June 9. 2009

U.S. President Obama and German President Angela Merkel

U.S. President Obama and French President Sarkozy

After his world wind trip abroad to promote America, President Barack Obama has returned to the States and announced the acceleration of his job creation plan. He hopes to quickly add 600,000 jobs to the U.S. economy. 

However, the President's claims are being met with heavy scrutiny. The Wall Street Journal ran an article stating Obama's promise of creating 3-4 million jobs in two years is misleading and inaccurate.

The Media Fall for Phony 'Jobs' Claims

JUNE 10, 2009 - The Obama Numbers Are Pure Fiction. Tony Fratto is envious.

Mr. Fratto was a colleague of mine in the Bush administration, and as a senior member of the White House communications shop, he knows just how difficult it can be to deal with a press corps skeptical about presidential economic claims. It now appears, however, that Mr. Fratto's problem was that he simply lacked the magic words -- jobs "saved or created."

"Saved or created" has become the signature phrase for Barack Obama as he describes what his stimulus is doing for American jobs. His latest invocation came yesterday, when the president declared that the stimulus had already saved or created at least 150,000 American jobs -- and announced he was ramping up some of the stimulus spending so he could "save or create" an additional 600,000 jobs this summer. These numbers come in the context of an earlier Obama promise that his recovery plan will "save or create three to four million jobs over the next two years."

Mr. Fratto sees a double standard at play. "We would never have used a formula like 'save or create,'" he tells me. "To begin with, the number is pure fiction -- the administration has no way to measure how many jobs are actually being 'saved.' And if we had tried to use something this flimsy, the press would never have let us get away with it."

http://online.wsj.com

Obama speeds projects to create, save 600,000 jobs

Mon Jun 8, 2009 2:31pm EDT - WASHINGTON, June 8 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Monday accelerated stimulus spending would create or save 600,000 jobs over the next 100 days, pledging action to slow the growth of unemployment that has reached a 25-year high.

"We've got a long way to go, but I feel like we've made great progress," Obama said at a White House meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and cabinet officials aimed at highlighting gains made since Congress passed the massive stimulus package in February.

"The biggest concern that I have moving forward is that the toll that job losses take on individual families and communities can be self-reinforcing," Obama said.

"People lose jobs, they pull back on spending, that means businesses don't have customers, and suddenly you start seeing more job lay-offs."

The White House event took place three days after the Labor Department reported that U.S. unemployment rose to 9.4 percent in May, even though job losses last month slowed to 345,000.

Obama said the lower rate of job losses was encouraging. He promised stimulus spending would be carried out "in a transparent fashion so that taxpayers know that money is not being wasted on a bunch of boondoggles."

The White House estimates the $787 billion Recovery and Reinvestment Act that Democrats pushed through Congress with little Republican support will create or save 3 million to 4 million jobs by early 2011.

They said on Monday it created or saved 150,000 in the first 100 days. Republicans questioned the figure and noted that Biden said on May 13 over 150,000 jobs had been saved or created in the act's first 77 days.

The U.S. economy has lost 6.0 million jobs, including 2.9 million this year, since the recession began in December 2007...

http://www.reuters.com