How has the stimulus bill worked, failed?
As President Obama’s approval numbers slip under 50 percent for the first time in Ohio, Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Cincinnati yesterday to defend the administration’s economic recovery package and to ask for patience.
A second stimulus package is already being considered and Republicans are calling the first one passed in February, a “failure,” according to MSNBC. Here’s some more information from Reuters:
Almost five months after Democrats used their majorities in the U.S. Congress to push through the stimulus, the two-year package has had little impact as anxious Americans watch the country’s unemployment rate surge to 9.5 percent.
The White House had expected the U.S. unemployment rate to peak at 8.0 percent when it worked with Congress to push through the $787 billion plan.
Here’s an ad by the GOP talking about the stimulus package.
When Obama first passed the stimulus bill, did you think the economy would be in its current condition? Do you agree with Republicans who say it has failed? Why? Is another stimulus bill the solution? If so, how should it be different?
FAIL!
Republicans had best keep the gloating to a minimum. Their president’s “stimulus” last year primed the pump for this sewage backup. Voters have a kettle of tar ready for them too.
I agreed with those who predicted the Obama/Pelosi/Reid Porkulus plan would fail. In a year we’ll be longing for 9.5% unemployment. What I didn’t expect was all the blatant corruption and graft on top of colossal failure.
Now we know what Obama was talking about when he promised to bring something new to Washington - the worst of Chicago sleaze. Pelosi promised to drain the swamp back in 2006. Obama just build a Hoover dam.
Ad hominems, tu quoques, and hyperpartisan hysteria in 3,2,1…
This is exactly what I expected to see from the stimulus package. What is a second stimulus going to do for us except put the country further in debt? The wasteful spending needs to stop. This isn’t about republicans. It isn’t about democrats. It’s about government wasting money. Then they come up with creative ways to increase taxes without calling it a tax increase. Call your representatives in congress and the senate and tell them to stop the wasteful spending.
GM and Chrysler still filed bankruptcy and unemployment is still growing. The country is deeper in the hole financially. If you think that it is working, I think your nuts. The only thing that the government should have done is investigated the abuse in the oil industry a long time ago. The excessive amount of money that Americans were forced to spend on energy took all of their expendable money out of their pockets. You can’t fix money problems by borrowing more money.
Go_Fish and Jeep Guy, I commend you for calling out BOTH sides for failure to understand basic economic principles in the first (Bush) and second (Obama) spending sprees.
Part of the problem with the Porkulus package is that, as predicted by the Congressional Budget Office and most Americans with a shred of economics understanding, most of the money hasn’t even been spent. Obama laid out a timetable for spending that has been absolutely shredded by reality. Money that has been released has had story after story come out about graft and corruption, mismanagement and misuse.
Meanwhile, we spent money on GM and they failed anyway. We tried to keep the unemployment rate under 10% and that isn’t going to happen. Just yesterday Obama said “economic recovery is a long way off”…JUST as the economics predicted would be the case back in 2008.
The lesson here is one we should have learned with Katrina, or last summer’s gas prices, or any other thing you can think of: You are a fool if you think the Federal Government is going to fix it.
The Obama lovers like Slugger will post soon to say we had to do SOMETHING, that at least Obama tried. Let’s nip that in the bud right now. Spending your way out of a recession doesn’t work. Increasing debt has long term ramifications. Everything that was originally expected to happen before Bush and Obama mortgaged our future has still happened, only now we have a much bigger deficit…
Change, indeed.
History will show that the stimulus has failed, just like most government programs never seem to achieve what their supposed to. Forget about politicial parties. Although the taxpayer has seen government budget deficits continue to spiral upward, the taxpayer is not seeing any of the spent money, but rather banks and other institutions are receiving the funds instead of us. A real recovery will usually be lead by the consumer, not institutions.
Here’s why the second stimulus plan will not work:
I (and others who don’t believe that we can spend our way out of a debt hole), will spread enough fear and uncertainty about the future to keep most people from spending. I’ll keep reminding people about how the whole economy is a stack of cards right now. About how they should put off ANY purchases until things are better. I’ll show the examples of the idiots who are stuck with massive credit card debt right now. In short, a lot of that stimulus money is going straight into savings accounts from people I can convince not to buy a new car or new clothes.
For every person you can convince to open their wallet, I can find ten who I can convince to cut back significantly. And I’m going to keep on doing this until the federal government passes a balanced budget law.
We already torpedoed your first stimulus.
FAIL.
I believe this administration is going to destroy America, and the so-called stimulus was nothing than a gift to Obama’s supporters during the election. America voted for the leader of the corrupt Chicago political machine and by God we got one!
Hope & Change!!! LOL!!! Community organizer?! I “hope” we can “change” the congress, senate, & presidency next elections. All you Dems are getting what asked for. I hope Texas succedes b/c if they do, I moving there.