This Unemployment Brought To You by Barack Hussein Obama

WSJ/The Nation/The Lid ^ | 6/9/09 | The Lid

[Shellybenoit]

The recent unemployment figures, 9.4% of Americans out of work blows through the President's projection at the time of the porkulous debate. At that time, America was promised that if his bill was passed, unemployment would not rise higher than 8%.

The spike in unemployment is a black-eye to the president as it is proof that the President's plan of government spending like a drunken sailor on shore leave is doing very little to help the economy.

The administration is so embarrassed about the bad numbers that they have revised their promises. Job creation is no longer the bell weather statistic, now it is jobs created or saved:

His latest invocation came yesterday, when the president declared that the stimulus had already saved or created at least 150,000 American jobs -- and announced he was ramping up some of the stimulus spending so he could "save or create" an additional 600,000 jobs this summer. These numbers come in the context of an earlier Obama promise that his recovery plan will "save or create three to four million jobs over the next two years." (source WSJ)

The reason for the change is that "saved jobs" is unmeasurable:

[T Lady]

Absolutely spot on.

As Rusty Humphries said on his show last night, those who make $4.00 an hour will soon be considered 'rich', given the gargantuan size of the debt this Administration has unloaded on the American people.

[Texas Fossil]

Here are the numbers from BLS:

Unemployment rate, May 2008-May 2009

May-2008 5.5%

Jun 5.6%

Jul 5.8%

Aug 6.2%

Sep 6.2%

Oct 6.6%

Nov 6.8%

Dec 7.2%

Jan-2009 7.6%

Feb 8.1%

Mar 8.5%

Apr 8.9%

May 9.4%

These are the “admitted numbers” probably reality is somewhat higher for various reasons.

Some estimate total real unemployment is in the neighborhood of 15%

[CaliGangsta]

Thanks to Obama the rate is only 9.4%. If Obama didn’t “create or save” all those jobs we’d be looking at a 109.4% unemployment rate by now.

[ex-snook]

Obama ain’t gonna hang for unemployment. Unbalanced Fleece trade is.

John Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock
(MADE IN JAPAN ) for 6am.

While his coffeepot
(MADE IN CHINA )

Was perking, he shaved with his electric razor
(MADE IN HONG KONG ..)

He put on a dress shirt
(MADE IN SRI LANKA ),

designer jeans
(MADE IN SINGAPORE )

and

tennis shoes
(MADE IN KOREA )

After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet
(MADE IN INDIA )

Then sat down with his calculator
(MADE IN MEXICO )

to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch
(MADE IN TAIWAN )

to the radio
(MADE IN INDIA )

he got in his car
(MADE IN GERMANY )

filled it with GAS
(from Saudi Arabia )

and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB.

At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day
checking his Computer
(Made In Malaysia ),

John decided to relax for a while.

He put on his sandals
(MADE IN BRAZIL )

poured himself a glass of wine
(MADE IN FRANCE )

and turned on his TV
(MADE IN INDONESIA ),

and then wondered why he can’t find
a good paying job in AMERICA

[Texas Fossil]

Want to see graphically the job loss?

Look at this interactive map:

Job Loss/Gain 2007-2009 by county-

http://www.slate.com/id/2216238/

I hear the Whistle of the coming TrainWreck in the NE, East, Great Lakes cities and in Southern CA. in 6-9 months when the unemployment benefits are exhausted.

The epicenter of this is right in the heart of the Obamanista country.

There is no way the government can “create” enough government jobs to offset this.

At best it will be a long trudge through the mud out of this.

[EGPWS]

Job creation is no longer the bell weather statistic, now it is jobs created or saved:

Job creation to job saving

We're in charge now to Bush's fault

Global warming to climate change

A trend is in the making...

[DonaldC]

That’s pretty much the truth of it, but I’m sure someone will come on to say but we got all this stuff and only had to give them some worthless pieces of paper.

[Star Traveler]

The article said — The recent unemployment figures, 9.4% of Americans out of work blows through the President’s projection at the time of the porkulous debate. At that time, America was promised that if his bill was passed, unemployment would not rise higher than 8%.

—

ACTUALLY, the unemployment figures are closer to 20% unemployment (I think around 18% right now). The government has fiddled with these statistics over the years to make it look smaller than it actually is.

If you go by how it was figured in President Reagan’s time, we would be approaching 20% unemployment, nationally, right now...

We’re getting really close to the last Great Depression in the 30s, with a high of about 25% unemployment.

[Soothesayer]

It could be 80% and the Obamabots would still never blame dear leader.

[ex-snook]

"That’s pretty much the truth of it, but I’m sure someone will come on to say but we got all this stuff and only had to give them some worthless pieces of paper."

True, but that 'worthless' paper is coming back to buy factories here and our Treasuries.

[Reeses]

From BLS the number of newly unemployed jumped 40% from April to May 2009. If McCain had won that would have been the headline.

[Huskrrrr]

Obama administration = sailors with severe hangovers

[Pelham]

Political and business elites both benefit from outsourcing and neither party has been willing to criticize the practice. But it certainly plays a role in our current economic troubles.

[ex-snook]

"Political and business elites both benefit from outsourcing and neither party has been willing to criticize the practice. But it certainly plays a role in our current economic troubles. "

Right. I believe it is called bipartisan campaign financing or how to control government without really voting.

[Bon mots]

[Pelham]

That’s essentially it. Transnational businesses donate heavily to both parties and they get something for it. Mere citizens only vote, they don’t have any money to donate by comparison.

It hasn’t always been this way, big money started showing up in the 70s. At least that is what I picked up from the book “Honest Graft” a few years back.

Limbaugh was just reading some rationale for why foreign investment is highly beneficial to the US economy, arguing that it grants American firms access to foreign markets. This is largely nonsense. Transnationals currently build plants overseas in order to benefit from international labor arbitrage, the substitution of lower paid foreign labor in place of American labor. This was a minor issue until the huge labor forces of China and the former soviet bloc became available. It is a problem now and some of the current economic problems in the US are related to a structural loss of employment, not the cyclical unemployment of the past.

[cranked]

“We INHERITED This” Ping!!!...............!

[TwelveOfTwenty]

Dec. 2006, the last time we had a GOP President and Congress - 4.5%.

[ruination]

Here's a graph that Team Obama made up to sell the spending plan to the public in January. It was a supposed projection of unemployment rates, with and without the spending plan. This blogger added on the unemployment rates that actually happened.