STIMULUS REPORT:

4 MILLION JOBS
“LOST AND DISLOCATED”
 Making No Difference:
4 Million Jobs “Lost and Dislocated”
Across America, people are out of work. From New York to Los Angeles; from Seattle to Miami – Americans
have still not seen the job growth promised under the $787 billion stimulus passed in February. Promising
that it would provide an immediate boost to the economy, the Obama administration has instead presided
over escalating unemployment with no real solutions for creating jobs.

Since passing the stimulus, the Obama administration has taken every opportunity to take credit for “saved
jobs” in the economy, even though there is no way to measure “saved jobs.” The term itself is unknown
even to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the office that measures the unemployment rate. Search economics
textbooks across the country, and you will find one common theme: there is no such thing as a “saved job.”

Taking credit for “saved jobs” contrasts with the administration’s promise of unprecedented transparency
and accountability, not to mention honesty and responsibility.

As the Obama administration has toured the country searching for working Americans whose jobs they can
claim they saved, the economic reality is clear: unemployment is 25% higher than what the administration
claimed it would reach under the stimulus. Rather than creating jobs, the stimulus diverted money from
taxpayers into a bureaucratic boondoggle with no real job growth to show for it.

The administration has claimed that the stimulus “saved or created” at least 1 million jobs. But there is no
guarantee that the government actually creates a job when it spends stimulus money. There is no way of
knowing whether a worker or a company that is engaged in a stimulus project would have without work or
engaged in some other activity. But we do know that as the economy picks up, those doing work on
stimulus projects will not be available for more productive private sector activity. The greater the number
of these dislocated workers, the greater the challenge of finding work for them when the stimulus money
runs out. Thus every time you hear the stimulus has “saved or created” a job, then you know what the
latest figures are on dislocated workers. The latest word from the White House was that the stimulus
package had “saved or created” 1 million jobs. When combined with the 3.2 million jobs lost since
February, the total number of jobs “lost and dislocated” under the stimulus is more than 4 million.

The best way to reach the end of this turbulent road is to put our faith back in American businesses and
entrepreneurs, not in more government control and more centralized power financed by borrowed money.
The economy grows best when government bureaucrats do not pick winners and losers and spend future
generations’ money on failed programs.

Vince Haley
Vice President for Policy
American Solutions

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© American Solutions 2009
 INTRODUCTION
“One can search economic textbooks forever without finding a concept called ‘jobs
saved.’ It doesn’t exist for good reason: how can anyone know that his or her job
has been saved?”
—Dr. Allan Meltzer

As you travel across the country, you can see numerous Recovery Act project
signs that suggest the stimulus is working. But press releases disguised as
progress indicates nothing about job creation or the effectiveness of a $787
billion, government-controlled intrusion into the economy. Stimulus “success
stories” from the Obama administration can be grouped into several areas.

Broken Promises are those statements that projected positive impacts from the
stimulus that never came to fruition.

Distortions and Misleading Information are when the administration claims to

have “saved or created” jobs, even though there is no way to measure this.

Reality Checks are wake up calls about how bad the economy has continued to
be, despite the massive stimulus.

Some stories demonstrate a complete Lack of Accountability on the part of the

Obama administration, notably with regard to previous claims about future job
creation.

Travel along with us on an odyssey of false hope and escalating unemployment, a

journey with rhetorical twists and turns that demonstrates the administration’s
inability to create jobs with $787 billion in taxpayer money.

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© American Solutions 2009
 JANUARY 2009
Unemployment Rate: 7.1%
11.6 Million Americans with No Jobs
BROKEN PROMISE - Unemployment rate will peak at 8% if stimulus is
enacted. (WH, 1/10)

BROKEN PROMISE - “In the absence of stimulus, the economy could

lose another 3 to 4 million more” jobs. (WH, 1/10)

BROKEN PROMISE - “More than 90 percent of the jobs created are

likely to be in the private sector.” (WH, 1/10)

BROKEN PROMISE - Stimulus money will “go out the door immediately
and go directly to job-creation” (WH, 1/28)

BROKEN PROMISE - The “vast majority” of jobs “will be created in the

private sector” (WH, 1/28)

BROKEN PROMISE - “Instead of just throwing money at our problems,

we'll try something new in Washington – we'll invest in what works.”
(WH, 1/28)

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© American Solutions 2009
 FEBRUARY 2009
Unemployment Rate: 8.1%
12.5 Million Americans with No Jobs
BROKEN PROMISE - President Obama: If we “drag our feet and fail to
act, this crisis will turn into a catastrophe. We’ll continue to get
devastating job reports like today’s – month after month, year after
year.” (WH, 2/6)

BROKEN PROMISE - President Obama: Without the stimulus, “millions

of jobs will be lost.” (WH, 2/6)
BROKEN PROMISE - Vice President Biden: Stimulus will “create
immediate jobs” (WH, 2/17)
BROKEN PROMISE - Vice President Biden: “But above all…it's about
creating and saving jobs now” (WH, 2/25)

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© American Solutions 2009
 MARCH 2009
Unemployment Rate: 8.5%
13.2 Million Americans with No Jobs

