The Five Biggest Failures From President Obama's Stimulus Law

Those loans, however, have created quite the scandal. Nearly half a billion in taxpayer dollars was lost to the now-bankrupt solar energy company Solyndra. The company, which has since laid off over 1,000 workers, was Obama's self-described poster-child for "American ingenuity and dynamism" in 2010. Today, it's the poster-child for the hazards of reckless spending.

Finally, the fifth promise: one million electric cars. Obama promised the stimulus would put one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. Last month, the Washington Post reported that "evidence is mounting that President Obama was overly optimistic" to make that pledge.

General Motors' Volt, expected to be a hybrid hit, fell far short of its sales goals in 2011 by 38 percent. Fisker Automotive, which received half a billion dollars of stimulus money, also fell short of its manufacturing goals. On top of that, instead of creating jobs in the United States, the company is building its cars in Finland. So the Recovery Act did at least manage to stimulate Scandinavia.

[See political cartoons about U.S. energy policy.]

By now, you would think the president has learned his lesson: haphazard government spending cannot fix the economy. But in his budget unveiled Monday, Obama called for billions more in additional stimulus-style spending. At a time when Americans are demanding a more effective, more efficient government, he has chosen to increase spending and increase taxes.

That's not the recipe for economic recovery. The stimulus proved that much. Now is not the time for more of the same; now is the time for new leadership—a Republican president who understands the roles of government and the free market. In November, we can elect that president. And that would be a milestone worth celebrating.

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