Did the ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) create for save jobs? The answer is “sort of” and “absolutely not,” depending on how it is evaluated. Yes people were hired and others not fired because of money provided by the act. I will not address the fraudulent tabulation of the exact number because there are plenty of other articles that already address this issue. What none of the reported numbers takes into consideration is the impact of the “Crowding Out Effect,” which is “any reduction in private consumption or investment that occurs because of an increase in government spending…” For jobs this means the administration and CBO have not counted the “Destroyed or Prevented” jobs that have resulted from the ARRA. You can not count it one way and not the other and still be intellectually honest.
The following articles address this in more detail:
Caroline Baum of Bloomberg: “Obama Omits Jobs Killed or Thwarted from Tally”
Joseph Lawler of the American Spectator: "Destroyed or Prevented"
