In this week's edition of what Obama use to call "Your Weekly Address from the President-elect" [someone finally convinced Obama how patronizingly presumptuous that title sounds because they have gone back and renamed all the videos], Obama announced yet another increase in the number of jobs he hopes his $800 billion bailout will "create or save."
Obama just can't seem to find a goal that he likes makes sense justifies the outrageous amount of our children's money he intends to spend.
In the November 23, 2008-edition of "Your Weekly Address from the President-elect," Obama announced a goal of "2.5 million more jobs by January of 2011":
I have already directed my economic team to come up with an Economic Recovery Plan that will mean 2.5 million more jobs by January of 2011 – a plan big enough to meet the challenges we face that I intend to sign soon after taking office.
In the November 29th-edition of his weekly address, Obama backed away from the goal of "2.5 million more jobs" over two years and said he wants to "create or save 2.5 million new jobs":
Earlier this week, I announced my economic team. This talented and dedicated group is already hard at work crafting an Economic Recovery Plan that will create or save 2.5 million new jobs, while making the investments we need to fuel long-term economic growth and stability.
On December 20, Obama upped the goal to "create or save 3 million jobs in the next two years."
In the January 3rd-edition of his weekly address, Obama revealed that "more than eighty percent of the three million jobs will be in the private sector."
Today, in the January 10th-edition of his weekly address, Obama now claims his bailout will create three to four million jobs. Ninety percent of them in the private sector":
The report confirms that our plan will likely save or create three to four million jobs. 90 percent of these jobs will be created in the private sector – the remaining 10 percent are mainly public sector jobs we save, like the teachers, police officers, firefighters and others who provide vital services in our communities.
How can the man who is about to be president of the United States throw away his credibility by proposing five different goals over eight weeks on such an enormous spending proposal?
Let's overlook Obama's obvious lack of credibility on the number of jobs his bailout might produce and assume his $800 billion bailout creates 3.6 million (90% of 4 million) private sector jobs over two years.
That is still not nearly enough.
Historically, since 1940 the average percentage increase in jobs created by the U.S. private sector year over year has been a bit more than 2.1 percent. In August 2008, the most recent month available at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 115,867,000 private sector jobs. At the historic average rate of 2.1 percent the economy should produce 2,433,207 more private sector jobs each year - 600,000 more than the president-elect's uninspiring two-year goal. Obama's goal ought to be at least five million jobs. He should strive to at least reach the historic average.
Even if we are lucky enough to get 3.6 million jobs out of Obama's bailout, the cost is just too much. Spending $800 billion for 3.6 million jobs means each job costs us, or our children, $222,222.
Obama's $800 billion bailout is enough money to simply give 16 million families (15,925,785.8 to be more precise), $50,233. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, $50,233 is the real median annual household income in the United States. What a boondoggle.
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