Bullshit. These are almost all facts based on data unless there's been an error or someone's cooked the books in which case, where's your proof? Let's take them one by one:
1) Unemployment rate: The jobless rate is unchanged from February 2009 to January 2012, the latest month for which we have data. Both stood at 8.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Obama's economists had initially predicted that with the stimulus, unemployment would stay below 8%.
Fact. Not countered.
2) Number of long-term unemployed: The number of workers who have been unable to find a job in 27 months or more has shot up 83%, with their ranks now at 5.5 million.
Fact. Not countered.
3) Civilian labor force: It has shrunk by 126,000. In past recoveries, the labor force climbed an average of more than 3 million over comparable time periods.
Fact. Not countered.
4) Labor force participation: The share of adults in the labor force â either looking or working â has dropped 3% â also highly unusual in a recovery. At 63.7%, labor force participation is at a low not seen since the middle of the very deep 1981-82 recession, when fewer women were in the work force. A lower participation rate makes the unemployment rate look better.
Fact. Not countered.
5) Household income: Median annual household income is about 7% below where it was in February 2009, according to the Sentier Research Household Income Index.
Fact. Not countered.
6) National debt: Up $4.5 trillion, or 41%, according to the Treasury Department's monthly reports. The latest Treasury figures put the national debt at $15.4 trillion, larger than the entire U.S. economy.
Fact. Not countered.
7) Deficits: The deficit for fiscal year 2009 totaled $1.4 trillion. The Obama administration's proposed deficit for 2012 is $1.3 trillion, which would mark the fourth year of deficits topping $1 trillion.
Fact. Not countered.
8) Gross Domestic Product: Real GDP has climbed just 6% between Q1 2009 and Q4 2011, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Fact. Not countered.
9) Spending by consumers and businesses: Personal consumption has managed to climb 10% in the past three years, according to the BEA, but companies continue to hoard cash, with cash on hand up 27% since Q1 2009, according to the Federal Reserve Bank.
Fact. Not countered.
10) Stimulus price tag: The original estimate for the cost of the stimulus was $787 billion. Now the Congressional Budget Office says that, when all is said and done, it will have cost $825 billion.
Time will tell.
11) Perhaps the best measure of the success or failure of the stimulus, however, is the fact that President Obama in his latest budget plan has called for still another round of stimulus spending, this time totaling $350 billion over the next four years, for what is labeled "short-term measures for jobs growth."
Fact. Not countered.
Quote from cgroupman:
This pretty much counters many of the points in one fell swoop.
A new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 1.4 million to 3.6 million people currently employed owe their jobs to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus plan..
If we were to analyze every detail, from a non-partisan viewpoint, then we would likely see more common ground. No way to prove a negative, what if we didn't do it, right?
c
