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Monday, November 30, 2009

Pelosi/Dean: "More Stimulus Equals More Jobs." Huh?

Democrat leaders are continuing to prime the pump for another stimulus bill sometime early next year. Over the weekend, both Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean chimed in with the most recent talking point: More Stimulus equals More Jobs:

Pelosi via The New American:
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) figures that most Americans wouldn’t mind “absorbing” more "stimulus"-spawned government indebtedness if the additional government spending means increasing employment. “So if somebody has the idea that the percentage of GDP of what our national debt is will go up a bit, but they will now — and their neighbors and their children will — have jobs, I think they could absorb that,” Pelosi told bloggers during a conference call on November 24.

Speaker Pelosi thinks that it's a “false choice” to make Americans or their representatives choose between jobs and higher deficits, but when pressed to choose, she believes Americans would rather have jobs.

Of course, Pelosi's analysis overlooks the fact that the money spent by government to "create" jobs must be siphoned out of the economy, destroying jobs. This is true even when the "stimulus" money is created out of thin air through the Federal Reserve, since the infusion of this new money into the economy dilutes the value of already existing money, causing prices to rise. Pelosi may claim that choosing between higher deficits and jobs is a false choice, but in reality government spending (including stimulus spending) and debt are destroying jobs that Pelosi claims need to be created through more government spending and debt.
And Dean via PoliJam and Fox News:
Seeming to be oblivious to the recent media reports that showed that the stimulus job numbers that had been touted by the White House have been grossly inaccurate, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean lauded the stimulus package while appearing on Fox News Sunday.

Dean slammed Republicans for attacking a program that he claims has been “unbelievably successful in saving jobs” and added that he is “more optimistic” that small businesses will be helped by the Democratic health care reform bill.

Of course, statistics show that the stimulus has created little by way of jobs. But the package can certainly be found to have added to the nation’s growing deficit, as well as be seen as burdening the future of our country as they are left with a huge debt that must be tackled.

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