Obama promises more than 600,000 stimulus jobs

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama promised Monday to deliver more than 600,000 jobs through his $787 billion stimulus plan this summer, with federal agencies pumping billions into public works projects, schools and summer youth programs.

Obama is ramping up his stimulus program this week even as his advisers are ramping down expectations about when the spending plan will effect a continuing rise in the nation's unemployment.

Many of the stimulus plans that Obama announced Monday already were in the works, including hundreds of maintenance projects at military bases, about 1,600 state road and airport improvements, and federal money states budgeted for 135,000 teachers, principals and school support staff.

The administration had always viewed the summer as a peak for stimulus spending, as better weather permitted more public works construction and federal agencies had processed requests from states and others.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090608/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_stimulus;_ylt=AvMaATPyL7UyZHJtkxmdR7us0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJpamRtbTNqBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNjA4L3VzX29iYW1hX3N0aW11bHVzBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDNwRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNvYmFtYXByb21pc2U-

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. Great. That will cover one week of job loses.

In my school district, the stimulus bill is saving jobs. Instead of laying off 350 people, now only 250 are going to lose their jobs. The bill is not "creating" anything.

The stimulus is not the ticket to economic recovery. It is merely a slight tap on the brakes while we head swiftly downhill.

[OhioChick]

8. You beat me to it...

My first thought was "this will cover one month's worth of job losses. That's it.

[Zynx]

13. Initial jobless claims is not a lay off statistic.

If it was, in good times we would be losing 1.2 million jobs a month.

[RedCloud]

2. I, for one, am ready to be stimulated!

[Betty]

3. that's like one month of job losses

that's what you get for $787 billion? It's not his fault, this clusterfuck is not going away any time soon.

[Zynx]

16. The 600,000 is just over this summer.

Let's even go with the idea we lose 600,000 a month each month this summer, which doesn't seem likely with a slowing pace of layoffs. That still prevents a third of the job losses this summer.

Also, do not use the full cost of the stimulus for just three months of job creation. That's a very poor way of looking at it and it fails basic analytical approaches.

[Citizen Worker]

4. Stimulus decline

What happened to the original stimulus plan of "creating or preserving 3.5 million jobs?" This was the administration's overarching promise to congress and the public in seeking support for and quick action on the federal stimulus.

Seems we have lowered our sights considerably.

[Zynx]

15. That's a poor argument. This is a number just for the jobs this summer.

The 3.5 million is over the life of the stimulus. Someone failed reading comprehension or has an agenda.

[dweller]

5. "hundreds of maintenance projects at military bases"

i must have missed the 'cuts' in the military's budget...

dp

[PSPS]

6. $787 billion.. What have we gotten for the $10 trillion shoveled to the banks?

[w4rma]

11. We've given the banks more power over us. That's what we got in return. (nt)

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. If you are unemployed and/or uninsured

then you are a throwaway. No help for you. The best you can hope for is some trickle down benefit that may eventually result from throwing dollars at banks and businesses and folks who already have jobs. Good luck. You're on your own.

[cslinger59]

9. There is no golden bb so to speak....

This is a relatively bad situation that has taken years and at least two administrations to fester into what it blew up into.

President Obama, will likely, NOT be able to fix it in a single term much less a few hundred days. Give the man a chance to try and right the ship and get things back on course.

I say this as NO President Obama fan but it is his time at the helm and he needs to be given the chance to turn things around. We / ALL of us, need to give the man a chance and understand that it isn't going to happen overnight. There is a lot of damage to be fixed/mitigated and times will be tough for a while.

Again, I am not a President Obama fan but it would be a shame if those who are vote him out in one term just because they expected instantaneous change/recovery. Give the man a chance.

[JonQ]

10. If I did my math right

we spent 1.3 million dollars per job saved. Would have saved money just to give these guys a check directly.

[Zynx]

14. Did you just take the whole multi-year cost of the stimulus and divide it by

the number of jobs being created this summer? That's some pretty poor math.

[JonQ]

17. Actually I was being generous

by not including the rest of the year.

So far he's claimed to have created or saved 150,000 jobs with the spending. And now we're predicted to have another 600,000 created or saved in the summer months. Assuming that statement is accurate that is balanced out by 1.6 million jobs lost so far, and who knows how many to be lost in the future.

So a net loss of 850,000 jobs (under the most optimistic estimates) for the low low price of 787 billion dollars in spending. Sorry but he hasn't shown that we're getting our moneys worth.

