Economy Alarm: Despite Stimulus Failure, Obama Forges Ahead With New Spending, Anti-Jobs Agenda

Democrats Once Promised to Restore Fiscal Discipline and Tame Exploding Deficits

“With the recovery package, we not only created jobs – about 2 million saved or created with more being rolled out – but pulled us back from the brink of even deeper recession. In his [President Obama’s] budget, which we passed one hundred days after his swearing-in, he had a blueprint for how we go into the future, create jobs, stabilize the economy [and] do so as we reduce the deficit – [it’s] very central to everything we do – reduce the deficit.” (Matt Cover, “Pelosi Says Jobs ‘Permeated’ Congressional Actions in Year of 10 Percent Unemployment,” CNSnews.com, 1/25/2010)

“The only thing certain is that Obama is on track to boost a federal debt that stands at $10.7 trillion. Clearly mindful of that, Obama said: ‘We will need to do everything in the short term to get our economy moving again’ as well as ‘begin restoring fiscal discipline and taming our exploding deficits over the long term.'” (“Obama: Stimulus lets Americans claim destiny,” Associated Press, 2/17/2009)

Credibility Crash: President Obama Seeks $50 Billion in New Spending for Public Sector Jobs

President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid “massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters” and to support the still-fragile economic recovery.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Obama defended last year’s huge economic stimulus package, saying it helped break the economy’s free fall, but argued that more spending is urgent and unavoidable. “We must take these emergency measures,” he wrote in an appeal aimed primarily at members of his own party. (Lori Montgomery, “Obama pleads for $50 billion in state, local aid,” Washington Post, 6/13/2010)

Former International Trade Commission Chief Economist Calls Out Obama’s Anti-Small-Business Agenda

It’s a tall order for a Congress already feeling spending fatigue and uncertain what it has to show for last year’s $862 billion Recovery Act.

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Democrats have been walking a tightrope by defending last year’s stimulus bill while the jobs picture remains grim. They have fought back every attempt Republicans made to cut Recovery Act spending and redirect the money elsewhere.

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Peter Morici, a business professor at the University of Maryland and former chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission, said Mr. Obama’s proposed small-business lending fund is “a drop in the bucket” compared with what is needed. With the estate tax scheduled to be reimposed at the end of this year, he said, small businesses will suffer even more.

“I can’t imagine a president with a more anti-small-business agenda than Barack Obama,” Mr. Morici said. “What you saw in the Rose Garden was the cynical enterprise of a cynical man. He simply doesn’t believe in the private sector, and it shows in his actions.” (Stephen Dinan and Kara Rowland, “‘Stimulus’ or not, Obama seeks new spending,'” Washington Times, 6/13/2010)

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