In a Slate article entitled "Did the Stimulus Really Fail? - Not Really", the central argument appears to be that it didn't fail because it did actually create jobs. David Weiger knows this primarily because the Republicans are stressing the price tag of each job created, and crowing that this means the Republicans are contradicting themselves when they say that it didn't create jobs.
The analysis that the Weekly Standard tore apart found that the stimulus increased employment by about 400,000 jobs in the first quarter after it went into effect, and increased it by about 2.7 million at its peak. If you're deriding the price tag for those jobs, you're acknowledging that the jobs exist.Of course, this presumes two things. That the Republicans aren't using the Democrats' numbers for the sake of argument, which I would assume they are. And the other presumes that a job which may have existed for a few months because there was temporarily government money for it -- that that job continues to exist when the money dries up.
So if by "work" you mean "created jobs" and we grant you for the sake of argument that you may have "created" some temporary jobs, then maybe it "worked".
If you mean it "primed the pump" and stimulated the economy to pull it out of a deep recession ... no. It didn't.Panic has set in.
Pipe Down Now, Keyensians.
1 comment:
Never having held a real job themselves, liberals don't know what "jobs" really entail.
No,Moonbeam, your "job" at a "nonprofit" isn't really work (and oh by the way, do you know how a company becomes a "nonprofit"? I don't mean the tax code section; I'm talking the basic stuff -- like how a "corporation" (that evil word!!) can afford to pay you, and dozens like you, $25K per annum with full health benefits. Ever think on that, dear heart?)
This ties back into one of my all-time favorite pieces of liberal idiocy, "war is good for business" (hey, maybe our undeclared illegal war of choice/aggression in Libya is part of the "stimulus" package?). Yeah, there was full employment during WWII -- hell, you couldn't walk down the street without tripping over a fat job in 1943. Problem was, all those "jobs" dried up when we ran out of Nazis to shoot, and "bazooka handler first class" isn't really a transferable skill on the ol' CV... just as "census worker" and "community organizer" and "ACORN vote fabricator/pimp" aren't real jobs and don't last past the "stimulus."
But it's like I've always said: there are people who could pass Econ 101, and there are liberals.
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