The Failure of the Stimulus Falls on the GOP, and Obama Disagrees

VP Joe Biden blamed the GOP today for the democrat’s stimulus failure telling ABC’s Jake Tapper that the record spending bill was not big enough.

Politico reported:

Vice President Joe Biden said that the Recovery Act was undersized because the White House shrunk the economic stimulus package to win Republican votes in Congress to pass it.
"I think it would have been bigger,” he told ABC’s Jake Tapper in an interview airing Sunday. “In fact, what we offered was slightly bigger than that.”
In the end, the administration found three Republican votes to pass the Recovery Act. And, while “a lot” of administration officials believe the emergency spending was too small, Biden said that more than 3 million people are now working because of the federal programs.

And here's the President, Feburary 2009:

There are provisions in the package that need to be left out… But, broadly speaking the package is the right size. It is the right scope. It has the right priorities to create 3-4 million jobs and to do it in a way that lays the groundwork for long term growth.”


Listen for the 4:20 mark:


Definitely a case of "not taking responsibility", "passing the buck" and other terms that were used to fire up voters in 2008.  Joe Biden offered a flat-out, horse-crap lie to Tapper in this interview. The Obama White House got exactly the amount of stimulus they wanted, and more. The stimulus didn’t fail because Congress didn’t spend enough money. It failed because Barack Obama and Joe Biden have no idea what they’re doing, and they’re proving that much every day they’re in office.

Health Insurance Mandate a Tax after all, who knew?!

Not forgetting that people are not guaranteed to keep their health insurance per the President's foolish promise, the New York Times reports that the Obama administration will defend the ObamaCare mandates as part of its power to tax, despite Barack Obama’s contentious debate with George Stephanopoulos when Obama denied it was a tax at all:

When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”
And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.
Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations.

Remember when asked about the mandate, President Obama's response:



That is exactly what the mandates do — regulate individual behavior in an area where the federal government has no jurisdiction and punish those who don’t exhibit favored choices, in this case buying comprehensive health insurance regardless of whether it makes sense for anyone. This court will almost certainly take a dim view of the same attempt that the 1922 court struck down as a gross overreach by the government.

Paul Ryan: A Time for Choosing

Young Gun Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is extremely bright and informed. He is also and an excellent communicator.Recently he appeared on CNBC to discuss his Roadmap For America’s Future.


Via GatewayPundit :
Are we going to reclaim the American idea?
An entrepreneurial economy where you make the most of your life, you can maximize your potential; reinvigorate the principles of liberty, freedom, free enterprise – and defend its morality – or – are we going to abandon the American idea, and become a stagnant European-style cradle-to-grave welfare state, where we drain people of their incentive and will to make the most of their lives, and become more dependent on the government? The President and the people that run Congress are dedicated progressives. They believe that we ought to have the government so much more involved in our lives, with the government – not ourselves – as the determining factor of our destiny. The country must answer the question: do we want an entrepreneurial society that gets the prosperity turned back on in the 21st century, where individual merit and entrepreneurial activity defines the American economy – or – are we going to have more and more people dependent on the government for their livelihoods? That is the fork in the road – and the urgency of the time for choosing is being precipitated by the current direction of our government and the looming debt crisis, driven by the explosion in entitlement spending. We must decide what kind of a country we are going to be in the 21st century.

Keeping Up with the Unemployment Rate

Here we go..

The light blue line represents what unemployment would be had nothing been done to stimulate the economy.  Notice, we stay around 9%.
The dark blue line represents what unemployment would be after the stimulus passed. You know the promise that unemployment would be under 8%, yada, yada....
We went past that percentage.  The maroon dots represent the ACTUAL unemployment data, peaking above 10%.  A lot of factors led to this happening. Geithner's prediction (March 2010) to Congress is that unemployment will not drop to 8% until the 4th quarter of 2012.
Just prepare.  Starting next year, a range of tax cuts expire, new taxes begin and government spending increases.  The IRS reported that they do not have the manpower or resources to enforce the mandate for the new Healthcare bill, new tax to pay for that (via Hotair).  The President has now changed his stance on the mandate and is admitting that it's a tax.  A very hostile environment for economic growth and the unemployment situation.  Numbers are my thing, and I'm tired of being right