a shovel was needed, but it wasn't for jobs

Democrats passed the $800 billion “stimulus” package in early 2009 with the idea it would do two things: keep unemployment below 8% and create millions of “shovel-ready” jobs.

Five months later, unemployment leaped to 9.5% and Vice President Joe Biden said it was because the administration “misread the economy.”

Fast forward another 15 months to today and President Obama tells the New York Times “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects.”

I think that's what you call 0 for 2.


h/T Chicks on the Right

As for the other major piece of legislation, health care, it doesn't help when stories like this start to emerge.

A Medicare official concedes that seniors may have to dig deeper into their wallets next year thanks to the health care law. The new analysis obtained by POLITICO finds the health care overhaul will result in increased out-of-pocket costs for seniors on Medicare Advantage plans.

During the debate over health-care reform, President Obama told us nearly every day that if you had health insurance now and were satisfied with it, you'd be able to keep it. It should be clear by now that that statement was, well, less than accurate. In fact, it's becoming harder to find anyone who can keep their current insurance.

This week the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reacted to an early draft of the President’s health care plans. The Chamber revealed to the press that in the next 3 years, 51% of all workers will be in health plans subject to new changes by federal requirements. Did you hear that? One out of every two workers will have to get new health care plans! Even though 83% of Americans want to keep the plan they have – they won’t be able to under Obamacare.

Administration struggles with fallout from healthcare reform waivers: The Department of Health and Human Services is facing pressure from all sides as it decides who should get waivers from new mandates of the healthcare reform law. HHS ignited a firestorm of controversy over the past few weeks by granting 30 waivers for the law's restrictions on annual limits, which says that plans must allow at least $750,000 of coverage in 2011.

So can we call it 0 for 3?