A year ago I wrote a letter asking where are the jobs the Obama administration promised to the American people.
As you recall, in December 2008, President-elect Obama and his economic advisors told us the stimulus bill would prevent the unemployment rate from going above 8 percent (at the time the rate was around 7 percent).
When President Obama signed the bill into law Feb. 17, 2009, the unemployment rate had inched up to 7.6 percent. By July 2009, the unemployment rate had jumped to 9.5 percent and this past June the rate was still 9.5 percent, having jumped higher to 10 percent at the end of 2009.
Many economists expect the unemployment rate to remain in the 9.5 to 10 percent range for at least the remainder of the year.
The administration has spent this summer praising the stimulus bill, saying that it has created 3.5 million jobs. However, the Labor Department reports a different outlook.
In December 2008, there were 135.1 million employed Americans. The administration objectively targeted that the number of employed Americans would rise to 138.6 million by December 2010 (the difference is 3.5 million).
However, as of July 2010, the Labor Department reported that the number of employed Americans had dropped to 130.5 million, meaning a net loss of 4.6 million jobs.
With numbers like this, the Labor Department has verified what we all know: the stimulus bill has failed. And why has it failed? Because government spending does not stimulate the economy and create jobs; it simply moves money from the private sector to the public sector.
This brings us to Holland, Mich., where this past week the president visited a factory touting that this one plant received $151 million in stimulus funds and will create 300 jobs (each job will cost taxpayers $500,000). The plant will create lithium batteries for the hybrid cars that no one wants to buy.
Investment in a company is not and should not be the business of the federal government. It’s not the government’s business to pick winners and losers.
The administration keeps trying to implement their off-shore drilling ban which will cause job losses of up to 140,000 and have a ripple effect across the region. Democratic strategist James Carville has come out blasting the administration for the ban.
Yes, Carville does want to see more stringent regulations on off-shore drilling, but right now he is voicing his concern about the damaging effect the ban will have on the economies of Louisiana and neighboring Gulf states. So much for creating jobs; this administration is trying to eliminate them.
Almost 18 months after the stimulus bill was signed into law, 74 percent of Americans feel that the stimulus bill has either had no effect or damaged the economy. In addition, 51 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of the economy.
The massive trillion dollar spending bills passed by Congress and signed by the President are not helping our economy grow and putting people back to work. They are hindering it.
Laura Lunsford
Fayetteville, Ga.
