Today in Washington D. C. - June 8, 2009 - Where are the jobs?

Note: This is an update on news and comments by Washington sources on June 8th. ARRA News did not posting additional info as editor was traveling.

Politico reports that, “President Barack Obama is announcing Monday that he is ramping up stimulus spending exponentially in the next three months, allowing the administration to ‘save or create’ 600,000 jobs — four times as many as during the first 100 days since he signed the bill.” It’s important to keep a few things in mind as the president touts his $787 billion stimulus bill today: no one has been able to figure out how one measures jobs “saved or created,” let alone verify the White House’s numbers; Obama and Democrats sold the stimulus saying that unemployment would have leveled off by now, though it continues to increase; and Americans are souring on the deficit spending the administration has used for the stimulus and other programs, according to a new Gallup poll.

Back in April, the Obama administration was claiming that the stimulus bill had “already saved or created over 150,000 jobs.” Where are they! Fackcheck.org wrote at the time, “It turns out the president’s claim is really an estimate of what his economic advisers think the stimulus bill is doing, and not based on any evidence of its actual effects.” Can we expect similarly rigorous measurement of the goal of 600,000 jobs Obama wants to “save or create” over the summer?

In the process of trying to get Congress to pass a bill that added over $1 trillion to the national debt (when interest payments are included), Democrats in Congress and the administration relied on a report from White House economic advisor Christina Romer that unemployment would level off by now, at around 8%, and would start going down in the second half of 2009 if the stimulus passed. But according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 2.9 million jobs have been lost this year and unemployment has continued to rise to 9.4%.

The Romer report’s claims were illustrated in a now-famous graph showing where the unemployment rate would supposedly be without the stimulus bill compared with where it would be with the bill. Bloggers have taken the liberty of graphing the actual unemployment data on this chart, and Fausta has the latest iteration in a post today, showing that the unemployment rate is far above where the administration said it would be with the stimulus bill.

Meanwhile, Americans are showing their skepticism on the unprecedented amount of deficit spending that President Obama has used things like the stimulus bill. Politico writes, “For the first time, a majority of respondents disapprove of Obama on the issue of ‘controlling federal spending’ (51% to 45%),” according to a new Gallup poll. Further, a plurality, 48%, disapprove of his handling of the deficit.

---

Tags: jobs, Gallup poll,Obama, stimulus bill, Where ar the Jobs, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!