Trillion-Dollar "Stimulus" Isn't Working, Yet President Says "There's Nothing We Would Have Done Differently" | Republican Leader John Boehner

Trillion-Dollar "Stimulus" Isn't Working, Yet President Says "There's Nothing We Would Have Done Differently" | Republican Leader John Boehner

Washington, Jul 7 - It’s clear the Administration’s trillion-dollar “stimulus” isn’t working to help our economy: a staggering 9.5 percent unemployment rate, Vice President Biden’s admission over the weekend that they “misread the economy,” and leading Democrats admitting the first “stimulus” isn’t working and calling for a second one. If these aren’t a collective acknowledgement that Washington Democrats’ spending binge – which was supposed to create jobs “immediately” - isn’t working, then what is?

That’s why President Obama’s assertion in an interview with ABC News’ Jake Tapper this morning that “there’s nothing that we would have done differently” was so incredible. Here’s the report:

“But the president denied that his economic prescription was wrong because the diagnosis was incomplete. ‘There’s nothing that we would have done differently,’ he said. ‘We needed a stimulus and we needed a substantial stimulus.’”

The real tragedy is that this costly mistake is being felt most by America’s struggling middle-class families, who will be forced to pay for this massive spending binge. The sad reality is that when it comes to the economy, facts speak for themselves:

- The nation’s unemployment rate stands at 9.5 percent – the worst in 26 years – with the President himself saying that it will top 10 percent in the coming months and despite the Administration’s claim in January that with the stimulus the unemployment rate would not top eight percent if the stimulus became law.

- According to the New York Times, the U.S. economy is expected to shrink by 3.5 percent before it starts growing again.

- “Home prices may fall in more than half of the largest U.S. cities through the first quarter of 2011 as unemployment and foreclosures rise,” according to Bloomberg News.

- With the federal budget deficit reaching a staggering $1.8 trillion in 2009 and $9.1 trillion by 2019, and the national debt rising to 82 percent of GDP by 2019, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the U.S. Treasury is ramping up sales of U.S. debt to whoever’s buying to the highest level “since the Treasury Department started tracking the number in 1968.”

- Less than two months ago Vice President issued his initial report on the “stimulus,” in which he said the package was “ahead of schedule.”

- At a round table just over a month ago, the Vice President even admitted, “We know some of this money is going to be wasted… Some people are being scammed already.”

In the face of these staggering statistics – and the harsh economic realities felt by middle-class families and small businesses – is there really “Nothing we would have done differently”? House Republicans believe there are plenty of things Washington Democrats should have done differently – starting with passing the House GOP’s plan to create twice the jobs as the Administration promised at half the cost. The Republican plan would let families and small businesses keep more of what they earn to save, invest, and create jobs – a real stimulus that Washington hasn’t tried yet. With the economy shedding more jobs each month, isn’t it time for Democrats to stop going it alone and finally start working with Republicans to help create jobs and get our economy moving again?