Video: Sen Mary Landrieu Says Stimulus Has Not Worked As Well As Hoped. Arianna Huffington: 'Stimulus Package Failed'

First, Huffington who couldn't sugar-coat the failure any more, albeit she did offer a weak excuse: Arianna Huffington: 'Stimulus Package Failed' 

Mar Landrieu couldn't quite accomplish step one in her 12-step program: Stimulus Watch: Sen. Landrieu Says Stimulus Has Not Worked As Well As Hoped 

What could have possibly happened? From a recent prior post: Video: Obama jokes about horrible economy that he created. Obama promised that 3.5 million NEW jobs would be created. Instead 3 million have been lost. To Obama, his dreadful mismanagement of the economy is now a joke:

"Shovel-ready was not as ... uh .. shovel-ready as we expected." -Obama

And that's not including the incurred interest over 10 years that will push the total to around $1.2 trillion. And we have what to show for it? There are 3 million fewer jobs today than there were when Obama came into office. But look at how Obama is blaming the expiring stimulus dollars as responsible for the horrible jobs numbers recently. That's not what his regime has been claiming.

Note that the deep blue curve predicts unemployment to continue to decrease even after the stimulus spending decreases. So yeah - it was a failure of dismal proportions. After blowing through $1.2 trillion we have fewer jobs, a higher unemployment rate and a huge debt to boot.

Stimulus? Education Omaha Schools Spend $130,000 in Stimulus Money to Buy 8,000 ‘Social Justice’ Diversity Manuals

For those insisting that K-12 needs more money, do note that increasing funding tends not to actually go into the classroom but rather goes to unsustainable union benefits, a bloated administration, and whatever is left over is simply pissed away. This is a story of the latter: Education Omaha Schools Spend $130,000 in Stimulus Money to Buy 8,000 ‘Social Justice’ Diversity Manuals

Your taxpayer $$$ hard at work

If I told you that your tax dollars (130,000 of them) went to buying a “diversity” manual that asserts the government and other institutions create advantages that “channel wealth and power to white people” and calls on educators to “take action for social justice,” what would you do? And if I told you that such a manual was required staff reading in Omaha, NE schools, what would you say?

Don’t believe me? Read on to learn about “The Cultural Proficiency Journey: Moving Beyond Ethical Barriers Toward Profound School Change.”

The book is a manifesto on cultural awareness. But what it calls for, some might say, is quite counter-cultural. The Omaha World-Herald details some of the work’s jaw-dropping statements.

For example, the book includes a quiz that determines a teacher’s cultural proficiency.

The litmus test in the book is admitting that only whites can be racist:

“Only those educators who acknowledge the existence of white privilege in America, that ‘white’ is a culture in America and that race ‘is a definer for social and economic status’ can reach proficiency,” the Herald notes. And those who don’t? They’re asked what they will do “to align yourself with the values expressed.”

Oh but it gets better worse. The authors also say we must reject the idea of being “color blind:”

The book says teachers must overcome irrational fear of homosexuality and reject the “color-blind” approach to teaching in which teachers treat all children the same. Instead, the group identity of students of color should be recognized and esteemed, the authors say.

The authors ask readers to reflect on several hypothetical cases, including that of a gay “teacher of the year” afraid to post family photos of his male partner for his school’s Family Day, an African-American parent upset by a sixth-grade Early-American Day because African-Americans were enslaved in those days, and a principal whose attempt to reach out to Muslim students backfires when he announces over the intercom that students should welcome Muslims though they “might believe in violence.”

The book was approved by the Omaha school board in April, which means 8,000 copies will be distributed to all staff members, even down to the janitors. And it was paid for using $130,000 in federal stimulus money.

“The book is sort of a combination of Freud meets Marx meets Barney meets Ben Stein in his role as the teacher in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” Herald columnist Robert Nelson writes. ...

