The liveliest speaker at the Democratic National Convention has been hosting her own show on Current TV for almost 8 months now. A relatively new cable network co-founded by Al Gore that goes out of its way to hire all of the unabashedly liberal pundits it can get. Former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm has fit right in.
On Friday night’s episode of The War Room, the Canadian-born talk show host began her hour-long show with a factually-challenged diatribe that bordered on the same intensity level of her now infamous speech in Charlotte. Coincidentally, the topic of discussion was kind of about the same thing – jobs, the defense of Obama’s seemingly successful stimulus bill of 2009, and more Romney criticism of course.
Despite the ‘efficiency’ of the last one, she advocated for another stimulus package for good measure. The American Jobs Act has failed to receive bipartisan support, but Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently tried to spur economic growth by enacting the third phase of Quantitative easing. She sang his praises for the decision.
Ok, so let's just be clear about this. The stimulus did help to create a lot of jobs. This is according to the Congressional Budget Office, non-partisan group. It created 4.7 million jobs in 2010, and the stimulus created 3.6 million jobs in 2011. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities found that without that sweet sugar high of a stimulus, the unemployment rate in America would have skyrocketed to as high as 12%.
According to a CNSNews report, this couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s common knowledge by now that the $831 billion stimulus package failed to produce promised results, and the unemployment rate is much worse than it appears to be. The statistics outlined by George W. Bush’s economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey in an essay for the Weekly Standard are staggering to behold.
If at least 3 million jobs were in fact created as a result of the stimulus bill, that still works out to $266,000 per job – further increasing the long-term debt burden. These are not sustainable jobs however. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that a maximum of 1.2 million people still have their stimulus created jobs. That works out to $692,500 per job, but it gets worse according to Lindsey. By the fourth quarter of 2013, there won’t be more than 400,000 of these jobs left – at a cost to taxpayers of $2,077,500 per job.
These facts and figures aren’t hard to find, but all of the devoted Obama supporters in the media have resorted to distortion and fabrication in a desperate attempt to get an indefensible administration another term in office. Granholm blamed the legislative branch of government for everything that has gone wrong. More specifically, all of the Republican senators and representatives who have a tendency to stand up for what they believe in-- much like their Democratic counterparts. The problem, according to her is that conservative policies “hurt people”.
…your problem, Republicans, with all due respect is not Mitt Romney. It's not Ben Bernanke. Your problem is that your policies hurt people. So go ahead and obstruct and then go home for two months. Progressives we know what we have to do. On November 6th, we have to make sure that these obstructionists will stay home for good.
As election season starts heating up more in the following weeks, liberal talk show hosts will continue to trumpet the ‘great achievements’ of the Obama administration. Anyone who says or thinks otherwise will make someone like Granholm mad, so mad in fact that it’ll make her “want to spit.”
Relevant Transcript Below (Emphasis Mine)
CURRENT TV
The War Room with Jennifer Granholm
9/14/2012
10:01 PM EDT (7 minutes)
JENNIFER GRANHOLM: We're going to start with big news on the campaign front today. Mitt Romney, who staked his entire campaign on the premise that he would do a better job on the economy than the president, is now trailing the president on the issue of -- wait for it -- the economy. That's right. A New York Times/CBS poll released today finds that likely voters think the president would be best on the economy, 47-46. That's a narrow lead, but it's the first time the president has lead on this pivotal issue in the campaign. And this news comes as the administration stakes another major step to shore up the economy. Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke announced a plan yesterday to buy mortgage backed securities which would help the housing market and the overall economy as well. And the Fed said it's not going to stop acting until the unemployment rate goes down. Hallelujah, if congress won't act at least the Fed will. And I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn that Mitt Romney immediately criticized the move.
MITT ROMNEY: I don’t think what Bernanke is doing is going to get the economy going. I think we have to have a leadership in Washington that encourages the private sector. I think printing more money at this point comes at a higher cost than the benefit –GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You wouldn’t reappoint him if you won?
ROMNEY: I would like to appoint someone that I selected, I would look for someone other than the current incumbent.
