Thursday, February 05, 2009

AP fact check: Will stimulus create 3 million jobs? Maybe not

The Associated Press' Alan Fram has some skepticism on the likelihood of Barack Obama's economic stimulus bill will create the number of jobs he says it will:

President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats say it nearly every day: Their huge economic stimulus package must be rushed to passage because it will create or save 3 million to 4 million jobs.

In fact, those figures are uncertain enough that even some economists who produced them are basically saying: We gave it our best shot.

"The models are based on historic experience," said Mark Zandi, referring to formulas he and other economists use to predict economic behavior. "And we're outside anything we've experienced historically. We're completely in a world we don't understand and know."

Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is tired of Obama's lack of leadership.

"This process stinks," Graham told FOX News, before repeating a lot of his criticisms on the Senate floor. "We're making this up as we go and it is a waste of money. It is a broken process, and the president, as far as I'm concerned, has been AWOL on providing leadership on something as important as this."

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