Video: The epic fail of 2009
posted at 1:36 pm on January 4, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
When Barack Obama took office, the economy had crashed and everyone knew that unemployment would be the big test of his economic policy. He demanded action from Congress in line with the recommendations of his economic council, headed by Christine Romer, who predicted that a massive stimulus package could keep unemployment from going higher than 8%, and that a failure to pass such a bill would cause joblessness to peak over 9%. Breitbart and Naked Emperor News gives us a flashback to the early days of the 111th Congress and their sales job in getting almost $800 billion — whose impact has yet to be felt in employment figures:
Hopefully, we will start to see some rebound this week in American employment. That will have less to do with Porkulus than the natural balancing of the economy, which government intervention stymied in 2009. Romer’s group predicted that much whether or not Porkulus passed, only at lower levels than what actually happened. Unfortunately, no one expects a massive expansion in job creation in 2010, which means that the American economy will limp through most of this year while employment likely improves only slightly, leaving us at generational highs in unemployment and economic stagnation.
In other words, it may not just be the epic fail of 2009.
Blowback
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Will we ever have a President that has the balls to tell the American public that he/she will take to drastic action just because a recession has occured? Or even better, to tell the Feds to just focus on inflation and screw this “pump priming” sh*t that Fed has been doing for decades.
WashJeff on January 4, 2010 at 1:41 PM
Shovel Ready!
canopfor on January 4, 2010 at 1:42 PM
Klobuchar is just a walking bundle of fail.
Red Cloud on January 4, 2010 at 1:45 PM
No one, that is, except “every economist” that the President has talked to who “agrees” that “this bill will create jobs”…
Strawmen. Limping, strawmen.
ted c on January 4, 2010 at 1:46 PM
And not only that, but Porkulus is not the only epic fail of 2009.
None of the various bailouts (cash for clunkers, fannie, freddie, GM, Chrysler, etc) worked either. All the government has done is to throw trillions of dollars at problems which at best prolonged the suffering, and at worst exacerbated the problems.
UltimateBob on January 4, 2010 at 1:47 PM
That clip pretty much sums up why a lot of those folks will be seeking new employment 10 months from now.
Doughboy on January 4, 2010 at 1:47 PM
“Stimulus” = B+
Good Lt on January 4, 2010 at 1:48 PM
Yeah, maybe they were a little over the top here, but at least they aren’t trying to scare us into supporting their healthcare reform bill! Oh wait…
DarkKnight3565 on January 4, 2010 at 1:48 PM
I think we’re gonna need a bigger shovel.
Laura in Maryland on January 4, 2010 at 1:48 PM
Shovel ready –> steaming load!
..anyone else notice how much TEH POST TURTLE has aged in one year? Maybe by the time he’s up for re-election, he’ll look like Fred Sanford.
VoyskaPVO on January 4, 2010 at 1:49 PM
hurry up, hurry up, hurry up….FAIL
cmsinaz on January 4, 2010 at 1:49 PM
Porkulus is racist!
jukin on January 4, 2010 at 1:53 PM
Shovel Ready!
canopfor on January 4, 2010 at 1:42 PM
———————-
I think we’re gonna need a bigger shovel.
Laura in Maryland on January 4, 2010 at 1:48 PM
Laura in Maryland: Ahem,no sh*t!!hehe:)
canopfor on January 4, 2010 at 1:55 PM
The”Stealfromus”package.Hey lets do another one!Theres soooo many zipcodes we can make up!
theTarCzar on January 4, 2010 at 1:56 PM
What a smug look on his face in those heady days of early ’09. Now he looks like something caught in the headlights of TMZ.
EMD on January 4, 2010 at 1:56 PM
What’s going to happen to jobs and the economy, when the massive inflation that every honest economist predicts, hits America like a Mack truck?
Monetizing the debt will have consequences, no one is really talking about it though, wonder why.
Rebar on January 4, 2010 at 2:01 PM
But cap-n-tax and socialized medicine will create jobs for everyone. Right?
txag92 on January 4, 2010 at 2:02 PM
“Give me an ‘S.’”