DISTORTION - Vice President Biden claims stimulus will save and

create police jobs while strengthening the economy. (AP, 3/6)

BROKEN PROMISE - President Obama: Stimulus will “deliver on the

kind of economic growth – short-term and long-term – and job
creation that's going to be so important” (WH, 3/12)

BROKEN PROMISE - Vice President Biden: Purpose of the stimulus “is

to create jobs in the near term” (WH, 3/12)

BROKEN PROMISE - Stimulus is “going to relieve the burden of laying

off people and a lot of other constraints” (ABC News, 3/19)

BROKEN PROMISE - “Jobs created by the [stimulus] are predicted to

lower the unemployment rate by almost two percentage points.”
(WH, 3/19)

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© American Solutions 2009
 APRIL 2009
Unemployment Rate: 8.9%
13.7 Million Americans with No Jobs

DISTORTION - Vice President Biden: Stimulus “is already serving

families and creating more jobs” (WH, 4/1)
DISTORTION - Vice President Biden: “A little more than seven weeks
since we passed the Recovery Act we're already making good progress
on repairing our economy.” (WH, 4/9)
MISLEADING INFORMATION - President Obama: Stimulus is “already
in the process of saving or creating 3.5 million jobs over the next two
years” (WH, 4/14)
REALITY CHECK - 560,000 More Unemployed Americans in April
(BLS)
BROKEN PROMISE - Vice President Biden: President needed “$787
billion now -- now -- to go out now and invest in this economy, save
jobs, to create jobs. We're not going to wait.” (WH, 4/16)
BROKEN PROMISE - Vice President Biden: Administration will “try to
create or prevent the loss of 3.5 to 4 million jobs” with stimulus (WH,
4/27)

MISLEADING INFORMATION - Vice President Biden: Everywhere I go

there are “stories about how the Recovery Act, in record time, has
spurred economic growth in this country” (WH, 4/27)

REALITY CHECK – Economy contracts in first, second quarters of 2009

(DOC, 7/31)

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© American Solutions 2009
 MAY 2009
Unemployment Rate: 9.4%
14.5 Million Americans with No Jobs

BROKEN PROMISE - Vice President Biden: The “most important job is

to create jobs and get us out of this recession.” (WH, 5/6)

DISTORTION - Vice President Biden: “We are creating jobs, God

willing, jobs that are going to be able to be sustained long after this
recovery occurs.” (WH, 5/6)

BROKEN PROMISE - Three months after passing the stimulus, “less

than 6 percent of the money” has been paid out. (NYT, 5/12)

FLASHBACK – January 2009

Obama: Stimulus money will “go out the door immediately and
go directly to job-creation” (WH, 1/28)

DISTORTION - Vice President Biden claims stimulus has saved or

created 150,000 jobs. (WSJ, 5/14)

REALITY CHECK - 780,000 More Unemployed Americans in May.

(BLS)

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© American Solutions 2009
 JUNE 2009
Unemployment Rate: 9.5%
14.7 Million Americans with No Jobs

REALITY CHECK - Vice President Biden: The “nation's payroll

contracted again last month -- 345,000 jobs -- and the unemployment
rate rose to 9.4 percent, the highest jobless rate in almost 26 years.”
(WH, 10/5)

FLASHBACK – January 2009

Unemployment rate will peak at 8% if stimulus is enacted. (WH,
1/10)

DISTORTION - Vice President Biden: 100 days after passing the

stimulus, “there is new economic activity and job creation in every
single state in this country.” (WH, 10/5)

REALITY CHECK - 210,000 More Unemployed Americans in June.

(BLS)

REALITY CHECK - 600,000 Americans Receiving Unemployment

Benefits (Wash. Times, 10/11)

REALITY CHECK - Obama claims 150,000 jobs “saved or created,” but

government reports show “more than 1.6 million jobs” lost since the
stimulus was passed in February (AP, 10/8)

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© American Solutions 2009
 JULY 2009
Unemployment Rate: 9.4%
14.5 Million Americans with No Jobs

REALITY CHECK - Vice President Biden: “The truth is, we and everyone
else misread the economy.” (US News, 7/6)

DISTORTION - Obama claims stimulus has “worked as intended” and is

helping state governments save jobs. (Bloomberg, 7/11)

FLASHBACK – January 2009

Obama: The “vast majority” of jobs “will be created in the
private sector” (WH, 1/28)

FLASHBACK – January 2009

Obama: “Business, not government, is the engine of growth in
this country.” (WH, 1/28)

MISLEADING INFORMATION - President Obama: Stimulus has “helped

us put the brakes on the recession” (WH, 7/31)

REALITY CHECK – More than 14 million Americans out of work in

July (BLS)

REALITY CHECK - President Obama: New job report is “likely to show

that we're still continuing to lose far too many jobs. As far as I'm
concerned, we won't have a recovery as long as we keep losing jobs.”
(WH, 7/31)

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© American Solutions 2009
 AUGUST 2009
Unemployment Rate: 9.7%
14.9 Million Americans with No Jobs

