Raiding Stimulus To Do What The Stimulus Was Supposed To Do?

In February 2009, on a party line vote, Democrats passed that massive boondoggle of a so-called stimulus bill. You know the one I’m talking about? It’s the one that Vice President Joe Biden said would keep unemployment from peaking at higher than 7% with the stimulus and would shoot to 8.8% without it.

“As Figure 1 shows, even with the large prototypical package, the unemployment rate in 2010Q4 is predicted to be approximately 7.0%, which is well below the approximately 8.8% that would result in the absence of a plan.” (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” Office of the Vice President Elect Joe Biden, 1/9/09)

Well we now know how completely and utterly silly that prediction was. Unemployment in May 2010 stood at 9.7%. You know, to be that far off, the folks who put these numbers together were either flat-out lying in an effort to sell the stimulus or they simply didn’t know what they’re doing. Okay, maybe it could be a bit of both?

Anyway, in perhaps the most stunning admission of the stimulus’ failure, some liberal Democrats appear to be admitting that all those jobs saved or created nonsense they were talking about really is nonsense.  David Rogers over at Politico is reporting that House Democrats, specifically “House leaders and Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-WI)” are exploring the possibility of raiding unused stimulus funds to stave off “layoffs of public school teachers next fall.”

“Crossing a line they had hoped to avoid, Democrats are now actively discussing budget options that would mean going back into last year’s Recovery Act and redirecting billions in unspent stimulus funds to more pressing needs, such as averting threatened layoffs of public school teachers next fall.”  (David Rogers, “Dems May Raid Funds To Pay For Teachers,” Politico, 6/9/10)

It’s funny, really. Less than eight months ago, the Obama Administration claimed the stimulus package had “created or saved 250,000 education jobs.”

So let me ask you this: if there are billions of dollars left in the stimulus account, and it worked so well already to create or save 250,000 education jobs, why would you need to raid the fund to save education jobs?

Perhaps this has more to do with Democrats giving yet another hand-out to labor unions ahead of the mid-term elections. The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers would be better able to spend union dues on GOTV efforts with more teachers employed.