Geee Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 National Review: On February 17, 2009, President Obama promised the sun and the moon and the stars. That was the day, five years ago, when he signed the $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. President Modesty called it “the most sweeping economic-recovery package in our history.” He promised “unprecedented transparency and accountability.” He claimed the spending would lift “2 million Americans from poverty.” Ready for the reality smackdown? The actual cost of the $800 billion pork-laden stimulus has ballooned to nearly $2 trillion. At the time of the law’s signing, the unemployment rate hovered near 8 percent. Obama’s egghead economists projected that the jobless rate would never rise above 8 percent and would plunge to 5 percent by December 2013. The actual jobless rate in January 2014 was 6.6 percent, with an abysmal labor-force-participation rate of 63 percent (a teeny uptick from December, but still at a four-decade low). Five years after the Recovery Act, 10.2 million people are out of work. The number of able-bodied Americans who have simply given up looking for work or are “not in the labor force [but] who currently want a job” has exploded. By some estimates, a record 90 million–plus people are hopelessly sitting on the sidelines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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