Obamateurism of the Day
posted at 8:05 am on October 7, 2011 by Ed Morrissey
Barack Obama went on national television yesterday to insist that his jobs bill would add up to economic growth. CNS News points out that the math itself doesn’t add up:
At a White House press conference on Thursday, President Barack Obama said the legislation he has proposed to create jobs could “grow the economy as much as 2 percent.” However, the White House estimates that the plan itself will cost $447 billion — or 2.97 percent of the 2011 GDP of $15.012 trillion that is currently projected by the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. (See chart: GDP Chart from BEA.xls.)
Let’s spend 3% of our GDP in order to get 2% back! That sounds like Obamanomics, all right. And it also sounds like a better deal than we got from Porkulus I, when we spent nearly 6% of our GDP in order to get, er, almost nothing back.
Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at obamaisms@edmorrissey.com with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.
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D’oh!
cmsinaz on October 7, 2011 at 8:09 AM
Never ask a halfwit to do math, it always comes out badly in the end.
Bishop on October 7, 2011 at 8:11 AM
Obama believes that 2+2=3… hmmmm, maybe that’s why his school transcripts and grades are kept under lock and key?
-Aslan’s Girl
Aslans Girl on October 7, 2011 at 8:11 AM
Odamna: Those dang-blasted facts keep tripping me up. It’s hard work being the worst president ever.
Crusader Rabbit on October 7, 2011 at 8:12 AM
The Porkulous II: Electric Boogaloo dance!!
Two steps forward… three steps back.
crazy_legs on October 7, 2011 at 8:12 AM
Math was not a required subject at Punahou?
(Ya know, if maybe this Obama guy had actually had some real world experience before the fools elected him President, maybe we coulda avoided a lot of these simple “missteps?”)
coldwarrior on October 7, 2011 at 8:13 AM
New math.
listens2glenn on October 7, 2011 at 8:15 AM
But, as liberals have been saying for decades and decades, if it saves just one
lifejob it’ll have been worth it.coldwarrior on October 7, 2011 at 8:16 AM
I’ll glad pay you Tuesday if you pass Porkulous II today. – Scooter
kingsjester on October 7, 2011 at 8:19 AM
Two points: one, please can’t we stop being useful idiot propagandists for Obama by calling his tax and destroy America bill, his “job’s” bill.
Second; he may be an amature, but he has already wrecked as much damage (it won’t be reversed by the GOP) on this nation as any professional Marxist could hope for, while we laugh at his absurdity. He’s anything but an amateur, and like any deadly disease, it may not win popularity contests -but it eventually wins by destroying its target. Our GOP is but complicit in their mediocre opposition -fighting its own right (tea party/Palin etc.) with far more energy and fear,than they do Obama.
Don L on October 7, 2011 at 8:20 AM
we’ll make it up in volume!
–solyndra ceo
ted c on October 7, 2011 at 8:23 AM
So what do you all think the jobs number will be today? I’m suspicious. The media headlines say few jobs were likely added. Probably means they will be “unexpectedly” better than “expected.”
sandee on October 7, 2011 at 8:24 AM
Two points: one, please can’t we stop being useful idiot propagandists for Obama by calling his tax and destroy America bill, his “job’s” bill.
I agree – how about calling it the jo’s bill.
50sGuy on October 7, 2011 at 8:25 AM
I agree – how about calling it the jo’s bill.
50sGuy on October 7, 2011 at 8:25 AM
I like jobs killing bill…
sandee on October 7, 2011 at 8:26 AM
Obama~~~the man with a mind like a steel trap: like a photographic memory which has never developed.
Rovin on October 7, 2011 at 8:28 AM
9.1%
that’s 1.1% above 8% ceiling set by administration…. how many months has it been?
ted c on October 7, 2011 at 8:32 AM
Yep.. better than expected… 100.003 thousand new jobs 9.1%
sandee on October 7, 2011 at 8:33 AM
Tha’ts 100.300 jobs
sandee on October 7, 2011 at 8:34 AM
When 100,300 new jobs in a month is better than expected, we’re in serious trouble. Remember just a few months ago when that was considered average at best?
Doughboy on October 7, 2011 at 8:37 AM
But remember folks, this bill is “paid for”. All govt. spending now goes into the “Super-duper-committee-account”. Think of it as Obama’s private bank with an open line of credit.
Rovin on October 7, 2011 at 8:39 AM
When 100,300 new jobs in a month is better than expected, we’re in serious trouble. Remember just a few months ago when that was considered average at best?
Doughboy on October 7, 2011 at 8:37 AM
Right, but the bar has been moved. They spent all week saying it was going to be 50,000 to 60,000 at best.I believe 200,000 jobs need to be created just to break even ….
sandee on October 7, 2011 at 8:40 AM
But did he stutter when he said it? Wouldn’t want to call him a SCOAMF without being accurate on all points.
Extrafishy on October 7, 2011 at 8:40 AM
we need 125K new jobs a month just to keep up with new people in the workforce. Adding 100K and calling it good is like spending 3% of GDP to get 2% back…some would call that a good bet.
ted c on October 7, 2011 at 8:41 AM
Math is racist.
hit and run on October 7, 2011 at 8:42 AM
Why not? You can make solar panels for $6 and sell them for $3 and stay in business, right?
ctmom on October 7, 2011 at 8:42 AM
Sounds like Obama’s energy plan, also.
MNHawk on October 7, 2011 at 8:42 AM
You can’t expect a Constitutional scholar to be an expert in everything!
.
.
.
