By Adam Bitely
Continuing on Americans for Limited Government’s series investigating the effects that the “Summer of Recovery” and the “Stimulus” had on the states we covered Montana, Oklahoma, Idaho, Rhode Island and Utah over the past week. With news this week that the recession ended in 2009, it is hard to notice any “recovery” in the states we have examined. Further, with the most recent release of the unemployment situation state by state for the month of July, it is more evident than ever that the economy is not recovering.
Just look at Rhode Island. Since January of 2009, the unemployment rate has increased by 2.3 percent and is now hanging just below 12 percent! While Rhode Island is a less populated state than most, the effects of the recession are deep across the board. Even though the recession has been declared over, the unemployment trend in Rhode Island is not good and is continually creeping upwards.
Oklahoma is another good example of a state that has been devastated. While the initial impacts of the recession in Oklahoma were better than most, the “Sooner State” has had a rough year in 2010. The unemployment rate alone has increased by nearly 2 percent since Obama took office.
And Oklahoma is also a good state to look at for the “success” of “Recovery Summer.” If you look at the employment rate in Oklahoma for 2010, you will see that at about the time that the “Summer of Recovery” began, the employment rate plummeted at a tremendous rate. Across the board, the notion of the “Recovery Summer” is anything but.
In Montana and Idaho, the success of the “stimulus” is nothing to be proud of. Montana has watched the unemployment rate increase by nearly 2 percent while over $1.2 billion of “stimulus” was spent in the state. Just next door in Idaho, over $1.6 billion of “stimulus” was spent while the unemployment rate has increased over 2 percent. Clearly the “recovery” that was promised by the Obama administration has not happened yet.
Utah provides a further example of how so far the “stimulus” has failed to deliver on creating an economic recovery. While the state has received over $2 billion in “stimulus” monies, the unemployment rate has increased by 1.6 percent. Further, nearly 45,000 less people are employed in Utah today than they were when Obama was sworn in.
As we continue examining the effects of the “Stimulus” and the “Recovery Summer” we will be posting our updates at NetRightDaily.com. Over the next week, we will examine Tennessee, Maine, Vermont, Arkansas and Alaska. We will also be re-examining previous states that we have covered with the latest data possible from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Adam Bitely is the Editor-in-Chief of NetRightDaily.com.