[Zynx]

21. Once again, amazingly poor analysis.

The total amount of spending this fiscal year is not $787 billion, for one thing. It's unclear exactly what it will be because the burn rate of the stimulus dollars is not set, however, most of the stimulus money will be spent in FY2010 starting in October. This graph reflects it fairly well:

You are also completely ignoring the counterfactual circumstances as well. Given our rate of economic contraction in the absence of stimulus money, it was conceivable that we could have lost 7-9 million jobs this year. If that number comes in at "only" 4-5 million, I would say that's a success. We could have done more, but your "analysis" is very misleading. Also, to blame the lack of a bigger stimulus bill on Obama is kind of absurd. Congress is a fairly large constraint.

[JonQ]

31. You and I both know those numbers are BS

we could have lost 7 million if we hadn't done this. So right there we've saved or created 7 million jobs! No need for proof, or critical analysis.

Those numbers are based on fiction. For instance, we currently have a higher rate of unemployment than the whitehouse originally predicted for this date if we had done nothing. So by their own estimates the stimulus has actually made things worse. Ah but you say, what if their predictions were wrong? Good question, if they were wrong then why are we using those same predictions to claim success because on occasional months they guessed higher than what actually happened? They're either accurate, in which case the stimulus has been a disaster, or they're inaccurate in which case you can't claim 7 million or 600,000 or any other number were really saved. While we're making up feel good numbers might as well go for broke. I predict, that had we not passed the stimulus bill, the entire world economy would have collapsed in to anarchy. Every job would have been lost and we'd be living in dung huts, eating bugs by the end of the year, well those of us who weren't killed and eaten. So really we're damn lucky that bill passed so quickly, saving us from such a fate.


Anyone can predict disaster if their favorite course of action isn't chosen, and if they get their way they can use that prediction to claim to have saved us all. Unfortunately that analysis is somewhat lacking. For instance, we invaded Iraq right? And we faced no significant terrorist attacks on our soil since then. So wouldn't bush be perfectly within his rights to claim that invading Iraq has saved thousands of american lives? He predicted terrible things if we didn't do it, we did it, and those terrible things didn't happen. You can't disprove it. Would you have tolerated such an argument from him?

[aldo]

12. How about a focus on savings jobs?

By the time the new jobs come through many will be out of their homes.

[prolesunited]

18. Sure hope I can land one

[Romulox]

19. This effort seems miniscule when compared to the bailout orchestrated for the banks. nt

[laborinvain]

20. What happened to the 4.1 million?

Remember this?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28590554/

I know they're only talking about the summer here. But the bill was passed on Febuary 14.

I see the urgency slipping to provide emergency relief to the millions of unemployed Americans while the real unemployment rate of at least 16% is becoming the "new normal".

[Zynx]

23. 4.1 million is over the life of the stimulus.

Increased unemployment benefits will be immediate relief and the increased public infrastructure construction that is already taking place is starting to at least blunt some of the surge in the number of construction workers unemployed. We should see more of that as time goes one.

[Synicus Maximus]

22. Every little bit helps

and that is what this does, help a little bit (very little).

[undeterred]

24. A half million jobs for men... a handful for women.

[Psephos]

26. self-delete

[Psephos]

27. Are you aware that men have lost 3 jobs for every 1 that women have lost in this recession?

In May, the unemployment rate for adult men reached 9.8 percent while for females it's 7.5 percent. Manufacturing, construction and financial services, and other traditionally male-dominated fields, have registered some of the highest job loss numbers throughout the recession.

Here's an article worth a read, too. It's from February, which means the numbers have tilted even further since then.

NYTimes: As Layoffs Surge, Women May Pass Men in Job Force
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/business/06women.html

[undeterred]

28. What kind of math are you using?

[Psephos]

29. Actual math based on BLS statitstics. What kind of rhetoric are you using?

I'm not impressed by tomato hurlers.

Check out this site if you haven't before:

http://www.bls.gov/

[amandabeech]

32. Business as usual. n/t

[mule_train]

25. How about just shutting down the H-1b/L1 visa program?

it's been proven over and over and over again, that this program is displacing American workers, manhy tiems they even have to train their own replacement

An economic model, where money is borrowed from foreign countries to give jobs to foreign workers is NOT sustainable

For starters, the ability to borrow is not unlimited

[Rex]

30. Great that will cover...ahh you already beat me to it.

I'm wondering where we are going with all this corporate bailout rampage business. I think all working class citizens will end up broke and in debt to the govt and corporations.