United Liberty

President Barack Obama says that economists from the left and the right agree that the “stimulus” bill has saved jobs. Jake Tapper from ABC News isn’t sure about that:

[C]learly other economists are much more skeptical, including Dan Mitchell at the libertarian Cato Institute, and J.D. Foster at The Heritage Foundation.

Some economists say the whole notion of counting “saved or created” jobs is impossible. Harvard University labor economist Lawrence Katz told ProPublica that trying to count how many jobs have been saved or created is “a silly exercise.”

And in fact, in December the Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag issued a directive scrapping the whole “saved or created” construct.

“Instead, recipients will more easily and objectively report on jobs funded with Recovery Act dollars,” Orszag wrote.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t we told that unemployment would not rise above 8% with the stimulus. Two hundred economists warned the president that he was making a mistake with the stimulus bill and that it would not create new jobs, pointing to lessons from the past. Now we’re over 10% unemployment and things don’t seem to be getting any better.

The guys over at reason.tv are having fun with Barack Obama’s rhetoric about created jobs due to the wasteful stimulus bill:

According to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office shows the stimulus bill passed by Congress will now cost $75 billion more (from $787 billion to $862 billion) than taxpayers were originally told by the Obama Administration and the Democratic leadership in Congress.

Here is the story from CNN:

Just after a budget deficit of $1.4 billion and starting off the new fiscal year $292 billion in the red, President Barack Obama is planning to spend more money with the false hope of pulling us out of the recession:

President Barack Obama outlined new multibillion-dollar stimulus and jobs proposals Tuesday, saying the nation must continue to “spend our way out of this recession” until more Americans are back at work.

Without giving a price tag, Obama proposed a package of new spending for highway, bridge and other infrastructure projects, deeper tax breaks for small businesses and tax incentives to encourage people to make their homes more energy efficient.
[…]
He called for more government spending on infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges and water projects and for new tax breaks for consumers who invest in energy-efficient retrofits in their homes. This could be what some administration officials have called a “Cash for Caulkers” program modeled on the now-expired Cash for Clunkers program of tax rebates for people who turned in old cars for more fuel-efficient models.

I was talking to a small business owner last night about. He said tax breaks for small business owners are a necessity. I tend to agree, however, any tax cuts for business need to be broad, not just directed at small business.