Debbie Wasserman Shultz and Joe Biden must be receiving the same talking points, because they are both sounding equally clueless when it comes to our economy.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again … sometimes you can’t defend the indefensible.  But that is exactly what these folks are trying to do: defend the stimulus bill as a monumental success for our economy.

In a recent interview, Joe Biden said the following: “Nobody can look you in the eye and tell you the Recovery Act and the Stimulus did not create jobs and did not do very good things for our economy.”  Oh yeah?  Let’s take a look at some of the facts, shall we?

We have 2.5 fewer Americans working today than we did when Obama was inaugurated (the stimulus was passed just one month later, in February 2009).  We have an unemployment rate that sits at 9.1%, while it was 7.6% when Obama was inaugurated.  The real unemployment rate, by the way, is an astounding 16.2%.  The federal government has borrowed an additional $29,660 per household since Obama signed his precious “recovery” bill.  There are 14 million more Americans on food stamps today than there was when Obama was inaugurated.  Our national debt has increased $3.7 trillion since Obama took office.  Barack Obama may be the first president since WWII to never see a quarter of economic growth above 4%.  When Obama was inaugurated, 2.6 million Americans were considered “long-term unemployed.”  Now that figure is 6.2 million Americans.

We spent $800+ billion to accomplish THAT?  Let’s face it .. the recovery act was just a way for Democrats to pass their pork barrel legislation under the guise of economic stimulus.  Let’s take a look at some of the stimulus projects that Joe Biden says supposedly did “great things for our economy.”

• $554,763 for the Forest Service to replace windows in a closed visitor center at Mount St. Helens
• $762,372 to create “Dance Draw” interactive dance software
• $62 million for a tunnel to nowhere in Pittsburg, PA that even Governor, Ed Rendell called “a tragic mistake”
• $1.9 million for international ant research
• $1.8 million for a road project that is threatening a pastor’s home
• $89,298 to replace a new sidewalk that leads to a ditch in Boynton, Okla.
• $3.8 million for a “streetscaping” project that has reduced traffic and caused a business to fire two employees
• $200,000 to help Siberian communities lobby Russian policy makers
• $39.7 million to upgrade the statehouse and political offices in Topeka, Kansas
• $760,000 to Georgia Tech to study improvised music
• $700,000 to study why monkeys respond negatively to inequity
• $193,956 to study voter perceptions of the economic stimulus
• $363,760 to help NIH promote the positive impacts of stimulus projects
• $456,663 to study the circulation of Neptune’s atmosphere
• $529,648 to study the effects of local populations on the environment… in the Himalayas

 Here are some more “stimulus” horror stories, including the $500 million for an electric car company to make cars … in Finland.  Maybe Joe Biden gets a pass on that one.  The stimulus DID create jobs.  Just not in the United States.  And this one … the $7 million for four Oregon forestry services firms to hire no U.S. workers.