Free Republic

Ten months to the day after Barack Obama took office and three years since Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, the American public has begun to get the impression that Democrats are responsible for the economic mess that continues to unfold. A new CNN poll shows that those blaming Republicans has dropped fifteen points in the last six months, while those blaming Democrats have risen 21 points in the same period (via Yid with Lid): Nearly two years into the recession, opinion about which political party is responsible for the severe economic downturn is shifting, according to a...

President Obama and his flacks constantly have claimed that the government's $787 billion stimulus package has created or saved hundreds of thousands of jobs. The numbers don't back up the claim. In fact, the numbers don't clarify anything. For example, on Oct. 30, Mr. Obama claimed the massive government spending program had already created or saved 640,239 jobs. California supposedly saved the most jobs, with 110,185 rescued workers. But this job "creation" involves some very creative accounting. The 110,185 number does not reflect new jobs or even jobs that likely would have been lost, according to the Sacramento Bee. About...

Let’s do the math. Fifty-seven plus one equals fifty-eight. Fifty-eight and two that he didn’t get to go to equals sixty. Sixty states according to Barry Hussein Soetoro. But he was voted president anyway. (see :25sec video) You may think that a presidential candidate who thinks that there are 60 states in America is unacceptable and that may be true but what do you think of that same candidate who is now president whose administration is not curtain about the number of congressional districts? That’s what I said, the Barry Hussein Soetoro’s administration—the administration that concocted the fictitious scenario of...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will have scant time to rest up from his eight-day Asia trip. On Saturday, two days after his return to Washington, the Senate plans a make-or-break vote on his hard-fought plan to overhaul the nation's health care system. Obama also confronts a difficult choice on strategy and troop levels in Afghanistan, which will be criticized no matter what he decides. His bid to re-regulate the financial industry faces stiff opposition in Congress. The decision to try high-profile terror suspects in federal courts has drawn withering Republican attacks. And he faces a problematic push by House...

Dozens of local area workers were left jobless yesterday as the doors closed on their workplace after more than nine years of frisky business. Devastated staff at the "I Hate Bush T-Shirt and Vendor Wear" factory wept as the moment they were dreading finally became a reality: the firm went into bankruptcy in result of sagging orders for their goods and slim prospects for a renewed demand in the future. "The management can say whatever they want, but I personally blame Bush," said Fred Fluger, a longtime employee, as he carried home a storage box filled with "I Hate Bush"...

Those who know stats of the US job market are aware of the bitter fact that during the eight years of President George W. Bush, the economy gained only 2.58 million jobs... But a new complimentary way of counting jobs shows, that during President Bush’s tenure, the economy actually gained 12.9 million jobs, which GWB says is the credit of his tax cuts. The new model was designed by Chicago economist Barack H. Obama who calls his new system “Jobs Saved or Created.” This model calculates minimum x5 to the positive side the numbers produced by the Bureau of Labor...

Innocent bystanders blog began this...I have merely updated it. If anyone else is more handy at graphics, then feel free to make it better!

More stimulus stupidity from our wizards at the Obama administration. This stuff would be laughable if it weren't true. According to the government's $84 million website, Recovery.gov, IF you can believe their numbers, the federal government gave just under $2.3 billion (Reminder: This is with borrowed money that the government doesn't have) to the 4th congressional district in Washington state that supposedly created 1,487.10 jobs.

President Obama recently announced that he will convene a White House summit next month to address the issue of unemployment, which rose to 10.2% in October, the highest rate in over 25 years. But perhaps even more concerning to policymakers is that employment continues to shrink substantially despite the worst of the financial crisis--extremely high risk spreads, the breakdown of interbank lending--being over. For several months, the Fed has been winding down at least some of the measures it took last fall to stabilize financial markets. And as more than 2 million jobs have been lost since the roughest patch...

John Stossel debunks the bogus job "creation" numbers. Explaining how government does not create real wealth and they discuss another stimulus.

