Obama’s jobs plan: $447 billion for one decent month of employment growth
The headline is “Obama Jobs Plan May Prevent 2012 Recession.” But the story Bloomberg published, based on its survey of economists about the president’s $447 billion proposal, is best summarized by the second paragraph:
The legislation, submitted to Congress this month, would increase gross domestic product by 0.6 percent next year and add or keep 275,000 workers on payrolls, the median estimates in the survey of 34 economists showed. The program would also lower the jobless rate by 0.2 percentage point in 2012, economists said.
For those keeping score at home, that’s a “jobs plan” that costs more than $1.6 million per job. If the president wants to spend taxpayer dollars to provoke demand-side job creation, he would be better off holding a lottery and giving $10,000 apiece to 45 million people.
Worse, the Economic Policy Institute earlier this year estimated it would take job growth of 285,000 per month, every month for the next five years, for the economy to return to the pre-recession unemployment rate. That was after February’s job-growth numbers came out; job growth has come in well below 285,000 every month since then. (It was zero in August, in case you forgot.)
So, President Obama wants to spend $447 billion to speed up the recovery process by one month. Or, rather, the better part of one month.
The White House, according to Bloomberg, prefers to cite economists who say the plan would boost hiring by 1 million. But for every economist in the survey that says the plan would perform that well, there’s another who says it won’t produce any net new jobs. [This sentence has been edited from the original; see explanation in my comment at 11:20 a.m. -- KW]
Oh, and that line about the plan keeping us out of a recession next year? If 0.6 percent of GDP is the difference between being in a recession and staying out of one, we’re in for a rough 2012.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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163 comments Add your comment
Now with Ten Percent More Flavor
September 28th, 2011
9:13 pm
Under Gee W., unemployment went from4.2% to 7.4%. Obama extended the Bush tax cuts to appease the Republicans because the Republicans said that the job creators had to have their tax cuts in order for them to hire people. The unemployment rate continued to climb. Those tax cuts for job creators were pocketed. No jobs were created by Bush tax cuts. Bush and the Republican trickle down philosophy failed.
Lil' Barry Bailout
September 28th, 2011
9:19 pm
Our President Bush’s tax cuts lowered unemployment from 6% to 4%.
Your Idiot Messiah didn’t cut income tax rates, he left the rates where they were. Why you would expect NOT changing those rates to create jobs is a mystery.
Now with Ten Percent More Flavor
September 28th, 2011
9:20 pm
I see little Barry bailout is trying to project his worshipping of an idiot onto other bloggers. That is a real loser strategy and so typically Republican.
Now with Ten Percent More Flavor
September 28th, 2011
9:21 pm
The unemployment rate under Bush went from 4.2% in January 2001 to 7.4% in January 2009. The facts elude little Barry bailout.
Now with Ten Percent More Flavor
September 28th, 2011
9:23 pm
President Obama extended the Bush tax cuts, like I said, and the unemployment rate continued to climb even with the Republican “job creator” tax cuts. The Bush tax cuts are a proven failure.
Lil' Barry Bailout
September 28th, 2011
9:34 pm
Obozo would love to get his years-long 9% unemployment number down to that one-month 7.4% you cited. He’d also like to get his budget deficit problem below $1.3 trillion. And he’d probably like to fix the record levels of poverty he’s created. Unfortunately, his liberal fascism and incompetence prevent any of that from happening.
Our President Bush: Superior to your Idiot Messiah.
What? What? What?
September 28th, 2011
10:01 pm
Michael H. Smith
September 28th, 2011
7:42 pm
Lay off the pipe dude.
Typical
September 28th, 2011
10:04 pm
Lil’ Barry Bailout
September 28th, 2011
9:34 pm
Obozo would love to get his years-long 9% unemployment number down to that one-month 7.4% you cited. He’d also like to get his budget deficit problem below $1.3 trillion. And he’d probably like to fix the record levels of poverty he’s created. Unfortunately, his liberal fascism and incompetence prevent any of that from happening. Our President Bush: Superior to your Idiot Messiah.
Republican Policies: Turning 4.2% GDP growth into NEGATIVE -2.6%.
Typical
September 28th, 2011
10:07 pm
Lil’ Barry Bailout
September 28th, 2011
9:34 pm
Obozo would love to get his years-long 9% unemployment number down to that one-month 7.4% you cited. He’d also like to get his budget deficit problem below $1.3 trillion. And he’d probably like to fix the record levels of poverty he’s created.
Why don’t you run a little google on wealth disparity, and see who has been making all the money the last 10 years. Then you can re-phrase your last sentence.
JKL2
September 28th, 2011
10:46 pm
I see more flavor is trying to project his worshipping of an idiot onto other bloggers. That is a real loser strategy and so typically Democrat.
buck@gon
September 29th, 2011
1:42 am
Typical,
“wealth disparity”. ???
Yeah, why don’t we pull a “Jay Bookman” and try and consider what say, the World Bank thinks about doing business in America.
I don’t know about you, but seems to me that wealth disparity only increases when 15% of the country is unemployed. Still feeling hope-and-changey about Obama’s ability to tax the rich and pay you some of it in cash?
You must be abyssmally stupid.
Hey Typical. I’ll give you a million bucks if you vote for me!!
–My first supporter!
buck@gon
September 29th, 2011
1:56 am
A must READ
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/278526/obama-s-racial-crisis-victor-davis-hanson?page=2mments here
Lil' Barry Bailout
September 29th, 2011
6:40 am
If wealth disparity is such a problem, why isn’t your Idiot Messiah doing anything to get the record number of folks in poverty due to his policies into high paying jobs?
Idiot Messiah: Incompetent. Loser.