Along those same lines, via Instapundit:

TORONTO SCHOOL BOARD: Only White People Are Racist. “This is child abuse, it is hate speech, I strongly encourage any parent unfortunate enough to have a child in this filth ridden system to file a complaint with the Toronto Police Services Hate Crimes Unit and to launch a civil suit against the TDSB.” I think that’s a great idea. Flood the system with complaints — especially as they’re valid ones.

And from Jack McHugh over at The Michigan View: Racial quotas for bad teachers

On Tuesday, Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law a legislative package making it easier to fire ineffective teachers. The bills were opposed by almost all House and Senate Democrats. Yet one Democratic legislator implicitly acknowledged the need for reform by offering an amendment to prevent poor or minority students from being saddled with a disproportionate number of the ineffective teachers.

The sponsor of the amendment was Rep. David E. Rutledge of Ypsilanti. Ironically, he also voted "no" on final passage of this and the other bills in the teacher tenure reform package, inviting this question: Wouldn't it be better to just dismiss ineffective teachers rather than create an "affirmative action" program imposing their burden upon students equally on the basis of race and income?

MichiganVotes.org described the provision as follows:

Amendment offered by Rep. David E. Rutledge (D) on June 30, 2011, to require public school officials to "take all steps necessary to ensure that pupils who are members of historically underserved groups, such as African-American, Hispanic, Native American, or low-income pupils, are not assigned disproportionately to ineffective teachers."

Racial beancounting never ends, and never succeeds in adding anything of value to the equation ether. More from Weasel Zippers and Doug Ross

Video: Obama Doesn't Regret Joking That "Shovel-Ready" Wasn't "Shovel-Ready"

From a recent prior post: Video: Obama jokes about horrible economy that he created. Obama promised that 3.5 million NEW jobs would be created. Instead 3 million have been lost. To Obama, his dreadful mismanagement of the economy is now a joke:

 "Shovel-ready was not as ... uh .. shovel-ready as we expected." -Obama

The crowd of sycophants erupted in laughter. I mean, hey - it was only $1.2 trillion. Obama was asked about making light of the boondoggle and he of course brushed it right off:

The joke is on us. We have an unqualified clown in the Oval Office. Related: The Media Treating Shovel Ready Comment As A Joke,People Losing There Jobs Is Not A Joke

UPDATE: Rush Limbaugh - Obama Is A Failed Narcissist In The Public Eye 

Video of Obama: Job Losses Prove Stimulus Worked

Via memeorandum: Obama: Job Losses Prove Stimulus Worked

“Now, without relitigating the past, I’m absolutely convinced, and the vast majority of economists are convinced, that the steps we took in the Recovery Act saved millions of people their jobs or created a whole bunch of jobs,” Obama said at his Monday press conference.

“And part of the evidence of that is as you see what happens with the Recovery Act phasing out,” he said. “When I came into office and budgets were hemorrhaging at the state level, part of the Recovery Act was giving states help so they wouldn’t have to lay off teachers, police officers, firefighters. As we’ve seen that federal support for states diminish, you’ve seen the biggest job losses in the public sector--teachers, police officers, firefighters losing their jobs.”

President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Feb. 17 2009. His top economic adviser, Christina Romer, had reported that the act would prevent the national unemployment rate from reaching 8 percent. Initially, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the act would cost $787 billion. CBO now estimates it cost $830 billion.

And that's not including the incurred interest over 10 years that will push the total to around $1.2 trillion. And we have what to show for it? There are 3 million fewer jobs today than there were when Obama came into office. But look at how Obama is blaming the expiring stimulus dollars as responsible for the horrible jobs numbers recently. That's not what his regime has been claiming.

