Today, on the anniversary of your much hyped "Stimulus Package", your 'Organizing for America" campaign at barackobama.com sent me an email titled "Have You Seen This?" with the following graphic highlighted in it:
US JOB LOSS BY MONTH (DEC 2007 to JAN 2010)
This appears to be your attempt to prove to Americans that your Stimulus is working as intended. However, while the graphic does indeed look impressive, astute readers will still note that what you are actually tracking here are continued job losses. Your chart shows continued job losses month to month, albeit at a declining rate.
If one were to look at the same data in another way – say, the national unemployment rate – they would see a graphic that does not look so impressive. This graphic shows that rate continuing to increase since you took office, and since your Stimulus was passed:
Like I said – not so impressive. Especially in light of your estimation that the Stimulus would prevent the unemployment rate from exceeding 8%. You are correct in that the rate of job losses has been declining, and that is good. But you would be incorrect to conclude that it must be due to your Stimulus. Anyone with a decent understanding of economics knows that this is the natural course for unemployment this deep into a recession - without any government "stimulus."
But I do agree with you – a picture is worth a thousand words. So since your team started this process with an email to millions of your supporters today with the headline "Have You Seen This?", please allow me to continue in that vein.
President Obama, I ask you, have you seen THIS:
As I had already stated, it was your administration's estimation that the $787 billion Stimulus Package would help keep the unemployment rate from exceeding 8%. The above graphic shows your administration's estimates of unemployment with and without the Stimulus, along with what we have actually observed. Hardly the compelling "success story" you are spinning it as.
President Obama, have you seen THIS:
Your administration has already increased the national debt by $2 trillion. That's over $6000 for every man, woman, and child in this country – in only your first year. The situation is forecasted to get much worse under your current proposals.
President Obama, have you seen THIS:
I realize the monetary base is not something most people keep tabs on. In simple terms, it tracks the amount of money in circulation. The Fed has pumped an enormous amount of money into our economy, more than doubling the monetary base. Long term this can lead to high inflation, a devaluing of our currency, and possibly another bubble boom-bust cycle.
President Obama, have you seen THIS:
Who you choose to be in your Cabinet is your prerogative, and I respect that. But when your administration is intervening in the private sector economy at unprecedented levels, and you are setting and changing the rules for millions of companies nationwide, I assume you understand why those of us actually in the private sector are just a tad bit nervous.
And finally, President Obama have you seen THIS:
These are my two precious daughters, who mean more to me than anything in the world. You are racking up debt that they will someday need to repay. They have not asked for this, nor do they deserve it. They are still 20 years away from their first jobs, and I fear the tax rates they will have to pay in order to fund today's excesses will be unconscionably burdensome.
If you are going to spend with wild abandon, raise taxes now. Yes, that's right, raise them now. Let the American citizens truly see and experience the effects of your policies, rather than putting them off to a future date, and onto our children. I think what you will find is that the American people have very little taste for those effects. I suppose that is why you are putting off the day of reckoning, all the while spinning your policies as a "success."
President Obama, you truly inherited a mess. Neither your predecessor nor the Republican Congress were any better at controlling runaway spending than you and the Democratic Congress are proving to be. I carry no torch for George W. Bush, nor the Republican or Democratic parties. Instead, I carry a torch for Liberty - for small, limited, Constitutional government. Which, I might add, is the same thing you swore to do on a cold day in January 2009 – to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."
As a citizen, and on behalf of my children, I implore you to do just that.
Sincerely,
Torrey Jaeckle
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Torrey Jaeckle for President 2012!
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