9.5%

Unemployment continues to rise. Is this the jobless recovery?

« Return to Poll

What do you think?

Member Comments

  • Posted By: newshound12 @ 07/11/2009 10:36:24 PM

    This is not good. I start getting scared when I hear about a "second stimulus". The first one already put a gigantic burden on generations to come.

  • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/05/2009 3:10:43 PM

    IDoes any of this sound similar. FDR railed against deficits wehn campaigning and then out defcit spend all previous presidents before him. THe NewDeal did nothing to reduce unemployment which was ooover 20% when he took office and remained there despite his massive spending initiatives. WWII ended the depression. Hop were not heading that route again time for Obama and the dems to suck it up and cut spending woow forget that that's not in the Obama/dem agenda too assume full control of all acpescts of our lives. Tea Parties and Term Limits let's clean house.

    As president, FDR shot down every one of his campaign promises. Four years later, when he was running for re-election, the unemployment rate, hovering at 11.5 million, remained at the 1932 level. Recovery was so far distant that the 1936-37 Roosevelt recession would have become permanent had not America's impending participation in World War II boosted the economy by putting the unemployed in military uniforms.

    Move to the 21st century. As John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan demonstrated, tax-cutting paradoxically increases federal revenues. Measures to encourage business and investment are a sine qua non. And yet the Democrats have been so determined to prevent tax cuts that some unkind souls suggest that they want the economy to slump in order to defeat the Republicans in 2004.

    In 1935 James Warburg, who had been one of the drum beaters for FDR, published a small book 92 pages entitled Hellbent for Election. I came across a copy among my collection of political books and gladly would donate mine to the Democratic National Committee if it can be shown that Terry McAuliffe wants to read it or can.

  • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/05/2009 2:10:28 PM

    We could start a jobs program by a massive tax cut for business this would free up money for re-investment and jump start the economy. Instead we are borrowing money to fund make work jobs that will expire wth the funding. It is the New Deal re-visited

  • Posted By: gvillagran3 @ 07/04/2009 10:34:15 AM

    John Dough.

    John I would appreciate some intellectual honesty in your statistics. For example " FDR Democrat increased national debt by 1048% " ..... What did you expect FDR to do in World War II, fight Japan, and Germany with harsh language maibe? Or do you think that making all the armament required to give us victory was for free? . Observation #2 If you know your math you'll understand that 100% of 1,000 = 1,000 , but 50% of 10,000 = 5,000 correct. By the time Regan took office his 179% increase in the deficit was the equivalent of more than twice the spending accumulated by allprevious presidents in real numbers because of the fact that his 179% increase came from much higer numbers, than President Wilson for example.

    The fact is that if you are honest here with the numbers, and stop trying to manipulate them in your "Independent" way, you have to admit that the last 30 years the Republican administrations have by far been the big spenders, while claiming at every turn to be the "fiscaly responsible" party. That is a fact that can't be manipulated bacause is there, is math, and that's the good thing about mathematics..... It does not lend itself to B.S.

    Obama might top them all , but with with a disclaimer, again if you are intellectualy honest you'll have to accept it. Obama took office under trillions of dollars of obligations allready in the works by the previous administration..... Iraq war, Afghanistan war, the Medicare benefit medical benefits for the elderly program, the Wall Street financial bail out, the enormous federal government expansion that represents the Department for homeland defense, etc. Add to that the fact that every economist, including every REPUBLICAN economist I might add Vocher, Summers, Bermamke, etc) , recomending that a stimulus package be passed to stimulate an economy in the brink, and the fact that GM, and Chrysler could not go into chapter 11 without direct government intervention because no bank was there to finance the process, turning any Republican suggested Chapter 11 process into an reality check of a Chapter 13 liquidation, and a desaster for our country's manufacturing base well beyond the automotive industry.

    That's the reality.... If you see it in a true "independent" way.

    • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/05/2009 1:45:25 PM

      You are right but FDR took the national debt from 26 billion to 260 billion a lot of money in those days by any standards. We issued War Bonds to fund thst debt backed by gold reserves that no longer apply. Reagan took the national debt from 1 trillion to 2.6 trillion. So if you want to do the math in simple numbers and not percentages Obama will out deficit spend all of the previous presidents in history in just one term and in real dollars that will be 20 trillion dollars. To say he inherited this debt is not true Bush had a budget with an 800 billion dollars deficit including the TARP funds he spent. Obama controlled the remainder of the TARP money and spent an additional 800 billion in stumulus money. He is also proposing to double the federal budget with all his spending intiatives which are going to require massive tax increases from income tax to everything we buy and do. He is trying to take control of our everyday lives with his radical agenda and there will still be massive deficits. I did like the way you skipped the fact democrats have controlled congress and therfore spending since 1932 butit is someohow all Reagan's fault. LAUGHABLE!!!!

