Saturday, February 22, 2014

Obama's Stimulus a Big Success, but not in Fox News World.

The Fox News host asked viewers if they thought the Obama stimulus was a success or not, suggesting it wasn't, similar to the claims they've been made over and over for years.

Completely muddying up the facts and actual report, Ed Henry couldn't have been more convoluted, deferring instead to Wall Street Journal hack Stephen Moore's ridiculous comment:
Moore: "It was maybe the most expensive policy mistake ever made in Washington."


So Gretchen Carlson said this:
"So what is the White House's case then for the stimulus, how are they saying that it worked so well?"
Gotcha? You almost have to laugh. But here's the incredibly good news Carlson and Henry failed dot mention:
New estimates from the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) find that the President’s Jobs Legislation Had a Substantial and Sustained Impact on the Economy. This translates to an average of 1.6 million jobs a year for four years through the end of 2012 … elevate the productivity and output of the American economy long after the Act has fully phased out.
o Initiated more than 15,000 transportation projects, which will improve nearly 42,000 miles of road, mend or replace over 2,700 bridges, and provide funds for over 12,220 transit vehicles.

o Made the largest-ever investments in American high-speed rail, constructing or improving approximately 6,000 miles of high-performance passenger rail corridors and procurement of 120 next-generation rail cars or locomotives.

o Cleaned up 1,566 acres of properties that are now ready for reuse, far exceeding the original target of 500 acres, and led to 30,900 old diesel engines being retrofitted, replaced, or retired, which has reduced lifetime emissions of carbon dioxide by 840,300 tons and particulate matter by 3,900 tons.

o Improved more than 3,000 water quality infrastructure projects and Clean Water projects, serving more than 78 million people nationwide, as well as bringing 693 drinking water systems (serving over 48 million Americans) into compliance with Safe Drinking Water Act standards.

o Launched the innovative Race to the Top Program. Encouraged by the incentives in Race to the Top, 34 states modified state education laws and policies in ways known to help close the achievement gap and improve student outcomes.

o Provided the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to begin researching transformative energy technologies such as second-generation biofuels, more efficient batteries, superconducting wires, and vehicles powered by natural gas.

o Boosted federal funding to renewable wind, solar, and geothermal energy as well as leveraging private dollars to help increase wind electricity net generation nationwide by 145 percent, and solar thermal and photovoltaic electricity net generation by more than fourfold from 2008 to 2012.

5 comments:

  1. Yea right. Wow your logic is fuzzy. If it was such a success then I guess that's why Goolsbee and Romer jumped ship early when they realized they weren't creating the 500,000 jobs a month needed to get back to pre recession levels. I suppose that's why the nation is almost 18 trillion in debt with 92 million still looking for jobs and has a currency the rest of the world no longer wants to hold (because it's totally worthless backed by nothing).

    If you think that's success, you'll believe anything!

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  2. They didn't jump ship because they couldn't bail the economy out of the GOP's Great Recession. Unless you forgot who put us there (deregulated Wall Street banks).

    $18 trillion? The U.S. was at about $6 trillion when Clinton left office, with surpluses as far as the eye could see, to start paying down the debt. But Republicans think surpluses mean we're overtaxed, and they give that money back instead of paying off the the debt. Smart? Fiscally conservative? Not a chance genius. Oh yea, that's what Walker is doing too. You never learn.

    Bush pushed the nation into this massive debt, along with a very willing Republican congress.

    The world still wants our money Mr. doom and gloom. Backed by nothing?..how patriotic, and totally false.

    If you think no stimulus would have been better, along with a balanced budget, than you blew your credibility. Thanks for the input. Always open to differing opinions.

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  3. The "Bush Recession" was really the Greenspan/Bernake Recession-- A recession caused by the bursting of the Housing Bubble, which was blown to help us recover from the Nasdaq/Tech Bubble during Clinton's second term (also blown by Greenspan)

    Central bankers blow bubbles, not presidents. That's why Paul Krugman implored Greenspan to blow a housing bubble to help us out of the recession caused by the Tech Bubble.

    Central bankers blow bubbles, not politicians.

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  4. Thank you. Central bankers blow up the bubbles.

    Most people are still trapped in the false left/right paradigm.

    For someone who speaks about losing credibility, they might want to consider learning the difference between "fiat currency" and "money."

    If I'm traveling down a road and you're traveling the other way and I stop you to say, "no wait you have to turn back. The bridge is out and if you keep going, you are going to go over the bridge."

    Is that doom and gloom? No. I'm telling you something you need to know. But believe whatever you want and learn the hard way.

    The world does NOT want the dollar. Iran went around sanction and sold oil to Turkey for Gold. China just sold their second largest amount of US treasuries and are accumulating Gold at a massive rate.

    And for the idiots who still think Ukraine is all about democracy, do some homework on Gazprom.

    I only come to this site to see where the stupid people are still at. For someone who calls Tea Partiers uninformed, you have a LOT of work to do on yourself mr. democurmudgeon.

    It's late in the game and everyone is way behind.

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  5. Central bankers were the cause, and thanks for detailing why.

    I just sum up that mind set by blaming the party of central bankers, Bush and the GOP. My posts are long enough the way it is.

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