Dems Demand Fiscal Cliff Legislation Include More "Stimulus" After Rousing "Success" of First One

Yeah, the first "stimulus" failed miserably after spending $1 trillion on political payoff. Why not throw another $1 trillion at the same crap too?

From the Investor's Business Daily:

According to The Hill, Senate Democrats "say any deficit-reduction package negotiated in the coming weeks must include stimulus measures."

Sen. Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat identified by The Hill as the party's chief political strategist in the Senate, has said, "We need to do something on stimulus as part of the overall fiscal cliff."

Schumer believes a second stimulus is necessary "because the economy is not growing fast enough in the first year or two."

And politicians such as Schumer can make it grow faster?

Let's look at the country since the last stimulus, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was passed.

On the day President Obama signed the bill, Feb. 17, 2009, the jobless rate was 8.3%. He promised that under the stimulus, unemployment would fall to 5.3% at the end of his first term. So where is it nearly four years later? It was 7.9% in October, only the second month since the stimulus became law that the jobless rate has fallen below 8.1%.

As poor as the unemployment numbers look, the reality is worse. America's workforce participation rate has fallen from 65.7% in January 2009 to 63.8% last month.

This makes the jobs situation look rosier than it is because the unemployment rate does not figure in the millions who have given up on finding a job in this economy and have left the workforce. If they were considered, the real unemployment rate would be about 11%. 

So, yes, by all means. Let's pass another stimulus bill and have more of the same.

But let's be fair to Schumer and check economic growth in the era of the Obama stimulus. Surely it will validate the legislation.

Well, no. The recession was over by the third quarter of 2009 when the economy grew 1.4% and then 4% in the fourth quarter. But the recovery stalled.

Average growth in 2010 was less than 2.4%. Then the economy fell flat in the first quarter of 2011, posting a 0.1% gain. In the last three quarters the growth has been anemic: 2%, 1.3% and 2%.

There has to be some economic measure that bolsters the case for another stimulus, right? What about income? Again, the Obama plan has failed. Disposable personal income per capita has fallen from $33,229 in 2008 to $32,677 through May of this year.

Median incomes have plunged, too, from $55,198 a year when Obama was inaugurated to $50,678 in August, a decline of 8.2%.

Despite all the economic measures that show the stimulus has been a failure, the Democrats say the country can't go on without another round.
 

This is absolutely insane. I mean do people not see the significant reduction in median incomes? Seriously? How about the rising price of fuel and the accompanying rise in cost of goods? Does anybody care?

It seems like people think that welfare is the answer, you know the stuff that got reduced in Ohio immediately after the election. It's amateur night in DC for the next four years, at least.

Own it Obama.