“Give me an ‘H.’”
“Give me an ‘I.’”
Etc.
They said “shovel ready,” but not what they were shoveling.
Dr. Charles G. Waugh on January 4, 2010 at 2:02 PM
The money wasn’t ever intended to help the economy. It was grabbed by the supporters of ObamaPelosiReid. The fact that they will be thrown out at the next available election is not a fail either, because it will be even harder than before to dig their snouts out of the trough.
pedestrian on January 4, 2010 at 2:03 PM
Because once people find out how really bad it is, there will be no safe places for politicians and economists to hide.
Johnnyreb on January 4, 2010 at 2:04 PM
One can’t help but thing about porkulus when they see Christine Romer. I’m hesitant to call this an epic fail when it was so clearly designed to reward Dem Congressional districts on the cusp of elections in 2010 as opposed to provide any stimulus in 2009.
For my money, cash for clunkers was a bigger failure though with a smaller bottom line. Think about it. A program designed to take “bad” cars off the streets permanantly turned into a third wave of bailouts for the auto industry and it didn’t even do what it was supposed to as people with pick-ups traded in for other pick-ups so it didn’t even do what the program was originally intended to do.
highhopes on January 4, 2010 at 2:05 PM
Reagan did it.
MarkTheGreat on January 4, 2010 at 2:05 PM
Post Turtle…always makes me laugh.
BobMbx on January 4, 2010 at 2:10 PM
PLEASE FOLKS, let’s not get caught up in the mantra that “jobs” is the #1 priority in the U.S.at the present time. IT IS NOT.
When a (new) President takes the oath of office, above all else he/she must genuinely believe the most important duty to be discharged as POTUS is safeguarding the physical security of our people. EVERYTHING ELSE pales in comparison. It matters not a whit if an un-precendented number of (real) jobs/month are being added to the economy IF hundreds of our citizens are simultaneously being murdered by Islamic jihadists.(Does anyone disagree????)
Mr. President, PLEASE acknowledge we are GENUINELY at war with radical Islam; that conducting this war is your # 1 priority – infinitely above Health Care ‘reform’; infinitely above immigration ‘reform’; infinitely above Cap and Trade; indeed, infinitely above everything else.
If you accomplish all these things…yet lose the war being waged by radical Islam, then you have utterly wasted your time in office and destroyed our country.
I am VERY concerned with your complete inability to set the PROPERbpriorities.
alwyr on January 4, 2010 at 2:12 PM
O/T
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canopfor on January 4, 2010 at 2:13 PM
Ed, Rather than work the problem Bozo and company are only fudging the numbers to make them look better, because like everything else they see the economy as a political problem only.
They desperately hope things will turn around, but unfortunately for us they have created an incredibly hostile environment for the private sector and employers will remain as lean and mean as they possibly can.
dogsoldier on January 4, 2010 at 2:14 PM
If I am not mistaken, the Fed cranked up the interest rates in early 80′s expressly to fight inflation.
The fed’s job, since it exists, should be to fight inflation. It should just retort to politicians “That’s a your problem” when politicians want a lose moentary policy to “ignite” the economy. If the politicians want more productive money in the economy, take less out and spend less.
WashJeff on January 4, 2010 at 2:17 PM
Amy Klobuchar is the senior senator from Minnesota. Thanks, Minnesota, but your 2 for 1 deal (Klobuchar and Franken for Bachman) is hardly a deal at all.
SouthernGent on January 4, 2010 at 2:20 PM
Clearly, all this talk about “jobs, jobs, jobs” refers to Apple CEO Steve Jobs who was side-lined for most of the year while he obtained a liver transplant, which I guess must have cost $787 billion dollars, which explains the need for ObamaCare.
J_Crater on January 4, 2010 at 2:25 PM
Perhaps this rebound will occur, but only for a split second, to be followed by a resounding thud.
Once the Bush tax cuts expire, new taxes are imposed thanks to things like DemocrapCare, and interest rates go up (yet fail to crush inflation), there isn’t going to be any money left for consumers to spend – which I betcha will lead to more unemployment, more foreclosures and a reversal of the stock market’s recent climb.