Note that the deep blue curve predicts unemployment to continue to decrease even after the stimulus spending decreases. Now Obama is turning around and saying the opposite of that. More from Weasel Zippers, Maggie's Notebook and Gateway Pundit

UPDATE: Rush Limbaugh - Thee Obama Effect Man Made Economic Destruction 

Obama's stimulus tab so far: $666 Billion. Former economic Christina Romer recounts "Holy Sh$t" moment on economy

The bill from hell - $666 billion so far. And that to "save or create" 2.4 million jobs at roughly $250,000 a piece. The govt could have simply cuts checks directly to people for far less. And don't for a moment believe the 2.4 million jobs number. The labor force has decreased by 3 million since the stimulus was passed and that's real data. But let's entertain the false claim for a moment: Obama Spent Over A Quarter Of a Million Per Job With His Porkulus Bill 

Failed economic adviser Christina Romer recounted the dire economy that she herself made even worse:

Hey Romer - the stimulus was and is a FAIL! As for Romer, from a prior post of mine: Video: CEA chair Christina Romer spins the unemployment rise to 9.7% in August. A snippet from that post from September 2009 when it wa apparent that the stimulus bill was failing to live up to the promises:

News broke yesterday that the unemployment rate in August increased to a 26-year high of 9.7%, with expectations of the rate topping 10% and increasing into 2010. The numbers were totally white-washed by the AP (How To Sugarcoat Obama's Rising Unemployment Rate, Now At 9.7%? AP Shows Us How!). Worse yet, teen unemployment hit an all-time high of over 25% (1 in 4 teens unemployed). Even worse yet is this from Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit:

Real Unemployment Rate Hits 16.8%. This sounds upsetting, but when listening to NPR and reading the NYT I felt so much more reassured. They’re not unemployed, they’re funemployed!

Remember when the Obama administration predicted unemployment topping out at 8% is the $1 trillion stimulus boondoggle was passed (including compliance costs. It will be even more if you consider interest on the debt). How did that work out? Not well:
The actual unemployment rate is not only higher than what was predicted if the stimulus plan passed, but worse than was predicted if nothing had been done at all. So what do you do if you are Christina Romer who came up with the 8% peak? Spin like a top, and then some:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

She's a failure and an embarrassment and Berkeley should be ashamed of having her actually teach students economics. It would be like having Bernie Madoff teach about ethics.

UPDATE: From another prior post:

The stimulus didn't work. Obama said it will create 3.5 million new jobs. Instead, 3 million have been lost. A B+? Hardly. More like an F-. Even Christina Romer admitted it was a failure. From HotAir: Romer: We had no clue … and still don’t

Dana Milbank describes how depressing it was to the gathered media to have someone on the inside of the Obama administration tell them that the emperor and his staff have no clothes when it comes to the economy:

She had no idea how bad the economic collapse would be. She still doesn’t understand exactly why it was so bad. The response to the collapse was inadequate. And she doesn’t have much of an idea about how to fix things.
What she did have was a binder full of scary descriptions and warnings, offered with a perma-smile and singsong delivery: “Terrible recession. . . . Incredibly searing. . . . Dramatically below trend. . . . Suffering terribly. . . . Risk of making high unemployment permanent. . . . Economic nightmare.”
Anybody want dessert?

Just how bad was it?  Romer admitted that no one at the White House understood the fundamentals of this recession, and how they just assumed it would behave like previous recessions.  And it might have done so, had the Obama administration applied the policies that alleviated previous recessions, especially those that Ronald Reagan used to pull the US out of a decade-long stagnation slump where high inflation eroded the buying power of Americans.  Instead of cutting taxes (especially capital gains taxes) and reducing regulation to entice new investment, Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats chose to chase a government takeover of health care, a massive tax on energy production that would penalize expansion and growth, and expanding the jurisdiction on Wall Street of the same agencies that had watched the collapse come and did nothing about it.

