( CNN ) -- In the film `` Groundhog Day , '' Bill Murray has to live through the exact same day thousands of times . In this administration , most Americans can be forgiven for feeling as though they 've lived through the same economic speech from President Obama nearly as many times . Given the extraordinary setting of a joint session of Congress , one has to question the notion of scheduling a rerun against the first-run debates taking place among Republican challengers to this president . The speech itself was almost literally a retread of the 2009 stimulus plan Obama pushed through a friendly Congress with almost no Republican support , with one important difference : The president never mentioned the cost of his proposal . He demanded that Congress pass his bill immediately more than a dozen times during the speech , but not once did he inform Congress of its price tag . Even worse , Obama ended up reneging on a claim made by the White House earlier this week that the bill would be entirely funded from current dollars . In the speech itself , Obama insisted that `` everything in this bill will be paid for . Everything . '' But then Obama told Congress that while their so-called super committee meets to hash out an agreement on cutting $ 1.5 trillion from future spending as part of the deficit-ceiling agreement last month , they could make more cuts to cover the cost of his new bill -- again , without telling them exactly what those costs would be . That 's akin to taking a friend out for a big birthday dinner and informing him at the end that he 'll have to find the money to pay the bill . The White House insisted that it would pull those numbers together in a week to ten days . But the jobs crisis has gone on for years . While Obama was on vacation , he was telling the media that it was his single highest priority . The White House actually wanted to make this speech yesterday . And they did so without having scored their own proposal ? It is n't as if Obama had promised anything new . The `` plan '' -- which still has not been released -- consists of getting money to states to supposedly save the jobs of teachers and first responders , accelerating public-works projects , extending the payroll tax cut put into place in the December tax deal , and extending jobless benefits for at least another year . In case readers have forgotten , that 's what Obama called for in the 2009 jobs plan in the stimulus package . At the time , Obama promised that by spending over $ 800 billion in borrowed money , we would keep unemployment below 8 % . Had that approach worked , Obama would n't have had to make a speech at all yesterday . His need to offer a Groundhog Day moment asking for a rerun of the stimulus blank check reveals just how badly his economic policies have failed -- and just how bereft this administration is of any new ideas to replace them . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ed Morrissey .
Edward Morrissey says Obama jobs speech reminded him of film `` Groundhog Day '' He says speech was retread of jobs plans in the 2009 stimulus plan . He says Obama vows everything will be paid for , but will let Congress figure out how . Morrissey : Strategies like extending jobless benefits and payroll tax cuts are stale .