Vice-President Joe Biden was sent in front of Television cameras to tell us how the ARRA (stimulus bill) has saved the country from catastrophe on September 3rd.
The stimulus is a total of $792 billion that was intended to invigorate the American economy in an effort to avoid an unemployment rate over 9% – at least that’s what they told us so long ago that we’ve forgotten. Today.. we’re approaching 10%, but Mr. Biden has informed us that all is better, the economy is not in trouble, and the stimulus is, “in fact working”. The liberal administration told us on Thursday that, “Instead of talking about the beginning of a depression, we are talking about the end of a recession.”. If you’ve lost your job in the last few weeks…can you possibly agree?
So how about that plain, hard truth? It’s needed here. This is nothing more than propaganda and taking credit for the boom-bust cycle that this new administration has continually admonished. Joe Biden and Obama want us to attach ourselves to the message that our economy could not have possibly come out of a recession without them. The problem is… they really haven’t done anything. It’s been all of us, working hard, buying what we need, and taking care of our families. Oddly enough, that is what has brought us out recession time-after-time.
Now, how can we say such things? Certainly Obama and Biden have done this all without us…. Do you really want to know?.. here it is:
First, based on government accounting, less than 15% of the stimulus money has been spent! Wait, the stimulus has saved us all and we coud have done it for 85% less money? No, of course not! The government needed it all, wait no, YOU needed it all… no, that’s not right… the government needed it all for you…. yeah… that’s it.
How could the government have spent less than 15% of the stimulus money in almost a year, claim that it has repaired all our ills, and have most of us believe it? Because we believe whatever they tell us… damn the statistics.
Looking closer at the numbers we see that out of the money that has been spent, it’s mostly on government programs that have no effect on the economic recovery. Out of the minuscule amount that has been spent, most of it is on propping up Social Security, Health and Human Services and the Veteran’s Administration. While all of these might be places that we should spend money, it has little to do with why the economy is doing what it has always done – recover, on its own.
There is also growing concern on whether or not the money is even being spent properly. In an MSNBC article Brett Blackledge reports that “Inspector General Calvin Scovel said last month he will examine the Federal Aviation Administration’s process for selecting programs for the $1.1 billion in grant money. His announcement came after his office discovered that the Obama administration used stimulus money to pay for 50 airport projects that didn’t meet the grant criteria and approved projects at four airports with a history of mismanaging federal grants.”.
The whole program is a poster for government waste, fraud and abuse. No competitive bidding means we don’t get the most project for the dollars spent. Poor project selection has led to the repair of roads and bridges that did not need it while others continue to decay.
The economy will recover and it likely has already started. There is little debate about that as the economy has always recovered and always will as long as free enterprise is allowed to thrive. That is the point. America has the most-resilient economy in the world precisely because we have historically fought government intervention in the economy. Out of the big three automakers, who’s fairing the best? Ford, the one company that did not get helped by the current administration. Now, Ford is on pace to be the #1 U.S. automaker overtaking even Toyota.
Take what the government tells you with a grain of salt, especially when they are taking credit for much of anything.
