed vehicles to be shipped to the shredder in Detroit)
president did the right thing thomas?he has in the long term closed them down. The promise of a new generation of green cars is just an excuse to carry on giving them (unions) bale outs. Can you see a similarity in this story,in europe a socialist government was elected and their biggest supporters, the auto trade unions,were in trouble,because they had started making datsun and toyota in the country and they were not only better cars but cheaper as well.It was commonly thought that one of the reasons why they had fallen behind the competition was that they consistently went on srike and the labor walk outs stopped the production lines.So people formed the opinion that the auto unions were not being responsible striking all the time. The unions were annoyed at this assumption so to show the people that this was a misconception and that they were not” strike happy”they had a national strike. Anyway the government decided to do what Obama has done they took control of these companies thinking they would protect the unions,sadly wrong move, no more Austin or Rover or Triumph etc all closed down,or owed by BMW.
Txhman, you are incorrect. Texas and Parry gave back zero.