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Obama Says Economic Stimulus Plan Worked as Intended

By Edwin Chen

July 11 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama said his $787 billion stimulus bill “has worked as intended” as he pushed back against Republican criticism that his recovery program has failed to rescue the economy.

What kind of policy is intended to keep unemployment rising for the next year?

The president either doesn’t understand the monetary system or is totally insensitive to the plight of his electorate.

“It has already extended unemployment insurance and health insurance to those who have lost their jobs in this recession,” Obama, who is traveling today in Ghana, said in his weekly Saturday radio and Web address. “It has delivered $43 billion in tax relief to American working families and business.”

It is sustaining over 10 million people rotting in the unemployment lines as more and more short term unemployed deteriorate into irreversible long term unemployed, lives and families are ruined, and untold trillions of useful output is irrevocably lost.

Obama spoke after stocks fell for a fourth week on concern that an economic recovery will be delayed. A government report last week showed that employers cut 467,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, the highest since 1983.

The weakening labor market is taking a toll on Obama’s popularity. A survey by Hamden, Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University released July 7 showed 49 percent of Ohio voters approved of Obama’s job performance, down from 62 percent in a May 6 poll. The disapproval figure for Obama was 44 percent, up from 31 percent in May.

Either he doesn’t care about his numbers or doesn’t know how the monetary system works.

Or is playing politics with our lives figuring if things improve towards the end of his term he will get re elected.

Obama, in his speech, said the stimulus program is helping state governments save jobs. Were it not for the program, the president said, “state deficits would be nearly twice as large as they are now, resulting in tens of thousands of additional layoffs — layoffs that would affect police officers, teachers, and firefighters.”

True, and with the right per capita distribution to the states and a payroll tax holiday unemployment would have quickly fallen back towards prior levels of 5% or less.

In asking for public patience, Obama said the recovery act “wasn’t designed to restore the economy to full health on its own, but to provide the boost necessary to stop the free fall.”

Enacted in February, the bill “was designed to spur demand and get people spending again and cushion those who had borne the brunt of the crisis,” the president said.

He doesn’t understand that it’s the current fiscal balance that is keeping demand down, though he’s correct that it all would be even worse if there hadn’t been any adjustment.

Obama said the measure “was not designed to work in four months — it was designed to work over two years.”

Why? What is the advantage to the population of a strategy like that???

The spending plan will “accelerate greatly” through the summer and autumn, creating “thousands more infrastructure projects” that will lead to additional jobs, he said.

And still not enough to make a dent in unemployment, lost output, along with all the collateral damage.

‘Right Direction’

“We’re moving in the right direction,” Obama said.

Agreed.

“We must let it work the way it’s supposed to, with the understanding that in any recession, unemployment tends to recover more slowly than other measures of economic activity.”

With the understanding that prior administrations were in over their heads as well.

In a Bloomberg interview last month, the president said he expected unemployment rates to exceed 10 percent.

Not enough for him to care enough to take further action to remove the current fiscal drag of government policy.

In his radio address, Obama also renewed his commitment to comprehensive health-care legislation that expands insurance coverage while cutting costs. He also vowed to address long-term entitlement overhaul.

The pledge to cut costs and make it pay for itself ensures it will not add to aggregate demand and not help shrink the output gap.

Earlier this week, Vice President Joe Biden also defended the Obama administration’s efforts to rebuild America’s economy, while expressing frustration with those who say progress is too slow.

“Remember, we’re only 140 days into this deal,” Biden said in a speech in Cincinnati. “It’s supposed to take 18 months.”

‘Supposed to’ ???!!!

Who are these people???

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