The Economy: We knew something was funny when the White House claimed that 640,000 to 1 million jobs had been created from this year's stimulus. What we didn't know was that it would turn into a massive fraud. Not only have 640,000 new jobs not been created from the stimulus - an absurd claim, given the economy's loss of nearly 4 million payroll positions this year - but it now seems that even the jobs themselves are fictional. Thanks to the digging of a number of data sleuths, it turns out that many of the jobs reported by states come...

BEIJING (AP) - President Barack Obama says creating jobs isn't the goal of a coming White House forum on jobs and economic growth. The president told NBC News on Wednesday that the purpose of the Dec. 3 summit is to figure out how to encourage hiring by businesses still reluctant to do so.

But many of the ideas on the table so far are extensions of last February's $787 billion economic stimulus package -- such as unemployment benefits and subsidies to help the jobless pay for health insurance. They maintain the social safety net for the 15.7 million Americans out of work but they don't directly create new jobs. "I wouldn't characterize it as a second stimulus," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday. "I don't want to be as broad as that, I want it to be very targeted on jobs." House Democrats debated ways to address job creation at a caucus...

So, now that you know the true meaning of jobs “saved or created” please give the most exalted President Obama (may his name be praised by dung beetles and prairie dogs) a little bit of slack. Those figures that he tosses out with reckless abandon are not simply figments of his supremely glorious imagination (may it continue to thrive and prosper with Mickey, Goofy, Tinkerbelle, and all the other infidels who will suffer the hellfire of eternal damnation). I want you to be a good little worker-bees, and accept the following figures as gospel.

It's no secret we're poised for the Mother of All Jobless Recoveries. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke can't just spew that out, of course, but his remarks Monday -- and economists' estimates -- make the prognosis for the nation's unemployed morbidly grim. Unemployment is a lagging indicator, meaning it won't bounce back until well after the recovery is underway. But even then, the consensus is that joblessness will improve at a glacially slow pace -- so woe unto all of us if the consensus is wrong and the outlook is even worse. That makes the predictions of our more bearish...

Keeping track of Obama's phony "Stimulus" jobs "created or saved," is getting more difficult by the day, especially since there is no recognized method of measuring "saved" jobs. It has never been a valid statistic, but the administration finds it convenient to use this imaginary statistic to pump up their failed stimulus plan.

Democrats promise jobs billBy ANDREW TAYLOR (AP) – 40 minutes ago WASHINGTON — House Democrats are looking at swelling deficits further, at least temporarily, on a jobs-producing bill in response to double-digit unemployment and a sense within their ranks that the party needs to do more to put people back to work. But many of the ideas on the table so far are extensions of last February's $787 billion economic stimulus package — such as unemployment benefits and subsidies to help the jobless pay for health insurance. They maintain the social safety net for the 15.7 million Americans out of...

The "pink slips" being sent to members of Congress, warning them to abandon Washington's "charge-it-and-spend-it" programs, new energy taxes under "cap-and-trade" and nationalized health care have surged past five million, but supporters of the program say they need to keep coming. Janet Porter, founder and president of Faith2Action, is one of the organizers behind the "pink slips" campaign and was at a news conference today in Washington where U.S. Reps Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn.; Louie Gohmert, R-Texas; Steve King, R-Iowa, and Trent Franks, R-Ariz., spoke in approval of the effort. She said it's clear the message – delivered through a stack...

Welcome to the Terrorists-for-Jobs Exchangeby Kevin McCullough, FOXNews.com Updated November 16, 2009 Shouldn't the voters of a state that have the chance to weigh in on whether or not terrorists should be housed in a prison in their state? It appears that officials in three states--Illinois, Montana, and Colorado--are salivating over the hope of landing a federal contract to house some of the remaining Gitmo detainees. The reason for such desperation appears mostly to be driven by desperate economics. Amid reports this weekend that President Obama's home state of Illinois is hoping to sell a prison facility to the federal...

Image via Wikipedia As news continues to come out related to overstatement of the White House jobs report for jobs created or saved by stimulus money, Wall Street has taken that as a cue to restate their financials and now show an increase in earnings of 2,876% over original reports.“The Administration gave us a very clear example of how reporting works in this new era of accountability,� said the CFO of a Fortune 100 company who wished to remain anonymous. “We initially showed a loss of around $150 million last quarter, but under the new reporting methodology we show a...