GRANHOLM: Well the stock market responded much more positively than Romney did. The Dow (Jones) actually shot up more than 200 points, following the announcement of Ben Bernanke. And today it closed at its highest level since 2007. But today also Romney dismissed the positive economic news as a sugar high. And the sugar high thing is the same zinger that Paul Ryan has been using for years. So here is Paul Ryan, the VP nominee in 2010 talking about the president's original stimulus package.
PAUL RYAN: No sugar-high economics like a stimulus is going to substitute the fact that we're not getting the core foundation for economic growth.
GRANHOLM: Ok, so let's just be clear about this. The stimulus did help to create a lot of jobs. This is according to the Congressional Budget Office, non-partisan group. It created 4.7 million jobs in 2010, and the stimulus created 3.6 million jobs in 2011. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities found that without that sweet sugar high of a stimulus, the unemployment rate in America would have skyrocketed to as high as 12%. But the really outrageous thing about Paul Ryan's Fed bashing is he is the leader of the obstructionist Republicans in congress, who are the ones who refuse to do anything to fight unemployment, which left of course Ben Bernanke with no choice but to act. As Forbes so eloquently put it this week, “With Congress barely able to order lunch without inciting gridlock, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has played an outsized role in deciding how to create jobs and growth.” In fact, House Republicans have refused to even consider the president's jobs plan -- the Americans Jobs Act for over a year now, and what would the Act have done if Republicans had actually passed it? Let's turn to the experts, Moody's Analytics estimated that the Jobs Act would create 1.9 million jobs and add 2 percent to Gross Domestic Product. The Economic Policy Institute estimated that the American Jobs Act would increase employment by 4.3 million jobs. Macroeconomic advisors predicted that the American Jobs Act would create 2.1 million jobs and boost GDP by 1.5 percent; Goldman Sachs also estimated it would add 1.5 percent to GDP. Today Chairman Bernanke himself called on congress to do its job so he could stop doing it for them.
BEN BERNANKE: We’re looking for policy makers in other areas to do their part. We'll do our part, and we’ll try to make sure unemployment moves in the right direction but we can't solve this problem by ourselves.
GRANHOLM: He is so gentle. Well in response, Majority Leader Eric Cantor announced today after next week, the House will stand in recess until November 13th. And I’ll bet you 10,000 Romney bucks that they don't pass the Jobs Act before then. And even though Cantor has done nothing but obstruct the jobs bill, he still had the gall to say that he really does care.
ERIC CANTOR: We are concerned about those individuals that the gentlemen speaks about that perhaps may be out of work, or under employed or trying to make it and having a real difficult time. We're concerned about those people, and the best thing we can do is create a job.GRANHOLM: If you are so concerned about those people, then put your money where your mouth is! Create some jobs! To my point, I am so angry at congress I want to spit! Unemployment rate is over 8% and this president has proposed this jobs bill with by the way these pro-growth policies that the Republicans used to support back when they were a sane party. But today's Republicans obviously refuse to act, and now after a solid few weeks of doing absolutely nothing, they’re adjourning congress until after the election. Why did we put them there in the first place? Our executive branch has offered this grand bargain on cuts, reforms and revenues. It’s the type of ambitious agenda that the country desperately needs, but the legislative branch won't even consider it. The Tea Partiers will not consider giving up a dime, not one dime, not one dime in revenue. Even in exchange for billions in cuts and reforms. They won't consider the Jobs Act. They won't consider the Violence Against Women Act. They won't consider tax cuts for working families! They won't consider the Farm Bill. The list goes on and on. Congress has a 12% approval rating right now. And it seems like they’re aiming for a heck of a lot less, because the Republicans refuse to consider that maybe, just maybe Americans want to see action and compromise and progress rather than this political double speak and nonsense. Now I know Democrats are not perfect, and I'm not saying that. But this proud obstruction at all costs is all on the Republican Party. If Mitt Romney loses in a landslide, I can just hear it now. The Republican Party is going to blame him alone. You ever think that your policies might be the problem? Oh Republicans, policies like tax breaks for millionaires like tearing a struggling country's safety net to shreds, like obstructing a jobs bill because you don't want the president to get a win? Even though the real victors would be your constituents. Your problem, Republicans, with all due respect is not Mitt Romney. And it's not Ben Bernanke. Your problem is that your policies hurt people. So go ahead and obstruct and then go home for two months. Progressives we know what we have to do. On November 6th, we have to make sure that these obstructionists will stay home for good.
