A year ago, President Obama and his Democratic cronies took trips all over the nation touting the “amazing” results of the stimulus bill. They called it “The Summer of Recovery” and were convinced that the worst of America’s economic woes were behind us.
Flash forward a year, to the present day and it is easy to see that a true recovery has NOT taken place. In fact, our economy has continued to decline since the passage of the massive stimulus bill.
First let’s look at employment- according to Speaker of the House Boehner, 1.5 Million jobs have been lost since the bill was signed into law in 2009. And unless you live under a rock, I think you probably know that unemployment rate is at 9.1%. And that alone is bad, but when you dig a little deeper you find out exactly HOW bad. According to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 15.8% of Americans are “underemployed,” meaning that workers are being employed at less than full-time or regular jobs or at jobs inadequate with respect to their training or economic needs. This statistic is even more shocking to me than the total unemployment. These people might have” a job” but they are not good jobs that allow them to reach their full potential or pay their bills.
According to FOX Business News, new unemployment filings have been above 400,000 (the number economists equate with a “healthy” economy) for 10 straight weeks. Economists estimate that 125,000 jobs need to be added to the economy each month just in order to keep up with the population, and at least 250,000 jobs a month in order to start making a dent in the 9.1% unemployment rate… but in May we only added 54,000 jobs. Last year we added about 72,500 jobs a month. At that rate it would take nearly 8 years to make up all the jobs lost since the recession began.
Also, looking at the unemployed workers further reveals problems in the status quo. 6.2 million workers have been unemployed for at least 6 months. And 1 in 3 of all unemployed Americans have been unemployed for over a year. This of course leads to other problems.
The housing market is still gasping for air, with an estimated 25% of mortgages currently underwater. New home sales are slightly up, at 560,000 but economists say that at least 1.2 Million are needed in order to consider the housing market as healthy.
One reason for some of the turmoil is likely to be the confusion and uncertainty regarding Obama Care. According to Representative Fred Upton of Michigan, the administration has published 3,500 pages of regulations related to the health care bill this year alone. With all the new regulations coming up, as well as many unanswered questions regarding the taxes and mandates in the bill- is it any wonder that businesses are reluctant to hire more workers or invest in new ventures?
Speaking of fear, the fastest rise in the price of consumer goods since 2006 happened this May, which make it unsurprising that a recent Gallup poll revealed that nearly half of all Americans think that the country is headed towards another recession. Add to this the fact that the price to feed a family of four has risen 5% since the “Summer of Recovery” and it comes as no surprise that normal, everyday people (or as Obama calls them- bumps in the road) are frightened.
What all of these statistics and figures prove is that the Obama administration is completely out of touch with reality, and that they bamboozled the voters of America into supporting a $1,160,000,000,000 (including interest) waste of time, effort, and especially of our hard earned tax dollars. How about we make them pay in 2012?
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