Obama’s Top Economists Reveal Hefty Price Tag For Failed Stimulus Debacle

Since U.S. Senator Ben Nelson helped President Barack Obama ram his $787 billion stimulus into law, America has lost nearly 1.9 million jobs and our national debt has skyrocketed to a record-high $14.3 trillion.  Now, President Obama’s own top economists estimate that the Obama-Nelson stimulus debacle cost taxpayers an average $278,000 per job.

As the Weekly Standard notes:

“The report was written by the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors, a group of three economists who were all handpicked by Obama, and it chronicles the alleged success of the “stimulus” in adding or saving jobs. The council reports that, using “mainstream estimates of economic multipliers for the effects of fiscal stimulus” (which it describes as a “natural way to estimate the effects of” the legislation), the “stimulus” has added or saved just under 2.4 million jobs — whether private or public — at a cost (to date) of $666 billion. That’s a cost to taxpayers of $278,000 per job.   In other words, the government could simply have cut a $100,000 check to everyone whose employment was allegedly made possible by the “stimulus,” and taxpayers would have come out $427 billion ahead.” (Jeffrey Anderson, Obama’s Economists: ‘Stimulus’ Has Cost $278,000 per Job, Weekly Standard, 07/03/11)

“Senator Ben Nelson will have a tough time finding many Nebraskans who think it was a good idea for him and President Obama to spend $787 billion to lose 1.9 million jobs, or that it was reasonable for him to spend $278,000 in taxpayer money for each temporary stimulus job he now touts,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman Jahan Wilcox.  “Clearly this isn’t the same Ben Nelson that Nebraskans sent to Washington, because this Nelson just rubberstamps President Obama’s tax-and-spend agenda.”