INDEX
- Vote 'NO!' to Government Regulation of Privacy at The Economist
- FCC Stalls on Internet Regulation; Asks for More Comments
- Why was the Volcker Commission Constrained by Obama’s Tax Pledge, but not the Simpson-Bowles?
- Daily Media Spotlight September 2, 2010
- Harry Reid Looks to Resurrect RES During Lame-Duck
- Calculating the Cost of Government (CFA Site »)
Thursday, September 2, 2010
- Daily Media Spotlight September 1, 2010
-
Obama Tax Commission Report:
Baby Step Toward IRS Tax Preparation - Dina Titus Launches False Attack Ad on Joe Heck and the Taxpayer Protection Pledge
- Indiana LaunchesTransparency Website (CFA Site »)
- Rally for Jobs Kicks Off Today in Texas
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
- Daily Media Spotlight August 31, 2010
- Let us All Join in on the NOT so “Green Cause”
- California Bag Ban Bill Up for Vote Today
- Norquist to Gov. Pat Quinn: Pick a Flawed Income Tax Hike and Stick With It
- Phil Moffett Signs Taxpayer Protection Pledge in Kentucky Gubernatorial Race
- New Mexico Sets Trends in Transparency Websites (CFA Site »)
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
- Robert Gibbs’s Fuzzy Tax Hike Math
- Daily Media Spotlight August 30, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
- 2011 Could Be Ugly for Nevada Taxpayers
- Lame Duck Governor Ed Rendell Not Going Gently Into That Good Night – New Call for Higher Taxes
- Happy Cost of Government Day, California
- Bay Staters Spent 239 Days Paying for Government Burdens in 2010 (CFA Site »)
- Washington Welcomes Cost of Government Day (CFA Site »)
Friday, August 27, 2010
- Spill Commission Should Lift Moratorium Which Has Cost Gulf Residents 12,000 Jobs and $2.1 Billion
- Daily Media Spotlight August 26, 2010
- Why is Dan Onorato Knowingly Misleading Pennsylvania Voters?
- Unions plan on spending big this election cycle
- Utah Tobacco Sellers Feeling the Impact of Tax Hikes
Thursday, August 26, 2010
- Daily Media Spotlight August 25, 2010
- WI Democrats Launch “Blatantly False” Attack on Sean Duffy
- Unions plan on spending big this election cycle (AWF Site »)
- Philly's New Blog Tax May Foreshadow Other eTaxes
- BNA: For 14 States, Existing Tax Code Leaves Room for Etax (Stop eTaxes Site »)
- Philly's $300 Blogger Tax (Stop eTaxes Site »)
- Cost of Government Day Arrives in the Commonwealth
- Pennsylvania Finally Celebrates Cost of Government Day
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
- California Budget Proposal Advocates eTax (Stop eTaxes Site »)
- Daily Media Spotlight August 24, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
- Daily Media Spotlight August 23, 2010
- Government Workers' Pensions are Underfunded by $3 Trillion
Monday, August 23, 2010
- Fourteen Ways to Reduce Government Spending
- FCC Report on Broadband Performance: A Scare Tactic
- Sen. Al Franken Doesn’t Understand Wireless Networks...or the First Amendment
Friday, August 20, 2010
- Daily Media Spotlight August 19, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
"Stimulus" Fact of the Day: Told You So - “Saved or Created Jobs” Claim Can’t Be Substantiated
From Sandra Fabry on Thursday, March 26, 2009 4:27 PM
This would be the second post for today in which we can say: "Told you so!"
Today, the Associated Press finally acknowledges that the Obama administration’s “bold claims of stimulus jobs can’t be measured.”
No promise from President Barack Obama is more important to the wounded economy than his vow to save or create some 3.5 million jobs in two years. In support of that bottom line, the government even tells states how many jobs they can expect to see from the spending and tax cuts.But precise trajectories are impossible to plot and even approximations can be wildly off, as the authors of these forecasts acknowledge, usually more readily than the policymakers who use them to promote the plan.
ATR and CFA have long been critical of the “saved and created jobs” claims made by the Obama administration, and were even joined by in their skepticism by finance committee chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) who on March 4 stated:
You created a situation where you cannot be wrong. If the economy loses 2 million jobs over the next few years, you can say yes, but it would've lost 5.5 million jobs. If we create a million jobs, you can say, well, it would have lost 2.5 million jobs. You've given yourself complete leverage where you cannot be wrong, because you can take any scenario and make yourself look correct.
Sen. Baucus apparently learnt this the hard way, as this news story from Montana, which ran the day prior to his statement:
A joint press release from Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester claimed that $1.3 million in federal recovery funding would create 40 new jobs for the Flathead City-County Heath Department.However the actual employment plans at the Flathead Community Health Center – adding only two more jobs during the next fiscal year – paint a different picture. Both Senators’ offices attributed the jobs claims to the Administration, and could not elaborate on how these employment estimates were generated.
Says ATR president Grover Norquist:
It’s about time the establishment press realizes that all this talk about ‘jobs saved or created’ is bogus. The AP story hits the nail on the head when it says that ‘if space exploration were conducted like the job forecasts under the government’s new stimulus law, man surely would have missed the moon.’ Absolutely they would have!
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Comments
These are the type of common sense lessons that everyone in Congress should learn. I hope to see more of these posts along this theme! And I love the graphic.
>> NoNewTaxes Friday, March 27, 2009 12:18 AM Report Comment
This week GM and IBM announced they reduced employees by about 14,000. Clear, concise and factual. They did that in the hopes of "saving" the remaining jobs they offer. In GM's case, do the remaining employees owe their jobs to Obama, or GM? He may have just saved some more jobs, which is important, seeing that metro Detroit's unemployment is about 50% (Detroit News). Using current logic, anyone who is still employed has a "saved" job.
>> Becky Friday, March 27, 2009 10:33 AM Report Comment