Stimulus Package to Cost $75 Billion More Than Predicted; Plus, Government-Employee Bailout Sought

The stimulus package is going to cost at least $75 billion more than the $787 billion the Obama administration claimed, according to the Congressional Budget Office.  President Obama and congressional leaders kept its projected tab beneath $800 billion to keep the support of wavering lawmakers like the senators from Maine, who worried that earlier stimulus proposals were too costly.   The Congressional Budget Office admitted last year that the stimulus package actually would shrink the economy “in the long run.”

Undaunted, Obama is now backing a $50 billion bailout for state government employees.

Obama claimed the stimulus package was needed to prevent the economy from suffering from “irreversible decline,” although the CBO predicted the economy would eventually recover with or without the stimulus (the CBO said the stimulus would increase the economy in the short run, while shrinking it in the long run).  The stimulus ended up being useless even in the short run, since its regulations destroyed thousands of jobs by triggering trade wars with other countries that killed jobs in America’s export sector (the stimulus package barred a measley 97 Mexican truckers from U.S. roads, a minor NAFTA violation that led to massive Mexican retaliation against U.S. exports of 40 farm products and kitchen goods worth $2.4 billion).  The stimulus also replaced American jobs with foreign “green” jobs through its expensive green-jobs program,which gave 79 percent of its money to foreign firms.  And it wasted money on welfare at the expense of badly-needed investments in roads and bridges.

Unemployment is much higher now than Obama said it would be if the stimulus passed.  As the Washington Examiner notes, “If his stimulus program was approved, Obama promised, unemployment would not go above 8 percent,” but it’s now close to 10 percent.  Unemployment is higher than the Administration predicted it would be even without the stimulus.

Obama fired an inspector general who uncovered fraud by a supporter who misused federal funds, thereby hindering the supporter’s ability to spend federal stimulus money.