Obama Faces Stimulus Doubts Says Los Angeles Times

See June 9, 2009 front page Los Angeles Times article by Peter Nicholas:

“Obama confronts doubts on stimulus, vows faster spending
His assertions -- that 150,000 jobs have been saved or created already, and that the summer goal is 600,000 more -- appear to be elastic and are hard to verify.”
“Two of the president's top economic advisors put out a report Jan. 9 predicting that with the stimulus spending, the U.S. unemployment rate this year would not exceed 8%. It now stands at 9.4%.”

"Though some signs suggest the recession is abating, the economy lost about 1.5 million jobs over three full months after the passage of the stimulus bill, from March through May. Unemployment in that period jumped to 9.4%, from 8.5%."

"Kevin Hassett, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank in Washington, put it even more bluntly: 'The actual unemployment rate is worse than their baseline -- suggesting that their stimulus plan was harmful. And yet, despite that, they're asserting it has been successful. That shows an incredible amount of gall'."

"At this point, the largest share of stimulus spending has gone to states in the form of Medicaid grants, federal records show."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-obama-stimulus9-2009jun09,0,5788007.story