Hold the Mayo

July 12, 2009

Hitting a Moving Target

When most people think about hitting a moving target the typically imagine adjusting their aim. The Obama administration takes the approach that hitting a moving target means moving the target to wherever you happened to aim.

In a Washington Post essay under The One's byline (though doubtless written by someone on his staff) the President moves the target of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (AKA Stimulus AKA all you can spend pork buffet) in hopes that it will be somewhere close to where the act is aiming.

You will recall that the Stimulus was crammed through Congress as an emergency measure to save the U.S. Economy and "create or save jobs." The blog Innocent Bystanders took a look at The One's employment story used in selling the Stimulus and adapted this White House created graph to expose the fantasy to a little reality.

The White House when urging the quick passage of the Pork Party Bill claimed that without doing so unemployment would reach almost 9% and that the Stimulus would keep unemployment under 8%. The One and his economic team created the blue parts of the graph to illustrate the immediate impact of the Stimulus. The red dots indicate the reality of the Stimulus.

So one would expect The One to admit that they got the whole Stimulus thing wrong. Maybe you would think he would acknowledge that the massive debt he has created for future generations isn't working and isn't a goof thing. You could expect that. You would be an utter fool. But you could expect that.

The One promised change, and change he has delivered. He has changed the purpose of the stimulus.

It was, from the start, a two-year program, and it will steadily save and create jobs as it ramps up over this summer and fall.

This does not square very well with their chart which shown the employment benefit of the Stimulus kicking in almost immediately. Clearly the reality is that the Stimulus has failed. It has done nothing to stimulate the economy, and in truth that really wasn't how it was designed. It's purpose was to dump truckloads of borrowed taxpayer money where it could do the most good reelecting Democrats.

During the extremely brief and urgent debate of the Pork Bill, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that the economy would be well on the road to recovery in two years on its own. Without massive government intervention. Coincidentally, that is now the time frame The One posits for Stimulus success.

As long as he can keep moving the target and designing failure as success; as long as he can get away with the undefinable and unprovable jobs "created or saved" claim, The One will be able to claim credit for the recovery that would have happened if he was still voting present as junior Senator from Illinois.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 10:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment