Dept. of It Won't Work

Obama's job-creation scheme doesn't function as basic arithmetic:

There are currently about 10 million unemployed workers in the U.S. . . . "If we write a check for $75,000 to each of the unemployed, we won't have anyone 'unemployed,'" said former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. . . . The Obama administration’s goal of creating 3 million new jobs by January 2011 will run smack into "the natural demographic flow, which will add 3.2 million people to the workforce" in the same time period, O'Neill said. In effect, "we are going to spend $750 billion, the number of unemployed will rise and the (unemployment) rate will go down slightly." O'Neill did the math so you don't have to. Each job "will cost $250,000, which doesn't suggest much labor intensity for the dollars spent," he said. "It makes me wonder if any of the planners or commentators are good at arithmetic."

Repeat after me: It won't work.

(Cross-posted at AmSpecBlog.)