While historical scholars still debate the value of the New Deal reforms pushed by FDR, history will likely not be as kind to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly known as the stimulus.
Today, the stimulus turns five years old. Though we were warned that the stimulus would not change our economic prosperity overnight, five years later, Americans are still eagerly awaiting the change promised five years ago today.
To mark this anniversary, the White House adhered to their tried-and-true tactic: never retreat.
“Thanks in significant part to the actions of President Obama, the economic picture today is much brighter,” the Obama Administration stated. “GDP per capita started expanding in the third quarter of 2009 and reached its pre-crisis level in nearly four years, considerably faster than the historical record suggests is the typical pace of recovery following a systemic financial crisis.”
Senator Marco Rubio, however, issued a rebuttal, noting, “If you recall five years ago, the notion was that if the government spent all this money — that, by the way, was borrowed — that somehow the economy would begin to grow and create jobs . Well, of course, it clearly failed.”
Speaker John Boehner stated that most Americans blame President Obama for the failed economy.
“Since he can’t blame George W. Bush anymore, the president has chosen to talk about rising income inequality, unemployment, and the need to extend emergencyunemployment benefits ,” Boehner said. “After five years in office, Barack Obama still doesn’t have an answer to the question: Where are the jobs?”
While Democrats and Republicans have long bickered back-and-forth about how successful the stimulus package was, the fact remains that for the $800+ billion invested into our promised recovery, America has not seen anything in the ways of meaningful economic changes.
Further, at the heart of the issue is the counterfactual discussion of what would have happened if government had not passed the stimulus but had, instead, merely lightened the burdens of taxation and regulation on small businesses and allow the private sector to adjust itself.
While the Keynesian model of throwing money at the problem thrilled big government-supporters, it’s undeniable that we, as a nation, are in a more precarious economic situation than we were five years ago. Having borrowed and borrowed and spent and spent, America is now over $17 trillion in debt and the federal government is showing no signs of slowing down.
So, the question remains: Even if Democrats could show miniscule GDP and job growth, what did such measly growth cost us? Furthermore, who’s to say that such growth couldn’t have been fostered by simply getting government out of the way?
Tax-and-spenders pumped the stimulus full of unnecessary spending. Conservative Senator Tom Coburn has been ripping the spending fiasco for half-a-decade, each year enumerating wasteful spending in his Government Waste Book.
Among some of the more outrageous expenditures has been:
- $152,000 for a study at Clark University, in Worcester, Mass. To prepare lesbians for “adoptive parenting.”
- $1.3 million on highway signs telling motorists that their tax dollars are being well-spent.
- $100,000 to put on “In The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre,” a Che Guevara-inspired puppet show in Minnesota that rails against the evils of capitalism.
-And, of course, $535 million to Solyndra, headed by Obama associate George Kaiser. Two years after receiving nearly half-a-billion dollars, the alternative energy firm filed for bankruptcy and shrugged-off the millions lost by taxpayers.
Whether the economic stimulus did anything to help our economy is a matter of debate. However, considering the hefty pricetag and the rampant spending abuses that came with the stimulus, whatever almost-immeasurable advantage the stimulus might have provided is far outweighed by the costs.
Five years later, America is still waiting for the fulfillment of promises from America’s worst president.
http://freebeacon.com/the-10-most-outrageous-stimulus-projects/
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