Four Little Words

A couple of weeks ago - my friend Gary Gross wrote about the jobs that were created or saved in Minnesota as a result of the ARRA.

It’s a good thing I was sitting down when I read this Strib article. If I hadn’t been sitting down, I might’ve been knocked over by a feather.

Though much of the stimulus plan was sold on the strength of road and highway investments, records released by Congress last week show that only 37 transportation and infrastructure projects were underway in Minnesota as of May 31, creating or sustaining 124 jobs.

Well Gary is not the only one noticing how many jobs were created by ARRA. Utah's very own Jason Chaffetz has noticed it as well.

U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah, is no fan of the federal stimulus package. He thought it was a waste when it was passed in February. And he thinks now that it has produced too few jobs - 150,000, by the latest White House estimate - for the $57 billion that has been spent nationally so far.

When Gov. Rendell appeared before him yesterday at a hearing on Capitol Hill, Chaffetz asked, "How many jobs have been created in Pennsylvania by the stimulus?"

Governor Rendell's answer was almost as overwhelming as the Minnesota figures.

Though he had no precise jobs figure to offer, Rendell guessed that "a couple of thousand" jobs had been created by the $1 billion spent to date in Pennsylvania, and that 5,000 to 10,000 jobs had been saved.

It is this lack of jobs created that has caused the President's approval to plummet in recent days. He can no longer claim that this economy is someone else's fault. He went into DC promising that the faster ARRA was passed the faster people will get back to work and that is just not happening! While jobs is not the only reason when you couple it with the out of control deficit spending and the realization that there is no WAY that the President could keep his promises of not raising taxes on people who make under $250,000 a year...

President Barack Obama promised to fix health care and trim the federal budget deficit, all without raising taxes on anyone but the wealthiest Americans. It's a promise he's already broken and will likely have to break again. Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress have already increased tobacco taxes — which disproportionately hit the poor — to pay for extending health coverage to 4 million children in working low-income families.

Now, lawmakers are looking for more revenues to help pay for providing medical insurance to millions more who lack it at a projected cost of $1 trillion over the next decade.

The floated proposals include increasing taxes on alcohol, which could raise $62 billion over the next decade, and a new tax on sugary drinks such as soda, which could raise $52 billion.

Emphasis mine. As an aside I have to give the AP mad props for pointing out two of the REGRESSIVE taxes that the Democrats are proposing...

The bloom is most assuredly off of the Obama rose. The question is, will the RNC take advantage of the situation and quote the ragin' Cajun James Carvelle and start chanting "IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID!!!!!"