By Congressman Kevin Brady
The White Houses quarterly report on stimulus job creation should receive a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. By a wide margin the White House failed to meet its own benchmarks for successful job creation. Fifteen million Americans are without jobs or much hope for finding one. They know the stimulus failed and they deserve better than this piece of fiction.
The White House economic team promised that their stimulus would lower unemployment to 8 percent that millions would be back to work by the end of this year because there would be 137 million jobs -- 90 percent of which would be created in the private sector.
Beyond the cherry-picked economic studies and and some wildly exaggerated job creation claims the White House clearly doesnt want to address the harsh reality that their stimulus didnt work.
Ninety percent of Americans in a new poll said they believed this economy is in bad shape and three out of four didnt see it getting any better. Americans see the stimulus as costing the country 3.3 million private sector jobs not creating or saving them.
Midcourse Correction for the Economy
Bradys Commentary in Politico
President Barack Obama took office under unfavorable economic conditions.
But so have past presidents including Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. The questions are: Has the Obama administration met its economic promises and are we positioned for long-term growth?
Christina Romer college professor and chairwoman of the presidents Council of Economic Advisers is due to testify Wednesday before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. The state of the economy 16 months after the $862 billion stimulus bill passed will be a central topic as will the long-term fiscal outlook.
On Nov. 2 the American people will have the opportunity to direct a midcourse correction much like college professors do with their students at midterm.
Voters should grade the economic policies of Obama and the congressional Democrats on two criteria: (1) has the stimulus" spurred private investment and job creation or has it weakened the recovery by adding costs and uncertainty; and (2) have our long-term economic prospects improved or will the explosion of debt regulation and Big Government be like an anchor dragging down future prosperity?
Read the full article here.
Cap & Ban Warning
The front page of USA Today claims:
President Obamas attempt to use the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to help propel comprehensive energy legislation has failed.
Dont believe it for a second. On Monday the Obama administration reissued a ban on offshore oil drilling in the gulf after federal courts twice invalidated the first ban calling it arbitrary and capricious. The new ban is if anything more restrictive than the first thus guaranteeing even more job losses for the already devastated Gulf region. Meanwhile Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is set to introduce a bill that will cap greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. Taken together the Presidents Cap and Ban approach to energy policy will accomplish exactly what he set out to do from the very first day he was sworn into office: decrease the amount of carbon the U.S. economy emits by drastically increasing the cost of energy.Read more on The Foundry.
Job Killing Drilling Moratorium Thumbs Nose at Courts The Obama Administration has lost two rounds in the courts but that isnt stopping them from pushing the restart button to try to run out the clock on the energy industry. By thumbing their noses at the federal courts the Obama Administration appears determined to shut down drilling in the Gulf of Mexico" said U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady (R-Texas). This devastating economic decision will send our rigs and jobs overseas and they wont magically reappear in the Gulf on December first" Brady said. Tens of thousands of Americans earn their livelihoods as Gulf coast energy workers and many are seeing their job loss fears become a harsh reality as rigs begin leaving the Gulf of Mexico because of the administrations determination to ban drilling. If this latest drilling ban lasts until December it will cripple the Gulf coast economy
severely damage American energy infrastructure and drive up future energy prices" said Brady.
The administration is seeking to dismiss the original lawsuit while withholding permits in all waters and reissuing the drilling ban a federal judge found unjustified and overbroad.
Sadly this White Houses ideological arrogance appears to know no bounds their efforts to continue to delay production of American energy are turning an environmental disaster into an economic disaster" added Brady.
