A recurring theme, revisited.

What do you get when you combine a lack of consumer confidence in the economy, a reduction in consumer spending and no real jobs saved or created due to the lack of stimulus money spent? Simple: a higher unemployment rate, one that is the highest since 1983 – a whopping 9.7%.

How much so? According to the Labor Department, non-farm payrolls fell by 216,000 jobs, fewer than in July (276,000 jobs lost); since the recession began around December 2007, 6.9 million jobs have been lost.

And as expected, the increase in the unemployment rate will have a bearing on the effectiveness – or lack thereof – of the $787 billion stimulus package; that in and of itself doesn’t take away the fact that the federal payroll lost only 18,000 jobs. Also factor in that the stimulus cash has flowed way too slowly to counteract the unemployment numbers.

What is slowly becoming apparent is that the unemployment rate isn’t going to drop; as a matter of fact, there is the very real possibility that it may eclipse 10% in the very near future. Is that the hope and change that you voted for and believe in?

One would think – and you don’t have to really be an Economics major to figure this out – that if you throw a stimulus package out there which is intended to ”stimulate” the economy (create permanent jobs and such), then if the blueprint makes sense, then jobs should automatically be created and subsequently retained.

Apparently that is not the case with the $787 billion stimulus package that was passed by Congress as the July employment numbers are out.  And to no one’s surprise, thousands of jobs have been lostand as a result, a higher unemployment rate (scheduled to go up a tick to 9.6%).  It seems that Christina Romer, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors claims that the program was stabilizing the economy despite higher job losses.

She also added sicne the stimulus program has started, ”an economy that was in freefall has stabilized substantially, and now looks as though it could begin to recover in the second half of the year.”  Here is where it gets confusing (I’m not an Economics major, remember).

Romer says that spending under the stimulus program is expected to  be roughly $100 billion in each of the next five quarters (that’s 15 months, folks); however, in the same breath, she also states that if the economy doesn’t meet the Obama administration’s expectations (and it probably won’t), it may need to consider another round of stimulus.

I take issue with what Romer is advocating here.  Assuming that the unemployment rate will rise (as it is expected to do), how does that make the economy better?  Last time I checked, when more people are on the skids, it does not lend itself to the country finding its financial footing; if anything, it gets more slippery.

And the very last thing that we need is yet another stimulus package.  The first one – which was passed without our input, by the way – as of this posting is not working.  Money is being allocated indiscriminately and by and large isn’t being used properly.  That in and of itself is not a prescription for a financial turnaround.

Also, I think it is very unlikely that this “stimulus package” will provide very much long-term employment.  Most of the jobs are positions that may last a few months, at best.  And that’s no more than a bandaid on a gaping wound.  I do realize that the money hasn’t been out there very long, but from the current results out there, this package is doomed for failure.

So when the smoke clears, you can add this to the list of failures that this administration has accumulated.  Nothing that they have done to date has worked.  That includes this stimulus package, the Obamacare health care bill proposal and the cap-and-trade – with the last two for markedly different reasons.

This is the “hope and change” that this President promised the sheeple.  And courtesy of your vote for Obama, you’re reaping what you have sown.  Are you having any “voter’s remorse” yet?  Because if you don’t, then you’re either a lockstep Obama disciple or someone who doesn’t care much about this country – which is unfortunate.

Here we are, folks.  We have a stimulus package in the pipeline, and the question that begs to be answered is: Is the stimulus package working?  I suppose that depends on what your definition of success is; however, if you base it on what the results are since Day 1, then it is safe to say that the stimulus package is an utter failure.

Part of the problem may be that perhaps the Obama administration and their team of “economic advisers” misread the economy.  Which to me is the equivalent of financial malpractice.  But nonetheless, Vice President Joe Biden said as much when he made an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” this past Sunday.  His take on the stimulus package?

“We and everyone else misread the economy. The figures we worked off of in January were the consensus figures and most of the blue chip indexes out there.”

Translation?  Either they didn’t have a clue or they wanted to blame the Bush administration.  Either way, Obama and Co. dropped the ball.  Another factor in all of this – the administration predicted an 8.1% unemployment rate for 2009 back on February 28; guess what folks?  We are currently at 9.5%, a 1.4 % increase over the predicted figures.

So it stands to reason that if you factor in the current unemployment rate, along with the fact that a very small amount of stimulus money has actually been allocated (and even that money isn’t exactly being used as it was intended) and that the Obama administration f****ed up the financial indicators, then it is obvious that the stimulus package is not working.

And it gets worse, folks.  Obama and Co. are floating the possibility of perhaps putting together a second stimulus package.  Here is what I do not understand.  If the first stimulus package did not work, then how in the hell does the administration think that a second one will succeed where the first one didn’t?  Financial do-overs obviously do not work.  And certainly you cannot spend your way to prosperity – especially with these hare-brained schemes by the administration.

Personally, since this first stimulus package is out there, they just need to let it run its course, then do nothing – which is what we should have done in the first place.  Doing absolutely nothing would have been the best course of action.  Granted, the Bush administration did leave a deficit for Obama.  But also consider that Bush, in his last two years of office, had a Congress ran by the Democrats.  Also, the deficit wasn’t so bad that it required one of these stimulus packages.

But the bottom line here is this: the stimulus package out there right now is bound to be an utter failure – with money going everywhere but where it’s supposed to go – with the likelihood of fraud and abuse of these funds.  But most importantly, there is no way in hell that you can spend your way to prosperity.  No way, no how.

Hey folks, remember Thomas Paine? You know – from his writing “Common Sense”. Anyways, I think he has given us the ultimate solution to the way that President Obama and his henchmen are running the government. Take a listen and I think you may be re-energized and ready to take your country back.

Many thanks to Bob Parks of NMATV.