So how is the Stimulus like Katrina? For starters, it is a has been horribly mismanaged. Red flag number one was that Joe Biden was put in charge. Obama announced his decision before the National Governors Association in Washington on Monday, saying Vice President Joe Biden will help ensure the distribution of the money is not just swift, "but also efficient and effective." "The fact that I'm asking my vice president to personally lead this effort shows how important it is for our country and future to get this right," he said. Biden, in his new role, would meet regularly...

The Texas Department of Public Safety is warning parents across the state that violent Mexican cartels and transnational gangs are actively recruiting Texas youngsters in schools and communities. These criminal organizations are luring teens with the prospect of cars, money and notoriety, and promise them that if they are arrested, they will receive light sentences. The gangs are responsible for massive drug deals and related slayings, and authorities say that they will often use youths in their crimes because juveniles are typically treated with more leniency by the criminal justice system.

Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says. There's one problem, though: There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts...

How Obama's "jobs saved and created" scam has introduced a new level of dishonesty to government statistics!It's no secret that Obama's claim of saving or creating 650,000 jobs is an utter fantasy. But now, the sheer dishonesty and bungling incompetence of the effort to hoodwink Americans into believing the $trillion stimulus bill is saving jobs is becoming more clear: Exclusive: Jobs 'Saved or Created' in Congressional Districts That Don't ExistHuman Error Blamed for Crediting New Stimulus Jobs to Nonexistent PlacesBy JONATHAN KARLABC News Nov. 16, 2009 Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been...

The Obama Administration has miraculously expanded Colorado's congressional reps from 7 to 64 in one fell swoop!

My job was SAVED today. I billed a client for work I DID! I hope and know that many of you Saved yours today also.

The Next 7 Millions Jobs That Will Be LostNovember 17, 2009 The hype is that the "recession is over." Has anyone touting this line actually walked around the real world? The next 7 million jobs to be lost are already in the pipeline. The divergence between the reality easily observed in the real world and the heavily touted hype that "the recession is over because GDP rose 3.5%" is growing. It's obvious that another 7 million jobs which are currently hanging by threads will be slashed in the next year or two. According to the latest Employment Situation Summary (Bureau...

Volkswagen has received more than 65,000 applications in total as the company closed its application line for production team member positions on Sunday. During the three-week period since Oct. 26, more than 35,000 people applied for production team member positions at Volkswagen’s new production plant which will go into operation in 2011. In addition, the company has received approximately 30,000 applications for skilled maintenance and professional positions to date. “We are overwhelmed by the response and we are very satisfied with the result. It gives us the confidence that we will be able to hire all the capable and flexible...

With unemployment among blacks at more than 15 percent, the N.A.A.C.P. will join several other groups on Tuesday to call on President Obama to do more to create jobs. The organizations — including the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group — will make clear that they believe the president’s $787 billion stimulus program has not gone far enough to fight unemployment. They will call for increased spending for schools and roads, billions of dollars in fiscal relief to state and local governments to forestall more layoffs and a direct government jobs program, “especially in...

Chicago politics, where voting is such a revered civic duty that people do it even after they're dead, cold, stiff, stuffed, boxed and buried beneath the permafrost for years, has now come to D.C. with the Obama administration. This afternoon comes the most encouraging economic news, courtesy of our keen-eyed buddy Rick Klein over at ABC, that the Obama administration's $787-billion economic stimulus has, for example, thankfully created 30 new jobs in a little-known rural corner of Arizona at a cost to American taxpayers of only $761,420. That works out to only $25,380.67 spent to create each individual job. Seems...

Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 9th Congressional District, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the website set up by the Obama Administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says. There's one problem, though: There is no 9th Congressional District in Arizona; the state has only eight Congressional Districts. There's no 86th Congressional District in Arizona either, but the government's recovery.gov Web site says $34 million in stimulus money has been spent there.

