An interesting graphic on unemployment . . .

[Just_A_Guy]

Speaks for itself, I think.

[pam]

I know lots of people currently unemployed here in SLC. The majority being in the construction business.

[john doe]

What's your point? I think it's that almost 10% of Americans are just uneducated republican rubes who don't deserve jobs anyway. If you were any kind of edumacated you would know that pointing out failures of bad policy is not helpful. Besides, Obama recently said he expects unemployment to pass 10%, so it looks like your numbers are wrong.

[Maxel]

Ouchies. Not good.

I just heard, though, that the conservative savior (lower-case "s"), Ronald Reagan, also dealt with unemployment rates higher than anticipated. Can this be true? Oh, the horror...

Having put in the comment that ostensibly makes my post "fair and balanced", I would now like to take the time to opine that the economic geniuses in the White House are not very good at their jobs. I believe this fact was proven when trends in google searches was cited as proof that the recession was over.

[talisyn]

Here in the real universe, the one where the stimulus package did go through, we like to speculate but with the understanding that no one knows what would have happened. It may be that if the stimulus package did not go through a vast space-time warp would have sucked away all of the currency on the planet. Betcha I could even find some statistics and make a pie chart, too.

[Just_A_Guy]

Originally Posted by talisyn

Here in the real universe, the one where the stimulus package did go through, we like to speculate but with the understanding that no one knows what would have happened. It may be that if the stimulus package did not go through a vast space-time warp would have sucked away all of the currency on the planet. Betcha I could even find some statistics and make a pie chart, too.

Except that those statistics were based on the President's numbers--which were presented as "proof" that we had to "Do Something".

We "Did Something", all right:



Are we happy now? Was it worth it?

[lilered]

It would seem to me that facts are facts and politics aside, where I live, folks are hurting. Haven't talked to anyone that is doing better the last couple of years. Some are the same, but most are worse off.
The thought keeps crossing my mind. If Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are in such dire straights, then why didn't our government just simply print more money and put them in the black years ago,. Wouldn't that have helped a lot more people than the present stimulus package? Printing money by our government without any financial backing will devalue the dollar. There is no free lunch. So be prepared to see inflation in the future.

[boyando]

The stimulus package that the President pushed through congress, seem to me, too give jobs too union members alone.

The conservative tax cuts of Reagan and Bush II, were aimed at helping any one with a job. I'm going to miss those evil tax cuts when they sunset, even though I don't make much money. Or maybe cause I don't make much money.

But at least I will have the satisfaction of knowing that a union member will keep his job and the yacht club will pay for my health care. Just don't get sick after July.

[Maxel]

Perhaps the stimulus package would have done more if... they spent the money allocated to it?

Just a thought. I doubt it, though. Somehow the name of the game with this government seems to be castrating America and weakening it.

[mightynancy]

I'm going to guess that the graph in post #6 is the deficit (it's not labelled. You'd lose points in my class for that).

Do the budget numbers include war spending?