Nancy Pelosi: Jobless benefits biggest stimulus for economy evah !

Hotair ^ | 07/03/2010 | Ed Morrissey

[SeekAndFind]

Honestly, the big takeaway is not the laughable notion from Nancy Pelosi that jobless benefits provide the biggest possible stimulus to the economy that Congress can create, although that’s both ridiculous and provably incorrect. We’ve been extending stimulus benefits for almost two years; has the economy been stimulated by it, and has it led to an explosion of new jobs? Not according to today’s unemployment report, or really any of the previous reports from the past two years. The Right Scoop’s clip actually shows what it does stimulate — straw men:

Let’s count the straw men:

• “This is one of the biggest stimuluses to our economy” — No, it’s a net drain on the economy, although for understandable purposes. It reroutes capital from production to non-production. We are paying people who aren’t working by using capital that could otherwise go to creating jobs. It’s a policy tradeoff and understandable, although not for 99 weeks, which is what Pelosi is attempting to extend further.

• “It injects demand into the economy” — Not at the rate in which the capital gets destroyed. Remember, the money for this program gets confiscated from producers and passed through the government bureaucracy to non-producers. What winds up back in the hands of producers is much less than what left their hands in the first place.
• “It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative” — No, it doesn’t. In fact, it depresses job creation, which is part of the policy tradeoff. If this was right, we’d be at zero unemployment by now. Tax cuts, especially on capital gains, creates jobs by getting capital into the hands of job creators.
• “It’s impossible to think of a situation where we would have a country without unemployment benefits” — That’s not actually the debate. No one is suggesting that we eliminate all unemployment benefits. The debate is whether we will keep extending them further.

Maybe we should just start calling it the Straw-Man Stimulus, because that’s the only production it seems to incentivize.

[SeekAndFind]

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO CLIP.

[Man50D]

That’s great news for you Nancy because you’ll need a jobless benefit come November.

[edcoil]

they have given themselves the best benefits in history of mankind for when they lose.

[SeekAndFind]

That’s great news for you Nancy because you’ll need a jobless benefit come November.

Alas, I wish this were true. But in the case of Pelosi, she has her position as long as she wants it. Nothing short of a video catching her murdering someone in cold blood, will cause her constituents ( probably the most hopelessly liberal people in the nation ) to vote for someone else.

[FlyVet]

The Queen is merely a reflection of her constituents.

She knows she can say whatever, no matter how stupid. They will reelect her unto death.

[ArmstedFragg]

Well, you know, Nan, if we take that argument at face value, then we could get an even better stimulus for the economy if the federal government wasn’t raking off the administrative portion of those jobless benefits from the money it took from all of us.

Here’s a chance to achieve the ultimate, all time great, stimulus by using a method called “letting the workers keep the money they earn”. I promise, if you propose it, I’ll even let you take credit for it.

[Oceander]

I wish I could say it louder:

[Lazamataz]

Alas, I wish this were true. But in the case of Pelosi, she has her position as long as she wants it. Nothing short of a video catching her murdering someone in cold blood, will cause her constituents ( probably the most hopelessly liberal people in the nation ) to vote for someone else.

You are so wrong.

A video of her murdering someone in cold blood would merely slightly increase her poll numbers.

[BobP]

The 'stimulus' and 'jobs' bills have done nothing but bring us closer to bankruptcy. Now this idiot Pelosi says it's working because unemployment is the ultimate job creator? Typical braindead liberal Democrat. Unemployment checks are the best 'stimulus'? My God, we are in big trouble.

How did this mentally retarded woman become Speaker of the House? And they laugh at Gov Palin.

What causes long-term unemployment are welfare payments and unemployment insurance!

Remember that crap she came out with a few months back when she said that artists who wanted to change from their 'real jobs' to their fantasy jobs can see thair way free now to really be big-time useless idiots. Nanny Pelosi will pay for your unemployment and healthcare!

We are being destroyed from within by our own gov't.

WAKE UP AMERICA

There's dumb - there's dumber - then there's Pelosi

[Viking2002]

This Jurassic hag is certifiably nuts and quite probably in the grips of geriatric senility. Too bad so many of her constituents are afflicted with similar conditions.

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

[Noob1999]

How is it possible that the entirety of America can be held hostage to the likes of Princess Pelosi of SF, and Pignose Waxman of LA???

I don’t believe that the Founders could ever imagine how much power could be held by one state.

Then there’s the issue of the Framers setting up the Senate as the body that represented state’s rights. The 17th amendment trashed that check and balance by allowing direct voting for six year terms those Senators who would bring home as much pork as possible, only so they could get reelected.

Repeal the 17th amendment, and restore the Senate as a body elected by state legislators, whom could give any Senator the hook if they voted against their states wishes.

[FormerACLUmember]

My problem is not so much with this evil/bizarre tyrant.

My main difficulty is with the media, which will never, ever confront Pelosi on this preposterous assertion.

[pacpam]

The Demo controlled Congress has made unemployment benefits the new welfare program.

[Seaplaner]

“It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative”

Nancy Pelosi channels Barbara Boxer with an unshakable belief in the Keynesian equivalent of cold fusion or spinning straw into gold.

.

[Vaduz]

That buzzing in her head must be getting louder as she ages.

[lionheart 247365]

............ so what you’re saying Nancy is ,,,,, all the folks currently on unemployment are acounted for as jobs created by the stimulus pkg. So the more people who get laid off the more successful the stimulus is working ,,,, OK now I get it ,,,,, BRILLIANT !!!

[FlyVet]

That’s what I’m afraid of. That old regenerative feedback loop, louder and louder, “The end justifies the means.....THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS....”