I suppose I should be relieved. Claiming success is far less destructive than another irresponsible "stimulus." I'm grateful for small favors.
John Stossel joins Fox News on October 19. He's the author of Give Me a Break and of Myth, Lies, and Downright Stupidity.
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Nipplemancer|10.1.09 @ 12:17PM|#
"jobs saved or created" is the most bullshit spin ever.
Kevin|10.1.09 @ 1:01PM|#
Next he'll be trumpeting all the wars he prevented. I mean, I can list 100 countries we're not warring against in this year alone.
CaptainSmartass|10.1.09 @ 1:50PM|#
Obama also prevented:
* a second 9/11
* 9.1 magnitude earthquakes in Los Angeles and San Francisco
* slumbering Cthulu from awakening
Prove he didn't do those things, you racist!
Upstater85|10.1.09 @ 4:23PM|#
You even suggesting that someone could prove that is racist enough, RACIST!
Rimfax|10.1.09 @ 1:10PM|#
It is this unfettered certainty in the face of unknowability that most damns his assertions, and the similar asertions of politicians of all stripes.
Trackback| 10.1.09 @ 1:10PM
Reason Magazine : Success No Matter What? Don't believe the White House's eco, on PunditKix, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
|10.1.09 @ 1:16PM|#
The current jobless trend was indeed predicted by real economists. As was the bubble.. as was the collapse.
Fist of Etiquette|10.1.09 @ 2:03PM|#
If an entrepreneur created a new job, in spite of Obama's destructive anti-business regulatory apparatus, does Obama still deserve the credit?
Stossel is such a Birther. Yes, Obama deserves the credit. He could have just as easily banned entrepreneurship altogether, couldn't he??? PRAISE HIM!
|10.15.09 @ 2:22PM|#
You're not really serious, are you?
Oh, and is "Fist of Ettiquette" the name of your band?
KC|10.1.09 @ 4:02PM|#
"saved or created" is one of the very smart words to use, it is not possible for a politicians to be wrong to make such statement.
When people point to the fact that the unemployment rate is still rising, those genius in DC can just put on a face and say that the rate "could have" risen even more should there be no bailout or stimulus package.
Yeah... Read More, like those guys are in fortune telling business...
Question: how do you know the money "saved" jobs? You are not going to get reports from some HR dept to say that "we would have let x amount of worker go if not for the money"
Tony|10.1.09 @ 5:18PM|#
Most economists feel we'd be looking at a decade or more of economic misery if not for the government intervention. There's still much work to do. Luckily we have real people in charge rather than the know-nothings of the opposite side who would happily let the country descend further into banana republic status for the sake of their dead ideologies.
John Stossel's rosy fantasy world in which sheer American willpower would have turned the recession around in quick fashion is just as unprovable a claim as the ones Obama has made. Every good metric we see will be in spite of Obama, every bad one will be his fault. It must be so when facts are less important than maintaining purity of ideology.
|10.2.09 @ 8:00AM|#
"Luckily we have real people in charge rather than the know-nothings of the opposite side"
News Flash: Congress passes the budget. The Dems have controlled congress for decades and here we are . . . I don't see how you can blame our current recession (worst since the Great Depression, I might add) on "the opposite side".
If the previous administration presented a "bad budget" then Congress should have had the cajones to reject it - but they didn't . . . they just added more pork and continued to fiddle while Rome burned.
It's simply not possible to put the responsibility for this mess on the minority party. They had a part in it to be sure, but the Republicans haven't controlled congress since the days of Newt.
It's worth noting that the Dems have now quadrupled the national debt with this last budget and (ahem) 'stimulus' package.
To put it bluntly: Only a total idiot borrows $400 to pay off a $100 debt.
Antony|10.3.09 @ 9:57AM|#
News flash: you are a retard.
JohnD|10.4.09 @ 10:28AM|#
I have yet to read a post by Tony that makes any sense at all. He is a kool-aid drinking maroon
|10.1.09 @ 6:06PM|#
Tony, you're living in fantasy that the evidence refutes
Get you're head out of the Keynesaid bucket and smell reality. It has never worked.
|10.1.09 @ 6:10PM|#
And all those "most economists" have been wrong all the way down the line. Even you can't forever ignore the failure of "most economists" to provide any useful or predictive information.
Douglas Gray|10.2.09 @ 5:36PM|#
Where is the actual evidence that the Stimulus made things better than they otherwise might be?
Justice|10.2.09 @ 8:46PM|#
The thing that strikes me the most about these statistical numbers put out by the administration, not only the current powers but those that have existed for decades, is the remarkable similarity to the system outlined in 1984. Now, I know this book has been re-hashed and I know Orwell was a socialist, but it doesn't mean that the mantra of "WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" should be dismissed as an exclusively fictional idea. We continue our unconquerable entanglements in the Middle East fighting an intangible enemy, continue to regulate/"stimulate" our markets for their "stability" (which is a stupendous lie), while the masses continue to rely, usually on one major television media source, to give them the absolute truth. I see statistics that don't meet projected statistics which were created with questionable sources in the first place and I have to wonder how many people are even questioning their government anymore. Welcome to the New World Order?
Pingback| 10.20.09 @ 9:05PM
Off-Topic Good Ol' Boy Crew Recruitment Thread - Page 5 - Football, Baseball and Off links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
abercrombie milano|5.27.10 @ 6:43AM|#
My only point is that if you take the Bible straight, as I'm sure many of Reasons readers do, you will see a lot of the Old Testament stuff as absolutely insane.
nike shox|8.10.11 @ 11:44PM|#
is good