And sometimes it even brings several terrible ones. Today is one of these days.
First, the Democrats are once again talking about a second stimulus, except this time they won’t call it a stimulus (because the first one gave the word stimulus a bad name) but a “jobs legislation.” I doubt it would make any difference to remind them that government spending can’t create jobs; that with government spending comes waste, fraud, and abuse; and that most of the money from the first stimulus still hasn’t been spent.
Also, the Democrats want to use $200 billion of unused Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds, not to reduce the deficit, but to spend on job creation. Interestingly, because the brilliant lawmakers behing the idea don’t read newspapers, and haven’t kept up with the broken promises made by the administration in February about how the $789 billion would create 3.5 million jobs, they are claiming that this move would create 6 million jobs.
House Democratic Caucus Chair John Larson (D-Conn.) said momentum is building among his party to take unused Troubled Asset Relief Program money and put it toward job creation, and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said he’s trying to figure out a way to get a jobs bill on the House calendar before the chamber adjourns in mid December. The Larson bill, called the Transparent Markets Act, could create six million jobs, Larson said.
The silver lining: Americans understand that this administration and Congress have no clue what they are talking about. According to a CBS News Poll, “While the White House insists about a million jobs have been created by the stimulus package, Americans simply don’t believe it. A mere 7% say the stimulus has already created jobs, 46% say jobs will be created eventually, 42% say it will never create jobs.”