WOW Obama.... Thanks for the Info!!!! JackAZZ!!!

[redlineguy]

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer Ben Feller, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 43 mins ago
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Tuesday declined to predict how high unemployment will climb but made clear he expects it to keep worsening for a while as hiring lags behind other signs of economic recovery.

"How employment numbers are going to respond is not year clear," the president said on a day when he was headed to Michigan, home of a particularly battered economy. "My expectation is that we will probably continue to see unemployment tick up for several months."

The unemployment rate stands at 9.5 percent, the highest in 26 years.

Obama, addressing reporters in the Oval Office, said the stabilization of the financial markets has allowed banks to start lending again and some small businesses to stay afloat. But he said his administration is aware that the most important factor is whether people are able to get good-paying jobs.

More than 2 million jobs have been lost since Congress passed Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package. Without that government intervention, Obama said, states like Michigan would be even worse shape because they would have had to lay off more teachers, firefighters and other workers.

The White House has been criticized for being overly rosy about employment projections. Just 10 days before taking office, Obama's top economic advisers released a report predicting unemployment would remain at 8 percent or below through this year if an economic stimulus plan won congressional approval.

Instead, it is headed toward double digits.

The president said the creation of jobs that pay good wages is the "single biggest challenge" in the recovery for the U.S. and governments worldwide. He defended his multi-pronged agenda of trying to revamp health care, energy, science innovation and infrastructure as the key to real economic growth.

"Those foundations are so critical because we've got to find new models of economic growth," Obama said.

Obama was headed later to Michigan to promote investments in community colleges. The state's unemployment rate is the nation's highest, 14.1 percent.

The president spoke after a wide-ranging meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende









.

 

[Gainster]

Figures Lie & Liar's Figure

No fewer than 1.4 million people wanted or were available for work in the last 12 months but were not counted. Why? Because they hadn't searched for work in the four weeks preceding the survey.

- The number of workers taking part-time jobs due to the slack economy, a kind of stealth underemployment, has doubled in this recession to about nine million, or 5.8% of the work force. Add those whose hours have been cut to those who cannot find a full-time job and the total unemployed rises to 16.5%, putting the number of involuntarily idle in the range of 25 million.

- The average work week for rank-and-file employees in the private sector, roughly 80% of the work force, slipped to 33 hours. That's 48 minutes a week less than before the recession began, the lowest level since the government began tracking such data 45 years ago. Full-time workers are being downgraded to part time as businesses slash labor costs to remain above water, and factories are operating at only 65% of capacity. If Americans were still clocking those extra 48 minutes a week now, the same aggregate amount of work would get done with 3.3 million fewer employees, which means that if it were not for the shorter work week the jobless rate would be 11.7%, not 9.5% (which far exceeds the 8% rate projected by the Obama administration

 

[blue fluff]

Obama Says Economic Stimulus Plan Worked as Intended
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a0StZd9y2rCY

"President Obama and his supporters have carefully spent their time crafting the argument that the United States is in the worst recession since the Great Depression. This argument is an important factor justifying multiple bailouts, the rush to enact the Economic Stimulus bill, and a budget which will result in 1 out of every 2 dollars spent by the government to be borrowed."
http://tabright.com/2009/03/01/is-t...ssion-what-do-the-numbers-say/comment-page-1/

Nancy Pelosi Open to 2nd Stimulus Package [why if the 1st one worked as intended?]:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/10/second.stimulus/index.html

"Some Democrats are pushing another stimulus — several have indicated that they believe the economy could use another infusion of government spending — but they would first have to build more support within their own party."
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24852.html#ixzz0LGGodZd1&D

Obama Says Unemployment Will Keep Ticking Up
"My expectation is, is that we will probably continue to see unemployment tick up for several months. And the challenge for this administration is to make sure that even as we are stabilizing the financial system ... are people able to find good jobs that pay good wages?"
http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-says-unemployment-will-keep-ticking-up/


I'm SO confused!!!

 

[Gainster]

From the Detroit News no less

Plan to spend the nation out of recession isn't stimulating the economy or creating jobs
The Detroit News
President Barack Obama's plan to attack the recession through massive deficit spending is not producing the results the president promised in February when he convinced the American people to go deep into hock in the name of creating jobs and boosting economic growth.

Obama is well into spending the $787 billion approved by Congress for his stimulus programs, and yet the unemployment rate is still climbing and economic recovery remains elusive.

Administration economists projected that the huge influx of borrowed federal dollars would keep the national unemployment rate from breaking through the 8 percent mark. It stands at 9.5 percent today and is still rising.


Since the stimulus money was targeted toward so-called shovel-ready projects, the promise was that it would provide an almost immediate economic surge. Although spending of the stimulus money is ahead of schedule, it has not pushed economic growth upward. Even the construction industry, flush with cash for road building and other infrastructure projects, is lagging last year's performance.

There's also little evidence that roughly an equal amount of taxpayer money poured into the banks and other financial institutions has done much to free up credit markets.

Proponents of big government spending see the failure of the stimulus package to deliver measurable results not as evidence that the strategy was wrong, but rather that not enough money was placed behind it. They're advocating yet another stimulus program, equal to or bigger than the last.

That would compound the mistake and drag the nation even deeper into debt. Borrowing has already pushed beyond the reckless level -- the federal deficit is now nearly 12 percent of total economic output.

Printing or borrowing even more money to fund this failed experiment would devalue the dollar and increase the likelihood of devastating inflation.

We said when Obama first proposed this spending explosion that it was the wrong way to stimulate the economy. That's now fact.

Instead of more spending, Obama and Congress should turn to the only proven stimulus strategy: cutting taxes. Corporate and individual tax rates should be cut substantially, at all income levels, and the administration should signal that there will be no new taxes for anyone. Taxpayers allowed to keep more of their own money would spread it around the economy and trigger a broad and sustainable rebound.

The president should signal that his No. 1 priority is reviving the economy and set aside those pieces of his agenda -- carbon cap-and-trade and health care reform specifically -- that carry the serious risk of killing jobs and raising the costs of goods and services.

Particularly, it ought to be clear to everyone in Washington that a nation that has squandered more than a trillion dollars on failed stimulus efforts can't afford the $100 billion to $200 billion 10-year price tag for Obama's health care proposal.

Obama has taken fiscal irresponsibility to unprecedented heights. He can't keep spending like this.

The administration and Congress should act now to bring the spending train to a screeching halt, find ways to make deep cuts in the federal budget and let individual taxpayers act as the primary agents for stimulating the economy.