Meet Your New Old Jobs Plan

Although he spoke of the future in his State of the Union speech, much of what President Obama said appeared to be recycled from his past speeches:

“To a striking degree, Obama appears poised to recycle themes and ideas he has offered many times before.” (Anne E. Kornblut and Lori Montgomery, “Obama to Propose Five-Year Spending Freeze n State of the Union Address,” The Washington Post, 1/25/11)

One of those recycled ideas was the failed, big government “green jobs” program he has pushed for the last two years:

“We’ll invest in… clean energy technology – an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people.” (“Remarks by the President in State of Union Address,” The White House, 1/25/2011)

This is the same failed approach to job creation that Obama mentioned in his last two State of the Union speeches:

2010: 

“Next, we can put Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow … There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products.

“We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities … and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy-efficient, which supports clean energy jobs.” (“Remarks by the President in State of the Union Address,” The White House, 1/27/2010)

2009:

“But to truly transform our economy, to protect our security and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy.”

…

“And to support — to support that innovation, we will invest $15 billion a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power, advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more efficient cars and trucks built right here in America.” (“President Obama’s Speech to Congress,”The New York Times, 2/24/2009)

Obama’s “green jobs” plan has failed to show results in the American economy despite $80 billion being wasted on the program through Obama’s failed stimulus. In fact, few in the administration can even define what precisely a green job is: 

“And although the administration has allocated as much as $80 billion through the stimulus package to create more than 6 million green jobs, it is impossible at this point to quantify success. For one, there is no official federal definition of a green job…” (Lois Romano, “Voices of Power: Adviser Sets Sights on Developing Green-Collar Jobs,” The Washington Post, 8/11/09)

However, workers in places like China, Russia and France seem to know what a green job is. Thanks to the failed stimulus, American taxpayer dollars were spent to create jobs overseas while our unemployment grew: 

“Nearly half of the $2.4 billion in federal grant money awarded Wednesday to stimulate the U.S. economy and boost the production of hybrid and electric vehicles went to six companies with ties to places as far away as Russia, China, South Korea and France. … But because so few American companies have the necessary technology, much of the money will initially go toward manufacturing electric vehicle batteries overseas.” (Jerry Seper, “Obama Sends Stimulus Aid To Foreign Firms,” The Washington Times, 8/6/09)

“Top Democratic fundraisers and lobbyists with links to the White House are behind a proposed wind farm in Texas that stands to get $450 million in stimulus money, even though a Chinese company would operate the farm and its turbines would be built in China.

“The farm’s backers also have close ties with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who, at the height of his hard-fought re-election bid this fall, helped blunt congressional criticism over stimulus dollars possibly going to create jobs in China by endorsing a proposal by the Chinese company to build a factory in his home state. Although his campaign received thousands of dollars in donations from the wind farm’s backers and Reid stood on stage with them at a campaign event they hosted, his office declined to answer any questions about the wind farm’s organizers or their plans for Nevada.“ (Russ Choma, “Wind At Their Backs: Powerful Democrats Help Chinese Energy Firm Chase Stimulus Money,” MSNBC, 12/9/2010)