Grassley on stimulus impact: None whatsoever

Five months after casting a vote against the federal stimulus plan, Sen. Chuck Grassley hasn't seen anything to change his mind about the $787 billion package.

While he's willing to concede the Obama administration's plan to jumpstart the economy may have created as many as 150,000 jobs, Grassley had a harsh assessment of the impact America Recovery and Reinvestment Act Wednesday.

"None whatsoever," Grassley said about the plan's impact, pointing out one of President Barack Obama's arguments for the plan was needed to prevent unemployment from rising above 8 percent. "Well, it's 9.5 percent and it's going to go to 10 percent. So I don't think it's working."

The administration said the plan would create between 3 million and 4 million jobs, but unemployment numbers have been worse than expected. The economy lost 467,000 jobs in June, the federal government reported.

Over the weekend, Vice President Joe Biden and Obama economic adviser Laura D'Andrea Tyson, the former chairwoman of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, suggested a second stimulus is necessary.

Grassley, however, sees the lack of results from the current plan "throws cold water" on making a case for another round of stimulus spending.

"I don't see that it's going to fly," he said.

One of the problems, according to Grassley, is the spending isn't happening fast enough to blunt the impact of the recession.

"Only half of it's being spent when it needs to be spent -- in 2009 and 2010," he said.

An Obama economic adviser recently said $158 billion $499 billion in total stimulus funds has been obligated and $43 billion of the $288 billion in tax cuts have been distributed.