Here comes more failed stimulus spending

Published August 21, 2011 4:00am ET



President Obama will deliver yet another “major speech” after he returns from his Martha’s Vineyard vacation. Among other things, he promises the speech will contain details of a new “stimulus plan” for getting America’s stagflating economy back on the right track. According to the Washington Post, “Obama also plans to announce a major push for new deficit reduction, urging the special congressional committee formed in the debt ceiling deal this month to identify even more savings than the $1.5 trillion it has been tasked with finding. In packaging the two, he will make the case that short-term spending can lead to long-term savings.” Note two things here: First, spending $859 billion on Obama’s economic stimulus follies in 2009 failed miserably to get the economy growing, so the president wants to try it again in 2011. Since unemployment remains above 9 percent and millions of Americans have given up even looking for new jobs, it’s worth reviewing what he and other prominent Democrats promised the 2009 stimulus program would do.

» Obama: “It’s a plan that will save or create up to 4 million jobs over the next two years.”

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