Every single Republican in the House, and all but save three northeastern moderates in the Senate (including subsequent party-switcher Arlen Specter) voted against President Obama’s economic stimulus plan in early 2009. For months, wingnuttia pronounced the program a failure (even though – as noted in earlier posts on this website – a large number of liberal and CONSERVATIVE economists credited the program with helping to lessen the severity of the near depression thatBush and the Republicans left on Obama’s doorstep). Teabaggers, who were silent as the Sainted Reagan, “Pappy” Bush and his idiot son W ran up trillions in additional debt, suddenly became outraged at a $700 billion stimulus package (of which approximately 40 percent was devoted to Republican-cherished tax cuts). On his first day in office, Barack Obama had inherited a $1.3 TRILLION dollar shortfall in federal revenues for his first fiscal year in office.
When not hypocritically criticizing the administration’s deficit spending, these shameless right-wingers have screamed about job losses. “Where are the jobs?” mumbled House Minority Leader John Boehner (in one of those rare moments of sobriety when he wasn’t blubbering on the House floor or laying semi-conscious in a tanning bed). Well, wingnuts, let’s talk about jobs. Let’s look at what some people have called the “economic bikini.”
The "economic bikini" traces job losses during Bush and Obama. Do you see a trend? Yes, once again Democrats have to clean up the mess of Republicans.
Notice how job losses mount and excelerate during the Bush Administration (the red half of the “bikini”), to the point where we were shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs due to gross economic mismanagement of conservative Republicans. Now, notice that as the months pass during the Obama Administration (the blue part of the “bikini”), the jobs losses lessen (due in large part to the impact of the stimulus package, credited by objective economists with saving or adding in the neighborhood of TWO MILLION JOBS). Not shown on the chart are the most recent economic states for April 2010 showing a massive INCREASE of 290,000 jobs.
So, next time some wingnut opens his pie-hole asking “where are the jobs?” show him this simple little chart. It’s so simple that even Sarah Palin or Joe the Plumber could understand it (well, maybe that’s expecting too much). Oh, and also be sure to let that wingnut know that the economic recovery is taking place no thanks to him, his misspelled sign, and the obstructionist tactics of those he supports.