The failure of Obamanomics is that it is based on false promises. No one seriously believes that the 1.9 million jobs the president guarantees will materialize.

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Thank goodness all Senate Democrats aren’t as economically suicidal as the man who leads their party. 

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama’s onetime colleagues defeated his latest attempt to dictate jobs into creation with taxpayer money.  The price tag for the American Jobs Act was a cool $447 billion, doling out a mix of payroll tax holidays and new spending sprees.  Though the job gains would be by definition temporary, Obama guaranteed the bill would add 1.9 million jobs and increase gross domestic product by 2 percentage points. 

While some unnamed Democratic aides said there were items in the bill their bosses opposed, it’s obvious that Senate liberals were acknowledging a truth the rest of America learned already: Barack Obama has no credibility on economic issues.  To which fiscal conservatives can derisively reply, welcome to reality.   

Who but the most ideologically committed state-loving redistributionist could argue that Obama’s track record on the economy is anything other than an unmitigated disaster?  After all, who can blame Senate Democrats for distrusting the man who promised no more than 8 percent unemployment if his 2009 Recovery Act were passed into law?  With out-of-work Americans suffering from chronic 9.1 unemployment since passage of the Recovery Act – many of them in states where 23 Democratic senators are running for reelection next year – it’s no wonder that several members of the president’s party chose not to give him an easy victory. 

Before the vote, Obama continued his attacks on Republicans by claiming that they – unlike he – refuse to snatch numbers out of thin air and claim they are real.  “Do [Republicans] have a plan that would have a similar impact?” Obama rhetorically asked reporters at a news conference.  Responding to his own question, Obama said, “The answer we’re getting right now is, ‘Well, we’re going to roll back all these Obama regulations.” …Does anybody really think that that is going to create jobs right now?” 

In a word, Mr. President, Yes. 

If businesses were shown by clear and convincing evidence that the federal regulatory burden would be dramatically reduced with bipartisan support, the private sector’s job creation machine would whir into life.  Entrepreneurs would target newfound niches in the market as barriers to profit and growth fall.  Established businesses would dust off their market research reports, and invest heavily in areas previously off limits by federal fiat.  Consultants of all stripes – lawyers, accountants and financiers – would see job gains as clients begin to ramp up efforts to expand their profits, and by extension their employee base. 

The failure of Obamanomics is that it is based on false promises.  No one seriously believes that the 1.9 million jobs the president guarantees will materialize.  Instead, all sides see a naked attempt to once again favor teacher unions and other public employee groups at the expense of private sector workers clawing to hang on.  Just like the Recovery Act before it, the American Jobs Act is an expensive lie to shield friendly liberal constituencies from real world budget cuts.  The difference this time is that Senate liberals have irrefutable evidence that what the president promises is patently false. 

If it were true that real, sustainable jobs could be created by simply spending more taxpayer money with no burdensome downside, logic and morality would demand that we spend even more to employ even more.  If full-employment that increases GDP can be had for just a few trillion dollars of federal spending, why not go all in and grow the economy 8 or 10 percent next year? 

The truth is that President Obama has no clue how to create real, sustainable jobs.  It’s good to see that at least some Senate Democrats realize the obvious.  Welcome to reality.