By Rebecca DiFede — In light of our crumbling economy, I’m sure it won’t surprise you that the Congressional Budget Office has stated that the United States is currently experiencing the longest stretch of high unemployment since the Great Depression. According to the website, “The rate of unemployment in the United States has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, and CBO projects that it will remain above 8 percent until 2014.”
At this stage of the game, with the election looming in the not-so-distant future, the unemployment rate is rising to the forefront of the nation’s consciousness. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the unemployment rate (not including the underemployed) is at 8.3 percent and when the underemployed are included, the number jumps to 15.1 percent. However, the truth is it’s even worse than that.
The participation in the civilian labor force has declined from 65.7 percent to 63.7 percent since Obama took office, and those millions of people are not included in the BLS calculations. However they are no longer working, which makes them technically unemployed. And once added into the charts for the statistics above, it turns out that the unemployment rate is actually at 11.01 percent and the underemployed rate has ballooned to 17.6 percent.
That is a staggering number to be at, especially in one of the wealthiest and most advanced nations on the planet. Our illustrious president made a lot of very enticing promises regarding unemployment when he was running for office, and since he was elected he’s been re-gifting those promises year after year. And just like that awful sweater your grandma always knits you—despite the fact that you are way past high school—after a few years you start to notice all the holes.
When he was elected, Obama was aware that our country was headed through some tumultuous economic times. His remedy was an impossibly large stimulus package which promised to trim the fat off of the unemployment rate by 3.7 percent by 2010. According to a graph provided by White House economists Romer and Bernstein, the stimulus should have caused unemployment to drop to 6 percent by the end of 2011.
But as with most weight loss programs, actual results may vary.
Because of their incredible idiocy, our country has swollen to over 28 million people who cannot find full time work and is now grasping at straws as it tries to decide what to do. With the upcoming election, Americans are waiting patiently for politicians (most notably our insidious incumbent) to give a plausible solution — instead of weak extensions of payroll tax holidays and unemployment benefits
Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson offers one, stating that “The solution to the problem is not perpetual extensions of welfare, but for government to enact pro-growth policies that will have a job-creating effect. These include rolling back the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world, undoing the harsh regulatory climate in health care, the environment, and energy, lifting restrictions on capital creation, and restoring sound money.”
Hopefully, as November gets closer, people will realize that we need leadership that understands how to fatten our wallets, and strengthen our countries core, rather than pack on the debt with empty spending.
Rebecca DiFede is a contributing editor to Americans for Limited Government.
