The Stimulus Worked

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DNC Chair: “Well, the Republicans who think the Recovery Act (stimulus) didn’t work are simply wrong. The Recovery Act, as of the beginning of this year, created an additional 3.6 million jobs. We have — the Recovery Act had a direct impact on making sure the teachers, firefighters, police officers were able to remain in their jobs. It begun — it helped begin to turn the economy around.

(Via Real Clear Politics)

I’ve written about this before. You can’t measure jobs created based on what could have happened. We could have lost 20 million jobs last year and the stimulus could have created 20 million jobs. That’s pretty unlikely, but it could have happened. Nobody gets judged on ‘ifs’ and ‘could-haves’.

There is something we can measure: what has actually happened. That’s how people are judged. What’s happened since Obama’s been elected? I’m so glad you asked:

• The nation’s debt has increased by $4.0 trillion in a matter of 2.6 years.¹
• The unemployment rate has skyrocketed and currently sits at 9.1% ²
• Not only has the unemployment rate risen, the total number of people in the labor pool has dropped from 62.9% of the US population when Obama took office to 58.2% today. That amounts to a 4.7% shrinkage³ in the total number of people in the labor pool as a percent of population.⁴
• The Democrat-controlled congress passed a healthcare bill that America doesn’t want⁵ and several judges (even a Federal judge appointed by Bill Clinton) have ruled it’s unconstitutional.⁶
• The total number of uninsured Americans has risen.⁷

Yep, anyone who thinks the stimulus didn’t work is simply wrong.