Glenn Reynolds also has this: "CHRISTINA ROMER, MYSTIFIED. “Yes, we’ve noticed that every damned thing that happens is declared ‘unexpected.’ . . . The act is broadly on track is a helpful thing to believe if you want to experience every bit of bad news as a surprise. . . . Well, if you did the quantitative analysis in order to support the policy preference you put first, then it’s not… surprising that that your quantitative analysis was second-rate.”"As I have said many times in this blog, the stimulus made things worse, not better. ObamaCare and the prospect of cap-and-trade made things even worse. There hasn't been one thing Obama and the Democrats have done right with respect to the economy. If they had done nothing at all it would have been far better than what they did do. You want to know what's perhaps even scarier? Christina Romer is stepping down and is going to instead... teach economics. Yikes.

Embarrassing...

Obama claims stimulus boosted employment by as many as 3.6 Trillion Jobs

OK, let me get this straight. Obama promised right after his emaculation that the $1.2 trillion stimulus boondoggle (including 10 years worth of interest since it was all borrowed money) would create 3.5 million NEW jobs and that the unemployment rate would not exceed 8%. After 2 1/2 years, the unemployment level is still above 9% and there are 3 million fewer jobs than there were. And with that data Obama with a straight face is claiming that there are 3.6 million more jobs? Really? Yup. Via memeorandum: White House says stimulus boosted employment by as many as 3.6M jobs

...The stimulus package also increased employment relative to what it otherwise would have been by between 2.4 and 3.6 million jobs, the report said.

Obama and Republicans have butted heads over the effectiveness of the stimulus, which was estimated to cost $787 billion when enacted.

Don't forget the interest!

Republicans, pointing to the latest report that unemployment rose again to 9.1 percent in May, claim it was a waste of money that did nothing to slow the recession. Obama maintains that the economy would be in worse shape without the stimulus.

The report credits the stimulus with positively changing "the trajectory of the economy" starting in the third quarter of 2009 and continuing through the first quarter of 2011.

Except that it didn't stabilize in the 3rd quarter of 2009, but rather the 2nd quarter. In fact, te recession was declared over before a single penny of the stimulus was spent (More proof the stimulus was a flop):

 More importantly is this:

That last graph is the nail in the coffin of any claim that the stimulus actually did anything positive.

Alan Greenspan: Stimulus an utter failure, more will only devalue dollar further

Greenspan wasn't talking about the stimulus bill of 2009 that threw $1.2 trillion (including interest) down the rathole to create 3.5 million NEW jobs and keep unemployment below 8% (3 million jobs have since been lost and the unemployment levels is above 9% 2 1/2 years later). He is talking about "quantitative easing," or what we in the real world call printing money. (or what I would call legal counterfeiting) Which reminds me: Video: Why Don't They Just Call Quantitative Easing Printing Money - The Last Refuge Of Failed Economic Empires And Banana Republics?

With that as a backdrop, from CNBC: Fed's Massive Stimulus Had Little Impact: Greenspan

The Federal Reserve's massive stimulus program had little impact on the U.S. economy besides weakening the dollar and helping U.S. exports, Federal Reserve Governor Alan Greenspan told CNBC Thursday.

In a blunt critique of his successor, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Greenspan said the $2 trillion in quantative easing over the past two years had done little to loosen credit and boost the economy.

"There is no evidence that huge inflow of money into the system basically worked," Greenspan said in a live interview.

...On Greece, Greenspan a default is likely and will "affect the whole structure of profitability in the U.S." because of this country's large economic commitments to Europe, which holds Greek debt. Europe is also where "half the foreign [U.S.] affiliate earnings" are generated, he added.

...Greenspan was also pessimistic about the U.S. deficit talks, saying he didn’t think Congress would reach an agreement on raising the debt ceiling by the Aug 2 deadline.

And on the debt ceiling being raised, he doesn't think there will be a deal and I sure hope he's right on this:

If that happens, he said, the U.S. would have to continue paying debt holders or risk major damage in global financial markets. As a result, “we will default on everything else.”

Defaulting on everything else will include admitting that politicians can't afford everything the have promised via entitlement programs that are extra-constitutional and thus unconstitutional. It's way past time that that admission be made. The Greenspan video:

UPDATE: Obama Admits: "We've Spent A Lot Of Money That We Don't Have"