When the American people were being sold on the stimulus, Obama and his Democratic friends in Congress promised us a “jumpstart” to the economy and an unemployment rate that would never reach 8%.
535 days later the nation’s unemployment rate sits at 9.5%.
But it gets worse.
The Labor Force participation rate currently sits at 64.6%. The last time it was lower than that was 1984.
Since March of 2009, one month after the stimulus was implemented, the number of discouraged workers, the economic term used for individuals who have given up looking for a job, has increased by 500,000 people.
Additionally, we now have 2 million fewer full-time workers than we had a year ago.
And while Obama and the Congress like to brag about 7 months of private sector job growth, the rate of increase doesn’t reach the 125k-150k rate necessary to keep up with population growth. In other words, we’re falling farther and farther behind.
This is why we’re spending $862 billion? That’s more than the cost of the entire War in Iraq.
Ted Strickland may like to call me a Cheerleader for Failure for a post like this. But if a policy fails to do what it was promised to do, especially at this extreme cost to the American taxpayer, don’t we have a responsibility to hold our leaders accountable for the results?
The answer, of course, is yes.
And if the above statistics make you say “things are going just fine”, that’s your choice. But it won’t be the same opinion as a whole lot of Americans come November 2nd.
Now from a purely political perspective, this couldn’t be worse news for Democrats. Not only are there the obvious problems of no substantive results to highlight to the American people, but it gives Republicans another full-month to highlight the failure of the Administration and the Pelosi Congress.
That won’t help those generic congressional polls very much.