Buy Danish on January 4, 2010 at 2:28 PM
Mack Truck for a MackDaddy.
davidk on January 4, 2010 at 2:29 PM
Amy Klobuchar!
UltimateBob on January 4, 2010 at 2:29 PM
Bachman is hot enough, smart enough, and conservative enough to ALMOST offset those other two idiots.
UltimateBob on January 4, 2010 at 2:30 PM
OBAMA MISERY INDEX COMING
marklmail on January 4, 2010 at 2:32 PM
Jobs never were a priority for Barry – filling up the Democrap slush fund and creating an army of paid-off constituents was, and is, the goal.
That being said, a nation with tens of millions of unemployed, impoverished citizens is a threat to national security, so one cannot say that fighting Jihad is a greater priority than revitalizing the economy.
The problem is that Barry so incompetent that he is incapable of performing either task.
Buy Danish on January 4, 2010 at 2:37 PM
The only prediction Christine Romer has ever gotten right is when lunch is served. From looking at her, she’s NEVER wrong on that.
bradley11 on January 4, 2010 at 2:38 PM
A harbinger of things to come from Barry’s role models abroad.
Buy Danish on January 4, 2010 at 2:40 PM
I wouldn’t bet on it. Latest projections are 10.1m
Vashta.Nerada on January 4, 2010 at 2:53 PM
BUY DANISH: You responded to my post (which said the war on Islamic terrorism SHOULD BE the # 1 priority of ANY POTUS) by saying:
“That being said, a nation with tens of millions of unemployed, impoverished citizens is a threat to national security, so one cannot say that fighting Jihad is a greater priority than revitalizing the economy.”
Sir, I seriously beg to differ. Create a thousand, create a hundred thousand, create a million new jobs. If we’re being slaughtered in our thousands by Jihadists, pray tell, who cares what the ‘job outlook’ is???
I can only surmise you’re all too prepared to put the theoretical above the real. Theoretical new jobs have absolutely no bearing on the well-being of our national existence if we’re all being killed in the interim
alwyr on January 4, 2010 at 3:12 PM
It’s Bush’s fault for not having enough shovels.
rjoco1 on January 4, 2010 at 3:19 PM
Security of the USA is #1, nothing else comes close.
d1carter on January 4, 2010 at 3:20 PM
Disagree. Arguably, the impact *has* been felt, and it *has* been precisely what a significant number of people knew it would be – it has made unemployment *worse* by running up government spending, scaring the crap out of businesses who couldn’t tell what the feds were going to do re: spending/taxation/taking over industries/cap and trade/healthcare/etc, the result of which is business taking a ‘wait and see’ mode with respect to investment, hiring, etc.
Midas on January 4, 2010 at 3:23 PM
Some of us think that Romer got it half right,”that a failure to pass such a bill would cause joblessness to peak over 9%”.
burt on January 4, 2010 at 3:24 PM
Re: Jobs Jobs Jobs
When I saw that, I emmediately thought of Charlie Crist in Florida.
Crist is mixing up his talking points memos.
Nelsa on January 4, 2010 at 4:24 PM
EPIC FAIL OF THE CENTURY!!!
too soon?
abobo on January 4, 2010 at 4:27 PM
You lie! You lie! You lie!
ReagansRight on January 4, 2010 at 5:08 PM
Now that the Obama administration and the Democrats have wasted over a trillion dollars of our money what we need is audits, audits, audits.
ajackson on January 4, 2010 at 6:43 PM
Our Swing Low, Sweet President has to be wondering how the media was not able to stop the jobs-bleeding. They are supposed to take care of everything for him.
Media: FAIL. Obama: FAIL.
leftnomore on January 4, 2010 at 7:42 PM
jobs lost, jobs never created, jobs shipped overseas
jpmn on January 4, 2010 at 7:59 PM
Knobs, Knobs, Knobs!
chickasaw42 on January 4, 2010 at 8:01 PM