Have We Really Been Stimulated

The Lansing State Journal reported last week that the federal stimulus has been working.

The White House projects the spending act created or saved between 2.5 and 3.6 million jobs.

Experts at some limited government public policy think tanks give their opinions of the White House report:

John Berlau: Director of the Center For Investors and Entrepreneurs at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

They use the phony statistic ‘saved’ or ‘created.’ To say saved or created, who knows if this job would have been eliminated if you didn’t do this program? It’s impossible to know that.

You could go to any job and say, “If it weren’t for the stimulus it would have been eliminated.'”

They are trying to make up for [the fact that] not enough jobs were created to justify this. How many jobs did it take out of the private sector with the money it took?

Job growth is still lagging and it is lagging because of the uncertainty of new regulations, the looming tax hikes and the level of spending to pay for things like the stimulus that is bringing on fears of inflation. There is a continuing lag in job growth because of the uncertain and negative prospects the Obama administration’s big government plans are creating.

If there is a change in Congress that puts the brakes on big government programs, then there will be more certainty for the private sector and more businesses and jobs will be created.

One hundred  percent of the net new jobs are created by businesses five years old or less. Other businesses may create jobs but they also eliminate jobs. The companies that are creating more jobs than eliminating are the new businesses.