So remember that $787 billion stimulus, much of which was thrown away to left-wing groups and imaginary zip codes? You probably do since Obama won't stop harping on how it saved the nation from losing countless jobs. The unemployment numbers for February are out today and the nation is still losing countless jobs.
According to the Department of Labor, the economy shed 36,000 jobs during February and unemployment remains mired at 9.7 percent. Obama promised that, if his stimulus boondoggle was passed, unemployment wouldn't surpass 8 percent. Since then, we've been to 11 percent unemployment and back.
Calculated Risk Blog has a graph showing just how bad our situation is, shown above.
Everything after month 14 on the y-axis of that graph is since the stimulus was passed. During that time, one-third of the stimulus has been spent, with almost no discernible effect. If anything, this recession is more prolonged than anything else in our history. The economy began plunging in December 2007 and has continued sinking for more than two years. The job losses are finally starting to abate, but we're still looking at net losses of jobs.
The only difference is that our government is $787 billion shorter now, thanks to the president's fiscal delusions.
UPDATE: It occurs to us that the unemployment rate is likely much higher since many people have stopped looking for jobs since the recession began. These people aren't counted in the unemployment tally. Some estimates have the real unemployment rate at 20%. Good going, Mr. President.
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