Roubini: The Worst Is Yet To Come! Joe WeisenthalNov. 15, 2009, 6:47 PM Roubini is back! After a summer of mixed messages, he's now firmly back to stark warnings, most recently sounding the alarm about a massive bubble due to the dollar carry trade. And today in the Daily News he has some bad news for the unemployed: the worst is yet to come. Also, remember: The last recession ended in November 2001, but job losses continued for more than a year and half until June of 2003; ditto for the 1990-91 recession. So we can expect that job losses...

The Obama administration, under fire for inflating job growth from the $787 billion stimulus plan, slashed over 60,000 jobs from its most recent report on the program because the reporting outlets had submitted "unrealistic data," according to a document obtained by ABC News. The Office of Management and Budget document shows that before an Oct. 30 progress report on the program the administration asked the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board to remove information from 12 stimulus recipients that contained "unrealistic data," including "unrealistic job data." One recipient – Talladega County of Alabama – claimed that 5,000 jobs had been saved...

More than ten percent of the jobs the Obama administration has claimed were "created or saved" by the $787 billion stimulus package are doubtful or imaginary, according to reports compiled from eleven major newspapers and the Associated Press.

The Obama administration, under fire for inflating job growth from the $787 billion stimulus plan, slashed over 60,000 jobs from its most recent report on the program because the reporting outlets had submitted "unrealistic data," according to a document obtained by ABC News. The Office of Management and Budget document shows that before an Oct. 30 progress report on the program the administration asked the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board to remove information from 12 stimulus recipients that contained "unrealistic data," including "unrealistic job data." One recipient, Talladega County of Alabama, claimed that 5,000 jobs had been saved or created...

A friend emailed this to me. It is one of the most eloquently put descriptions of what small business is about that I have ever read. It describes the reality of the world in which we live and work today. It also describes the future we may have to deal with as it relates to taxes, healthcare, etc.

Like some gothic serial novelist, the Bureau of Labor Statistics delivers another chapter of the same grim tale on the first Friday of every month. In October, the unemployment rate spiked to 10.2 percent, the highest since April 1983. Since December 2007, payroll employment has fallen by 7.3 million jobs. The ratio of unemployed workers to job openings is 6.1 to 1; in December 2007, it was 1.7 to 1. But some recent data points, and an understanding of the behavior of companies at different phases of the business cycle, suggest we'll have job creation sooner rather than later. Before...

Barack Obama now says his plan to pump up the ailing economy could create or save three to four million jobs, more than the 2.6 million jobs the government says were lost last year..."The report confirms that our plan will likely save or create three to four million jobs. Ninety percent of these jobs will be created in the private sector – the remaining 10 percent are mainly public sector jobs we save, like the teachers, police officers, firefighters and others who provide vital services in our communities," says the President-elect.

In the face of a record rise in joblessness, the Obama administration continues to demonstrate its callous indifference to the plight of millions of unemployed workers and their families. The official unemployment rate shot up to 10.2 percent in October, the highest level since 1983. Nearly 16 million people are jobless, an increase of 7 million since the recession began. If workers who have given up looking for work and those forced to work part-time are added, the real unemployment rate is 17.5 percent—or more than one out of every six workers in the US—the highest rate since the Great...

DETROIT - An analysis by The Detroit Free Press has found that most of the federal stimulus funding that's reached Michigan has created few private-sector jobs. The Free Press examined more than 1,800 awards to agencies, departments, municipalities and firms in Michigan under the stimulus act. It found that the biggest impact was spurring or protecting public-sector or summer jobs-not private-sector jobs. Of the 22,513 stimulus jobs reported in Michigan, 13,555 were tied to state money for education, doled out to local school districts. The Free Press also reported Sunday that its analysis shows that some recipients of the stimulus...

Obama's senior advisor said today that a plan to grant citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S. is in the works and could be made law as early as next year. On CNN's "State of the Union" with John King, the White House's David Axelrod dodged a question asking him to commit to pushing immigration reform regardless of the political climate, but nonetheless confirmed earlier hints by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano that Democrats and Republicans are working behind the scenes to pass major new legislation. "I think some good work is being done on both sides...

