WASHINGTON — Nearly 650,000 jobs have been saved or created under President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan, the government said Friday, and the White House declared the nation on track to meet the president’s goal of 3.5 million by the end of next year.
New job numbers from businesses, contractors, state and local governments, nonprofit groups and universities were released, showing 640,329 positions credited to the stimulus, according to the independent federal board monitoring the program’s progress.
Teachers and other education employees represent the largest number of jobs in the report — about 325,000. With state budgets in crisis, federal aid helped governors avoid major cuts in education, which officials said spared many teachers and school workers from the unemployment line.
Vice President Joe Biden said the recovery plan “is operating as advertised” and on target to reach Obama’s goal.
“We’re starting to make real progress on the road to recovery,” Biden said.
Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said “it’s bewildering” to see the Obama administration’s job-creation claims.
White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein said the figures show that, when adding in jobs linked to $288 billion in tax cuts, the stimulus has created or saved more than 1 million jobs.
Government recovery plans — everything from the $787 billion stimulus to tax credits for buying new homes to government deals on new cars — are credited with helping the economy grow again after a long and deep recession.
But the job market has yet to show signs of recovery, putting pressure on the White House to show that the stimulus was worth its hefty price. The economy has shed millions of jobs since Obama signed the stimulus in February, giving Republicans ammunition to say the government is spending too much for too little effect.
The community-organizer-in-chief and his merry little band of incompetents printed, borrowed and spent $159 billion to "save or create" less than 650,000 jobs. That's almost a quarter-million dollars per job!!! And half of them were in the education field which nationally probably doesn't average more than $60,000 per. That means the other half of the jobs cost around $400,000 each. Where do we get in line for one of these "saved or created" make-work jobs?
ww. Just wait until he gets his hand into the health plan!!
It's all just made up numbers. Figures lie and liars figure.
Gee! Wonder why unemployment is so high? All those jobs created must have gone to Acorn.
Really a low number created for all that was spent and for the millions of people that do not have a job.There seems as if there was a lot of different direction the could have went ot creat jobs.Heck the Us Citizen could have spent some of this money and the old therory of supply and demand would have kicked in. People buy there has to be people to make the goods.
They are bragging about thislow number of jobs and the unemployment rate is still way to hihg some parts of the country are very high.
credited to the purchase of new homes and cars ,well guess what most of people making these purchase's have good jobs that havent been affected by this recession,they were'nt the people making minimum wage,,, they were taking advantage of the incentives that are being offered because they still had the income to do so!! In fact company's that deal with collection's are booming and expanding ,thats where most of the 650,000 jobs are being created , I have a friend that work's in collections ,they have expanded twice in the past year .and are planning to add over 100 new jobs in the near future , in which they also use govt and city tax break incintive programs in order to get richer and richer!!!
California has boasted similar job improvement...we are currently over 12% unemployed.
The problem they don't tell you, the "created" stimulus jobs ... are government jobs. They don't produce anything or actually stimulate the economy, they merely place a larger financial burden on the tax payer requiring more government dollars, digging the hole deeper.
Additionally, few if any of the jobs are skilled jobs requiring technical or academic expertise.
California is strictly democratic ran without a check & balance of an opposing party for the last decade, not that I'm fond of the far right either.
Taxes and "fees" (which are taxes in disguise) continue to go up under our local government, as well as creating new taxes & fees daily.
Business growth and cutting taxes is fastest and most secure method to get out of the economic funk.
Our formerly business-strong state has had an exodus of business going out of state and/or out of country. And under the state's tax system, no new business wants to start here where it's become financial suicide.
So don't be fooled by the numbers.
mm1967, what you're not considering about supply and demand lends itself to similarly to the nonsense that the stimulus was created under.
You say the people would have spurred a supply and demand situation had they received the money. The reason that is not entirely true is because we have huge surplus' because people aren't spending.
New spending will only move already manufactured merchandise. Now ask yourself where the vast majority of surplus merchandise comes from: China. Wouldn't really help us now would it?
And then you're failing to understand that even if that wasn't the case (surplus of goods from China), the spending will only go until the newly printed money is circulated...
Okay so now people have a ton of junk they don't need and still don't have a job. House still in foreclosure, cars being repossessed, price of food going up (failing dollar doesn't buy as much), the containers food is being sold in are getting smaller at the same time.
Has it done anything? Nope.
This is exactly why tax cuts are the route. Poor people spend money, rich people invest it. Being poor is just as much a mindset as is being rich.
This is exactly why everyone was against the stimulus that knew what they were talking about. The republicans were just against it to appear as if they differ on opinion, which they surely do not.
Also, let's not forget my warnings about the commercial real estate market almost a year ago. Gee, it's almost like I knew what I was talking about.
People really have no freakin' clue what kind of turmoil is headed in their direction.
These banks have so much real estate that they can't sell it. They can't sell it because they can't afford to take the loss because they still owe money to their investors. Just wait until all this empty commercial real estate is sitting around doing nothing. Who's going to move in and open a business when tax rates are skyrocketing? No one.
The commercial real estate bubble is about to burst and it's going to take the American economy with it.
Ever seen what a small commercial business site sells for? Naturally most people think they just jack up the price, and to some degree that is true. What they fail to grasp is, there are investments leveraged on that overpriced commercial lot. By being leveraged, it means the physical holder of the property has placed a bet that said property will bring in the overpriced amount. Meaning it may be overpriced, but they have considered that overpriced lot as an asset on the books for the full dollar amount. Which means they can lend more money (fake, electronic money).
Seriously, people would be freaking out if they educated themselves even the slightest bit on this banking debacle.
The only possible reason for this was to enslave by debt or to enslave by fear. There can be no other reason educated minds would implement such policy. If you think I'm wrong or off base, I encourage the discussion.
My guess is it's too uncomfortable an idea to address. So the sheep bury their heads and think (hope) the government does right by the people and protects them.
It's beyond pointless for people to think for themselves anymore. Good luck to those that ask questions and aren't satisfied with being lied to.
ww, let's not forget which administration allowed this mess to occur and which got stuck cleaning it up.
Yes, the enactment of commercial banking deregulation and the passage of NAFTA, both under the Clinton administration, came home to roost.
Until these two websites tell a different story we're still in a recession:
www.foreclosure.com
www.repofinder.com
When the public can see the reality all around them it's hard to believe what the Government is trying to sell us.
There's always gonna be them that will drink the kool aid.