After more than a year and after having committed more than half of the $787 billion stimulus monies to "save or create 3.5 million jobs," the unemployment numbers remain at 9.7 percent. Considering workers who have simply given up looking for work or are working part time, instead, the real unemployment rate is about 17 percent.
Most telling of the policy failure is in the construction sector. We were told Americans would be put back to work on "shovel-ready" jobs, but the construction unemployment rate remains above 20 percent. The May unemployment rate was the worst since 1976, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking the series.
President Barack Obama may claim that, but for the stimulus bill, construction unemployment would be much worse. However empty and discouraging as that statement may be, especially for those out of work, it is also false. Even if there were some truth in the ability of the government to stimulate growth through its spending, the other economic policies of our president and Congress (e.g. health care, cap and trade, elimination of the Bush tax cuts, etc.) create uncertainty and eliminate any job-growth potential.
Shovel-ready? Well, in a way. Get ready to bury our children and grandchildren in debt created by a failed "stimulus" policy.
Simply Unsustainable
