Friday, November 4, 2011

Pelosi: Without $825 Billion Stimulus Package, Unemployment would be 15%

At a press briefing only a month ago, Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader, said that if the stimulus had not been enacted unemployment would have reached 14.5 percent by the time of the November 2010 elections.

Since President Barack Obama signed his $825 billion economic stimulus plan into law in February 2009, the national unemployment rate has risen from 8.2 percent to 9.0 percent. But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) said at her press briefing Thursday that if the stimulus had not been enacted the unemployment rate would now be 15 percent.

In the report, "Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output from April 2011 Through June 2011", issued by the Congressional Budget Office, the stimulus signed by President Obama in 2009 would have the impact of reducing the national unemployment rate between 0.3 points to 1.1 points from what it otherwise would have been.

The report also said that although CBO initially estimated that the stimulus would cost $787 billion, CBO had subsequently increased its estimated cost to $825 billion.

According to the CBO report, 600,000 to 2 million people have jobs as of now that were "created or retained" because of the $825 billion stimulus. If the maximum number of 2 million is accepted, that works out to a cost of $412,500 per job. If the minimum number of 600,000 is accepted, that works out to a cost of $1,375,000 per job.


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