Too bad he doesn’t know the Constitution either.
itsnotaboutme on October 7, 2011 at 8:43 AM
I missed it but what does SCOAMF stand for? I’m usuall good a cyphering these things but this one has me stumped.
darwin-t on October 7, 2011 at 8:43 AM
Selling guns to Mexican narco terrorists creates jobs in the mortuary industry.
I love PBHO, he’s amazing.
Bishop on October 7, 2011 at 8:45 AM
we need 125K new jobs a month just to keep up with new people in the workforce. Adding 100K and calling it good is like spending 3% of GDP to get 2% back…some would call that a good bet.
ted c on October 7, 2011 at 8:41 AM
Right, but just as predicted the media is portraying this as “good” news because the prediction was for only 60,000 new jobs. Happy days are here again! Oh, as a side note 45,000 of those jobs were returning Verizon workers who were on strike…
sandee on October 7, 2011 at 8:46 AM
Funny you mention 50,000 to 60,000. The number came in roughly 45,000 higher than expected. You know why?
“The gain reflected the return to work of 45,000 telecommunications employees.”
The striking Verizon employees returning to work were counted as new jobs. Huh?
Doughboy on October 7, 2011 at 8:47 AM
No, Ed, you don’t understand. He is deficit spending, so he is spending some percentage of some future GDP in order to get 2% of this year’s GDP. When it comes time to pay for that, he will have long been out of office so it’s all good.
Kafir on October 7, 2011 at 8:47 AM
darwin-t on October 7, 2011 at 8:43 AM
Stuttering clusterf..k of a miserable failure
sandee on October 7, 2011 at 8:47 AM
Calling it his jobs (not “job’s”) bill in the same post that artfully demonstrates the Obamateuristic nature of the attempt is not the same as “being useful idiot propagandists”.
Your point about using the Left’s terminology would fit better when tax hikes are called “revenue enhancers” without rebuttal, which is happening a lot nowadays.
itsnotaboutme on October 7, 2011 at 8:49 AM
Thanks sandee, I never would have come up with that.
darwin-t on October 7, 2011 at 8:54 AM
Listen closely to the little con artist.
The only jobs he ever mentions are “Teachers, Firemen, and Policemen.”
I don’t need to tell you, those are public sector jobs.
Therefore, the 2% growth is a fantasy.
He might just as well invest the $447 billion in a Solar Panel Company.
franksalterego on October 7, 2011 at 9:13 AM
google: SCOAMF
and you will see that Ace is responsible for it. His followers even got it into the urbandictionary … almost the day it was coined … about August 20th.
gh on October 7, 2011 at 9:15 AM
How come he gets to repeat over and over again that Republican policies don’t work and his, do when we have TARP & Porkulous as evidence? He could have gotten more stimulus out of dividing that money up and giving to everyone.
Cindy Munford on October 7, 2011 at 9:18 AM
Digging a hole to bury the dirt.
Wander on October 7, 2011 at 9:40 AM
(edited for clarity)
Rovin on October 7, 2011 at 9:53 AM
Obama has, and will continue to lie, and distort. We also know, this bill was never meant to pass, but to make Republicans look like obstructionists. Knowing full well the Reid doesn’t have all his ducks in a row to get this thing passed.
What the amazing part is, the compliant press, who continue to schlepp this crap , knowing it’s a lie. Also those citizens who continue to believe this. Especially those with a microphone. Juan Williams. Alan Colmes, and others. Proving, even stupid people can keep a job.
capejasmine on October 7, 2011 at 9:54 AM
“Well, listen, the point is…I was, look, I was never good at math or history or … look, I am the President and it doesn’t matter that I never did anything constructive.”
RDE2010 on October 7, 2011 at 9:58 AM
Oh sure you would have, if someone had simply asked you
“What phrase best describes the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?”
VelvetElvis on October 7, 2011 at 10:12 AM
It’s not the government’s money to give!!
VelvetElvis on October 7, 2011 at 10:15 AM
Obama: 2 minus 3 makes…can’t do that. What did they do in third grade? Eureka, I’ve got it!!! Let’s borrow 10, change the 2 to 12, minus 3 makes 9!
10% of $15 trillion is $1.5 trillion, let’s borrow that and grow the economy by 9%!
Ta da, problem solved!
/obama off
Steve Z on October 7, 2011 at 10:42 AM
President POS doesn’t give a crap about the arithmetic, he wants to take the 3% from the producers and give it to his grifter base. It’s all about redistribution.
slickwillie2001 on October 7, 2011 at 10:43 AM
No fair! They didn’t teach economics or math at Barry’s School of Socialism.
GarandFan on October 7, 2011 at 11:08 AM
But at this rate of return, don’t we burn through all out national wealth in short order and end up with zero?
Extrafishy on October 7, 2011 at 11:11 AM
Hmmm.
I think I’ll start calculating medical dosages using the same math. Wanna start taking bets on how many patients survive?
Mommynator on October 7, 2011 at 11:26 AM
The message is, when we speak, you nod in the afirmative. What we SAY does not matter.
AnotherOpinion on October 7, 2011 at 11:41 AM
How does One make a small fortune you ask?
By starting with a really big one first.
Obamanomics at its best.
parke on October 7, 2011 at 11:48 AM
Solandra-nomics: let’s make a unit for $6 and sell if for $3, that’s the road to success.
Dhuka on October 7, 2011 at 1:13 PM
Solyndra math
make a widget for $6.00 and sell it for $3.00
makes sense to me
DSchoen on October 7, 2011 at 4:24 PM