Obama's Stimulus Is Working Perfectly

If you've lost you job recently, then you should celebrate. Barack Obama says it was all part of the plan.

"In a little over 100 days, this Recovery Act has worked as intended," he said. He said that thanks to the $787 billion spending bill he signed in February, "We've been able to pull our financial system and our economy back from the brink."

How many jobs will the salt marsh harvest mouse create or save?

Judging your own stimulus plan is like a self-scored IQ test. You always win.

Of course, when you honestly compare Bush's stimulus plan to Barack Obama's, you get an idea of which philosophy performs better.

Obama -5.2%
Bush +23.8%

Which would you prefer?

Stimulating Your Friends

It pays to be friends with Colorado governor Bill Ritter.

Ritter hired his former law firm, the Washington-based Hogan & Hartson, in a no-bid contract to review stimulus spending, The Denver Post reported Friday. It said the firm was paid $40,000 in stimulus money through June.

Aides to the governor insisted the contract was properly awarded. The state attorney general's office deemed the contract necessary to allow the state to have speedy legal advice about stimulus money. The contract is too small to require competitive bidding.

I can't spend $3000 without putting it out for competitive bid.

This might be clean, but Republicans are required to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. Democrats aren't held to so high a standard.

Hat tip: Hot Air

Obama Changes The Definition of Success

When your program is a demonstrable failure, what to do? How about grade inflation?

With public confidence in the stimulus package showing signs of ebbing, the Obama administration is continuing to sell its impact with nation-wide events and press appearances.

Today brings this explanation, from Christina Romer, the chairman of the president’s Council on Economic Advisers: Stimulus spending, Romer told the Financial Times, is “going to ramp up strongly through the summer and the fall.”

“We always knew we were not going to get all that much fiscal impact during the first five to six months. The big impact starts to hit from about now onwards,” Romer said.

We’ve known for some time that the money takes a while to get out the door.

But top Obama advisers haven’t always been so cautious in predicting how the long the stimulus would take to be felt.

Back in February, with Congress moving swiftly to approve President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package, White House budget director Peter Orszag said the benefits of the stimulus would be “take weeks to months” to be felt.

Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council, was even more optimistic: “You'll see the effects begin almost immediately,” Summers told CNN in February.

I guess this means that they're going to stop boasting that they've already "saved or created" 150,000 jobs.

Obama's Amazingly Stupid Idea

If you thought that John McCain and Hillary Clinton's plan to relieve gas prices by temporarily suspending federal gas taxes was dumb, it looks like sheer genius compared to Barack Hussein Obama's idea.

The first part of Obama’s plan is an emergency energy rebate ($500 to individual workers, $1,000 to families) as soon as this fall.

“This rebate will be enough to offset the increased cost of gas for a working family over the next four months,” Obama said. “Or, if you live in a state where it gets very cold in the winter, it will be enough to cover the entire increase in your heating bills. Or you could use the rebate for any of your other bills or even to pay down debt.

I guess Barack Hussein Obama doesn't read the news. There ain't no recession. And the 5.7% unemployment rate was considered good stuff when Clinton was president.

But, here's the best part:

Friday’s proposal says Obama “is proposing to offset the cost of his emergency energy rebates over the next five years by enacting a windfall profits tax on big oil companies.”

“Obama simply asks that big oil companies contribute a reasonable share of the windfall profits they receive from high oil prices over the next five years to pay for emergency assistance for families right now,” the campaign says.

This is like scooping water from one end of a bathtub and dumping it the other. These taxes will simply be passed on in the form of higher prices at the pump. Now, if Barack Hussein Obama really wants to give the American consumer a break.....

No Recession In Sight

So, why do we need a stimulus package?

The slowing U.S. economy is unlikely to sink into an election-year recession and an economic rebound could begin as early as next year as housing and financial market turmoil fades, the Congressional Budget Office forecast on Wednesday.

In the meantime, the U.S. budget deficit will grow to $219 billion this year, up from the $163 billion registered last year, according to a CBO report submitted to Congress.

Make that about $370 billion after our unnecessary stimulus package.

Medical quacks rely upon the certainty that 9 of 10 patients will recover from whatever ails them regardless of or in spite of the treatment they receive. Political quacks fall back on the same effect.