Of the $1 billion in clean-energy stimulus money spent since the beginning of September, $850 million has gone to foreign wind companies. It doesn't take a bunch of experts at a hastily planned "jobs summit" to discover this isn't the way to bolster employment in America. Indeed, the 11 U.S. wind farms that received stimulus money from the Treasury have imported 695 of the 982 wind turbines to be installed, creating 4,500 jobs overseas. That's far more overseas work than the stimulus money has created in the United States.

As the unemployment rate crossed the double digit barrier for the first time since Michael Jackson learned to moonwalk, President Obama announced that he will convene a "jobs summit" to finally bring the problem under control. Using all the analytic skill that his administration can muster, the President is determined to figure out why so many people are losing their jobs and then formulate a solution. That's a relief; for a while there, I thought we were in real trouble! In fact, the absolute last thing our economy needs is more federal government interference. If Obama really wants to know...

Barack Obama rode an economic crisis into the White House in November 2008. Now he’ll have to ride out the last of that economic storm if he’s to keep his own job in three years. But with unemployment surging and the President’s poll ratings sinking, there’s growing debate about what—if anything—the President can do about the situation. cnbc.com President Obama announcing jobs summit on Thursday “There's nothing new here," says crisis management expert and former senate aide Larry L. Smith. “We have become a very impatient people. When things don’t turn around overnight, we get impatient.” The President took his...

Nov200912 admin Comments Obama Sends Kerry on Swift Boat Mission to Find Lost Jobs As unemployment numbers continue to rise, and job losses mount, President Obama announced that he has assigned Senator John Kerry to go on a swift boat mission to find the missing jobs.“I am honored to be selected for this task,� said Kerry. “As a Vietnam veteran and swift boat commander, I am the right man for the job. Senator Kerry, reporting for duty! I can remember clearly on Christmas day in 2008 listening to the radio while sitting in Canada and hearing President Bush say...

Looking at Unemployment Another Way Still Says 13% by Mid-2010 Andrew Butter November 13, 2009 In response to an article I wrote a month ago plus an update I put out on my Instablog, I got this from Jérôme Fabre: By that logic, perhaps the peak in unemployment might be somewhere around March 2010. Eyeballing that chart, “traditionally”, unemployment seems to go down in a bad recession to reach a point where 56% of the population is employed (i.e. down from about 59%). If that’s right then by the bottom there might be another eight million unemployed, which could bring...

Why Take Math? So Your Ignorance Isn’t Broadcast Nationwide on the AP Wire November 6, 2009 This is pretty funny. Or horrifying. Depends on how you want to look at it.Several days ago, I noted on Twitter that there were a lot of “saved” jobs that weren’t saved at all but actually cost of living increases. About 24 hours after I noted this, there was an Associated Press article about that very phenomena.Coincidence? Almost certainly. But I’ll flatter myself anyway.But the laugh riot comes several paragraphs into the article as they look into why Southwest Georgia Community Action Council was able...

Forget the stock market. Sure, the Dow has made a stunning improvement since January 20. But that’s not the place to put your money. Unemployment is outpacing Wall Street just a bit. Joblessness went from 7.6 percent when Obama took office to 10.2 -- whopping a 34 percent increase. If you could invest in job loss, you’d be a big winner under the current president. Clearly the people without jobs might not appreciate that philosophy. Who could blame them? For all that the media maligned the Bush administration over the economy, unemployment was better the entire time we had George...

The DHS's Janet Napolitano will be speaking and taking questions in Washington DC this Friday 11/13. I need others to organize efforts to go ask her this question: "A company in Minneapolis recently fired hundreds of illegal alien janitors, and Americans rushed in to take those jobs [illustrate with hand gesture]. However, DHS didn't try to deport the illegal aliens who'd been fired, and hundreds of them are probably now working at different companies in Minneapolis. My question to you is this: if you had sought to deport those illegal aliens rather than simply letting them back into the labor...

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA In the week ending Nov. 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 502,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 514,000. The 4-week moving average was 519,750, a decrease of 4,500 from the previous week's revised average of 524,250. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.3 percent for the week ending Oct. 31, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 4.4 percent. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Oct. 31 was 5,631,000, a decrease of 139,000...