Romer Spins 3 Million Lost Jobs into 3.5 Million Gained

The white house must think we are very stupid. When you ram through a massive stimulus package that is supposed to create 3.5 million jobs it is pretty tough to argue that you were successful when 3 million jobs have been lost since it was passed. They love to use the "save or created" language, but that is not how the stimulus was originally sold. The numbers below are from Romer's report on the job impact of the stimulus package, prepared in January 2009. It shows an increase in Total Payroll of 3.675 million jobs by the end of 2010 if the stimulus package was enacted, vs. not enacted. With total payroll numbers at 134M prior to enactment, and 137.5M after enactment in her table. Total payroll numbers have actually dropped to the 131M mark since the stimulus package was enacted. So not only did the stimulus not create any of the jobs they claimed it would, it actually cost us another 3M in lost jobs. You would not know that, by the wild claims of success from the White House. Romer also claimed that unemployment would not rise about 7% if the stimulus was enacted. She has zero credibility, and would have been fired for incompetence by now if we had a real leader. The worst part about the whole stimulus package is that if it did in fact save any jobs they were all government jobs, and not construction and manufacturing jobs that they claimed would be created through "shovel-ready" projects. Construction and manufacturing jobs have been lost in every month since the stimulus package passed, because the "shovel-ready" line, was complete bullshit. It was more of a handout ready plan that did nothing but destroy jobs. Please stop insulting my intelligence with patently bogus claims.

Table 1
Aggregate Effect of the Recovery Package on GDP and Jobs in 2010Q4
Real GDP (billions
of chained 2000 $) Payroll Employment
Without Stimulus $11,770 133,876,000
With Stimulus $12,203 137,550,000
Effect of Package Increase GDP by 3.7% Increase jobs by 3,675,000