Stagnating Stimulus

Remember all those months ago, when it was a life-or-death imperative that Congress and the President just *had* to pass that "Stimulus" bill?

The President stated "The time for talk is over, the time for action is now."

He implied that the rush was needed to stem the tide of job losses:

"This isn't some abstract debate. Last week, we learned that many of America's largest corporations are planning to lay off tens of thousands of workers. Today we learned that last week, the number of new unemployment claims jumped to 626,000. Tomorrow, we're expecting another dismal jobs report on top of the 2.6 million jobs that we lost last year. We've lost half a million jobs each month for the last two months."

So, if this huge spending bill was required quickly to staunch the outflow of jobs....why are the jobs still leaving us 2.5 months after the signing of the bill?? I thought we were going to get jobs as far as the eye could see...

All we have thus far is a bad trend...


One might ask, since we have spent $787 Billion to stimulate the economy (over $1 Trillion after interest)....where's the beef?

Well, one reason that we have not seen improvement as we pass the magical rubicon that is "The Enchanted First 100 Days of the Obama Reign of Benevolence"® is the fact that only $72 Billion of those magical $787 Billion stimulus dollars have been "made available". Less than 10% of the bill's total outlay. Hard to be stimulative at 10¢ on the dollar. However, what is even worse, is that federal agencies have only "Paid Out" ~25% of that $72 Billion.

How do we know this? Because the government's own website tells us so.....



So, as the employment figures slide towards Carter-esque territory, the "Stimulus" bill that we were forced to swallow without debate and without due diligence because we just had to have it right then....is doing nothing towards its alleged goal of "saving or creating 4 million jobs".

Perhaps it is just me, but if this is what "Stimulus" looks like, then maybe we could have at least had a couple more weeks of debate and 'sunshine' before we saddled our kids and grand-kids with unprecedented debt.

A quick summary:
- Economy flounders; Unemployment spikes
- "We start 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime..."
- Unemployment goes up...
- It will be too late "if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible..."
- "Stimulus" Passes....
- One month later, 0.8% of "Stimulus" funds spent; Unemployment goes up again...
- Two months later, 1.9% of "Stimulus" funds spent; Unemployment continues to go up...

So much for the urgent need for a "Stimulus". Its as if there were some ulterior motive....

This is not the Hope & Change I didn't vote for.....