DISTORTION - Vice President Biden: There is “now evidence that [the

stimulus] accomplished the goals it set out to do, or on the way of
accomplishing those goals.” (WH, 8/4)

DISTORTION - Vice President Biden: “I can tell you today without

reservation: The Recovery Act is working.” (WH, 8/4)

REALITY CHECK - Vice President Biden: Recovery is “not going to

occur until there are jobs.” (WH, 8/4)

MISLEADING INFORMATION - Vice President Biden: Recovery Act’s

success is a “fairly widespread and widely held view” (WH, 8/4)

MISLEADING INFORMATION - President Obama: Stimulus has

“rescued our economy from catastrophe” and it has “begun to build a
new foundation for growth” (WH, 8/7)

DISTORTION - President Obama: Stimulus is “putting people back to

work today to create a stronger economy tomorrow” (WH, 8/7)

REALITY CHECK - 460,000 More Unemployed Americans in

August (BLS)

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© American Solutions 2009
 SEPTEMBER 2009
Unemployment Rate: 9.8%
15.1 Million Americans with No Jobs

DISTORTION - Vice President Biden: “Recovery Act has created or

saved between 500,000 to 750,000 jobs” (WH, 9/3)

MISLEADING INFORMATION - Vice President Biden: “today there's a

growing consensus: The Recovery Act is, in fact, working.” (WH, 9/3)

BROKEN PROMISE - Vice President Biden: “I believed that we had

saved or created 150,000 jobs in the first hundred days. And I went on
to say…that we will create another 600,000 jobs in the second
hundred days” (WH, 9/3)

BROKEN PROMISE - President Obama: Recovery Act is “about creating

jobs that will make a lasting difference for our future” (WH, 9/30)

DISTORTION - Vice President Biden: “Everyone” is acknowledging that

“we’ve created what we said we would create” with the stimulus
(WH, 9/30)

BROKEN PROMISE - Vice President Biden: “We said we’d be able to

create in the first 200 days, we think over a million jobs. Even
independent validators say it's somewhere between 750 [sic] and a
million.” (WH, 9/30)

REALITY CHECK - 200,000 More Unemployed Americans in

September (BLS)

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© American Solutions 2009
 OCTOBER 2009
Unemployment Rate: 10.2%
15.7 Million Americans with No Jobs
REALITY CHECK - Vice President Biden: We have “known all along that
the recovery was going to take a long time” (WH, 10/2)

FLASHBACK – January 2009

Obama: Stimulus money will “go out the door immediately and
go directly to job-creation” (WH, 1/28)

FLASHBACK – April 2009

Vice President Biden: Everywhere I go there are “stories about
how the Recovery Act, in record time, has spurred economic
growth in this country” (WH, 4/27)

LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY - Vice President Biden: We always knew

that “job creation would be the last element to come into place.”
(WH, 10/2)

FLASHBACK – February 2009

Vice President Biden: Stimulus will “create immediate jobs”
(WH, 2/17)

FLASHBACK – March 2009

Vice President Biden: Purpose of the stimulus “is to create jobs
in the near term” (WH, 3/12)

MISLEADING INFORMATION - Vice President Biden: Stimulus “has

already saved and created a million jobs” (WH, 10/2)

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© American Solutions 2009
 REALITY CHECK - 558,000 More Unemployed Americans in
October (BLS)

BROKEN PROMISE - “The majority of jobs backed with stimulus dollars

were in education -- 325,000” (Reuters, 10/30)

FLASHBACK – January 2009

Obama: The “vast majority” of jobs “will be created in the
private sector” (WH, 1/28)

FLASHBACK – January 2009

Obama: “Business, not government, is the engine of growth in
this country.” (WH, 1/28)

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© American Solutions 2009
 NOVEMBER 2009
Unemployment Rate: Hope for Change

MISLEADING INFORMATION - President Obama: We are “pleased that

the actions that we took swiftly through the Recovery Act helped to
stem what could have been a disastrous situation for the economy”
(WH, 11/2)

REALITY CHECK - 3.2 Million More Unemployed Americans since

February (BLS)

LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY - Ohio school district jobs that were “saved”

by the stimulus “definitely wouldn't have been lost in the first place”
(Columbus Dispatch, 11/3)
DISTORTION - Stimulus report used pay raises as “saved jobs.” (AP,
11/4)

LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY - Following guidelines provided by the

Obama administration, stimulus fund recipient “multiplied the 508
employees by 1.84 — the percentage pay raise they received — and
came up with 935 jobs saved.” (AP, 11/4)

LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY - Stimulus report “indicated that 205 jobs

were created or saved with the agency's $397,761 federal grant” to an
Oregon company, even though the money “was used for pay raises.”
(WSJ, 11/4)

LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY - WSJ: “The number of jobs the Obama

administration credits to federal stimulus money could be overstated
by at least 20,000 of the 640,000 claimed” (WSJ, 11/4)

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© American Solutions 2009
DISTORTION - Administration defends errors by claiming purpose
of the stimulus was “to create jobs, not count them.” (WSJ, 11/4)

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© American Solutions 2009