Pelosi Changing the Dems’ Tune?
Speaker Pelosi visited Minnesota this weekend. During the visit, she was asked about why the stimulus wasn’t having an immediate impact. Here’s Ms. Pelosi’s response:
When asked about criticism that the stimulus money will help stave off more layoffs, but won’t have a huge impact on creating new jobs, lawmakers’ key goal in passing the measure, Pelosi said programs such as the one at the center will ensure long-term job growth. “It’s a bigger picture,” she said of battling unemployment.
As the Lady Logician notes in this post, the Obama administration wasn’t singing a ‘long-term tune’ when the pushed for quick passage of ARRA:
Obama touts stimulus plan
Jan 9, 2009
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Barack Obama said Saturday his economic stimulus plan will “save or create three to four million jobs” as the president-elect sought to stem criticism of the 775-billion-dollar package designed to revive the ailing US economy.In his weekly radio address, Obama cited a 14-page analysis that predicted his plan would generate big numbers of jobs as his aides pressed Congress to adopt it amid a deepening recession and signs of opposition from his fellow Democrats.
His top economic adviser Lawrence Summers and political strategist David Axelrod are set to return to Congress on Sunday to brief lawmakers on the package that includes a mix of tax cuts and public works projects.
“The report confirms that our plan will likely save or create three to four million jobs,” Obama said in his address.
“Ninety percent of these jobs will be created in the private sector. The remaining 10 percent are mainly public sector jobs we save, like the teachers, police officers, firefighters and others who provide vital services in our communities.”
Obama had previously said his plan addressed three million jobs, but the analysis released Saturday by his top advisers Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein suggested the proposal could generate or salvage up to four million jobs.
In the absence of a stimulus package, advisers warned, the economy could shed up to four million more jobs over the comings months and years, on top of the jobs already lost in the current downturn. “Thus, we are working to counter a potential total job loss of at least five million,” the analysis said.
Let’s remember, too, that President Obama said an economic catastrophe might happen if ARRA wasn’t passed ASAP:
“This recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse,” Obama wrote in the newspaper piece titled, “The Action Americans Need.”
President Obama, ARRA passed. Unemployment is approaching 10 percent despite its passage. QUESTION: Who’s doing your predictions? Larry Summers? Rahm Emanuel? David Axelrod? Whoever is doing the forecasting needs to be terminated with a footprint on their backside because, frankly, his/her forecasting is pathetic.
Whether they like it or not, this is now the Obama recession. They didn’t start it but they were elected because they said they had the solutions. Thus far, their solutions haven’t worked. Day after dy, more people are questioning whether the Obama administration’s ’solutions’ are taking us in the wrong direction. Each day, Tim Geithner and the rest of President Obama’s economic team give us reasons to question their competence.
It doesn’t help politically when a high profile Democrat leader like Ms. Pelosi starts moving the goalposts. That’s what happened this weekend in St. Paul.
Technorati Tags: Economy, Speaker Pelosi, President Obama, Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, ARRA, Recession, Unemployment, Democrats
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog