Nancy Pelosi, Job Creation, and Obamacare’s “Success”
Ahead of this morning’s jobs report, former Speaker Pelosi at her weekly press conference yesterday reiterated her claim that Obamacare will create 4 million jobs. She also claimed that without the “stimulus,” the unemployment rate would have risen to 14.5 percent:
PELOSI: Well, let me just say that as a matter of fact that the Recovery Act saved millions of jobs–or saved or created millions of jobs for our economy. Without the Recovery Act and accompanying federal interventions, whether from the Fed, or cash for clunkers, or other initiatives, the unemployment rate last year at the time of the election would have been fourteen and a half percent, not nine and a half percent….Four million jobs will be created by the health care bill and the associated initiatives like what was in the Recovery package on health care alone. So I think it was a success.
There are several factual inaccuracies associated with this paragraph – let’s take them in turn:
- First, the real unemployment rate – counting underemployed and discouraged workers – rose in September to 16.5 percent, whereas Pelosi said unemployment would have hit 14.5 percent without the “stimulus.” In other words, if you look at a truer measure of unemployment, the American economy is two percentage points worse off WITH the “stimulus” than Pelosi said we would be WITHOUT it.
- Second, the Obama Administration predicted that if the “stimulus” had NOT passed, unemployment would rise to about 9 percent by the end of 2010. Instead, as Pelosi commented, unemployment last November was 9.8 percent. Again, the economy was worse off WITH the “stimulus” than the Administration said we would be WITHOUT it.
- Third, Speaker Pelosi’s other comments about Obamacare – encouraging artists to “leave your work” and “be creative” because they will have government-funded health coverage under the law – are slightly inconsistent with the claims that Obamacare will create 4 million new jobs. It’s hard for Pelosi to argue that the law was a “success” as a job-creator when she’s also telling people to quit their jobs and “be a musician or whatever.”
These types of claims are similar to those made by a presidential candidate who promised repeatedly that his health care plan would bring down premiums by $2,500 per family – yet under whose Administration the price of health insurance now exceeds that of a family car. Whether on jobs or insurance premiums, Democrats’ rhetoric – on Obamacare and the “stimulus” – consistently falls short.