Funny Math
[Vice] President Joe Biden was out stumping for his stimulus bill (now that it’s gone south, Obama has pawned it off on him). Left to reconcile Obama’s lofty rhetoric with the cold, stark reality, Biden laughably said on Thursday that the stimulus bill had created or saved between 500,000 and 1,000,000 jobs. Really? Name them.
Keep in mind that this is the administration that (i) cried that they had inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression and (ii) that if we passed the stimulus bill, unemployment would not rise above 8%. Now, out of alternate sides of their mouths, we hear (i) they underestimated how bad things were and (ii) things are not so bad and the stimulus is working.
Taking the first point, the Great Depression was pretty bad. I wasn’t there, but I’ve read books, seen pictures, talked to those who were there. 10% unemployment is a blip compared to 25%. Second, and here is the really screwy bit, right now, there are officially 14.9 million people (or 9.7%) “unemployed” (not counting those who would like to work but are discouraged from looking or are pursuing other things, like stay-at-home parents, students and early retirees).
If you take Biden at his word, there would be 15.9 million people unemployed. That would be an unemployment rate of 10.3%. So are Obama and Biden really saying that their administration so badly misjudged things that they didn’t know this economy would result in 10.3% rather than 8%? That’s a difference of over 3.5 million jobs. Over six months. That would be pretty embarrassing all by itself.