We've Moved- Please Come See Us

Check out the new home for New Hampshire Watchdog:

NewHampshireWatchdog.org

Sunday, November 1, 2009

I was told there would be no math- Part III

The Obama Administration's War on Math continues apace. Annoyed that ABC's Jake Tapper would calculate the amount of stimulus dollar spent for every job that the Administration claims to have created or "saved", they call it "Calculator Abuse".
So let's see. Assuming their number is right -- 160 billion divided by 1 million. Does that mean the stimulus costs taxpayers $160,000 per job?

Jared Bernstein, chief economist and senior economic advisor to the vice president, called that "calculator abuse."

He said the cost per job was actually $92,000 -- but acknowledged that estimate is for the whole stimulus package as of the end of 2010.
No one seriously questions that government spending creates economic activity. But it does so by taking money out of the economy in the first place, either directly through higher taxes or indirectly through higher debt and inflation. It shouldn't be surprising that funneling $787 billion through the inefficient filter of Washington, DC would create jobs quite ineffeciently. The Obama Administration is trying to take credit for every bit of economic activity generated by its stimulus package. It should also take responsibility for the high cost of those jobs, higher taxes, higher debt, and a drag on other parts of the economy.

1 comment:

  1. Henry Hazzlet (sp?) discusses this very subject again and again in his book.

    ReplyDelete