Pete's Perspective: The Failed Promises of the Economic Stimulus 

President Obama’s administration has released its initial report on the number of jobs created since passage of the economic stimulus package in February and has immediately undertaken the difficult task of downplaying its results. The report clearly indicates that the realities of the job market have fallen considerably short of the White House’s projections and promises made to the American people.

Nowhere are the administration’s faulty predictions more apparent than in Michigan. In February, the White House projected that the State of Michigan would experience a stimulus-fueled infusion of 109,000 jobs by the end of 2010. Unfortunately, since its enactment, Michigan has lost an estimated 164,000 jobs. In fact, the only place in America on pace to meet the administration’s job creation goals is Washington, D.C., home to the federal government.

With every new report and analysis on the stimulus publicized, it becomes more and more evident that borrowing a trillion dollars from our nation’s children and grandchildren based upon grand promises of millions of new jobs and 8 percent unemployment has simply missed the mark. Despite the obviously unsuccessful results of the economic stimulus package, in recent months Congressional leaders along with the White House have embarked on the ambitious goal of a government take-over of health care, passage of a national energy tax and even begun discussing the possibility of a second economic stimulus package.

I am afraid that until these leaders realize that the true engine of job growth in America is not government, but instead small businesses and the free market, we will continue to see nothing but similar job-killing policies on the horizon.

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