  • Posted By: drjalee52 @ 07/05/2009 1:00:51 PM

    We need a jobs program now! Perhaps a tax break and incentive to create jobs is much in order. I know the President is aware that this is a problem. He must take bolder action. Nothing is as important as Jobs.http://drjalee53.blogspot.com/

  • Posted By: avg joe25 @ 07/05/2009 11:56:14 AM

    you guys confuse me no end... is this is a poll?
    if so, where's the old conventional wisdom?

  • Posted By: Jorge Ramosa de Campo @ 07/05/2009 10:27:30 AM

    Lots of unemployment here in Miami AND "underemployment" -- RE agents doing maybe 2 showing a week; airline employees on furlough; tips and ours way off for restaurant workers; lots of people "consulting." The 10% official number really understates the problem.

  • Posted By: sipeswoman @ 07/05/2009 9:09:27 AM

    Still lucky ehough to have a job, but so far a 16% pays cut (another week of furlough this month) and a kid in college - who cannot find a summer job.

  • Posted By: sipeswoman @ 07/05/2009 9:08:30 AM

    Still lucky enough to have a job, but 16% pay cut so far this year and a kid in college.

  • Posted By: Observerguy @ 07/05/2009 4:02:54 AM

    Not the jobless recovery. Unemployment has become THE leading indicator now.

  • Posted By: gvillagran3 @ 07/04/2009 10:49:30 AM

    Pauljeb.

    In answerig your question "What has happened to Obama's stimulus cash"

    You seem to think that Obama is some kind of a semi-god that can pass a 1 trillion bail out spending bill, and two months later put it to work in the economy, and presto !!! everithing is fixed..... Or elese I call him a failure.

    Obama's stimulus bill in the streets as we stand today is aproximately 8% of the total amount allocated . I know that the first reaction for a Republican is to naturally blame Obama for that too, but again if you guys are INTELLECTUALL Y HONEST , you can understand that the speed of the process depend's not in Obama, but in State legislatures, the economy itself, and yes.... Republican representatives putting road blocks for the disemination of money's at every turn, and with any excuse.

    Case in point. I live in Texas, and as you might know our Governor is about to be in the fight of his political life to survive the challange of Sen. Hutchinson R. Texas. As a result our governor is blocking as much as he can of the Stimulus help comming to the State of Texas, because he wants to pander to his base... A bunch of nuts from the Right, and win the Republican primary against Republican Sen. Hutchinson , by painting her as an "instrument of big government" because she voted for the package "with reservations" .

    So where is Obama's money... in the pipe lines, and depending where is going in the fast track, or mired in B.S. local politics... That's where. But don't go arround thinking that 1 trillion Dollars can simply be taken and spent in a few months, please again.... Be intellectually honest.

  • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/03/2009 11:10:00 PM

    Just for your info since 1932 the GOP has held both houses of congress for only eleven years (47-48 under Truman) and only four of those years with a GOP president (53-55 Eisenhower and 2002-2004 GWB) and 1995 to 2000 under Clinton. Worst defcit spenders FDR Democrat increased the national debt 1048% during his tenure, next Wilson Democrat 722%, Reagan GOP 179%, Bush 2 GOP 76%, Bush 1 GOP 56%,Carter DEM 42% and Clinton 40% round out the top seven deficit spenders by percentage.Obama is on pace to top 100% in just 4 yearsand will be in third place with a second term. Since congress sets spending priorities the dems have literally controlled spending since 1932 excluding the 5 best years since 1932 which were the GOP Congress under Clinton so to blame the GOP for our deficits is simply not true Three of top deficit spenders were GOper's 4 were dems but clearly congress has basically been in dem hands since 1932

  • Posted By: gvillagran3 @ 07/03/2009 11:04:06 AM

    John Dough.

    I like your version of evolution.... "Monkeys became Democrats", but you say you are an Independent correct??? So in the spirit of true Independence, I'll tell you then, that just as Monkey's are Democrats, Republicans are the Dinosaurs about to become extinct, burried in an avalanche of stupidity.... That as you might have noticed is costimg them dearly come election time.

    Republicnas, just like the Dinosaurs when trouble was clearly in the horizon, could not evolve doing the exact same thing in a changing world (does tax cuts ring a bell?) , until they bace extict.... Of course you beeing an "Independent" would agree that at the very least Republicans are well on their way to regional extintion in the West Coast, the North East, and increasingly in the SouthWest.

    You might try to tell your Republicans friend to become "monkeys" instead.... LAst I checked they are alive, and well.

    • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/03/2009 9:19:40 PM

      I'm not a GOPer but the fact you equate them to dinosaurs is funny. Same thing happened in 64, 76, 92, and now so they may appear on the verge of extinction but nature in her wisdom will prevent it. As to monkeys being dems and alive and well that is true but I would rather be a dinosaur eating other dinosaurs then a monkey picking the dung out of my neighbor's butt and then eating it. But gio for it if you like.

    • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/03/2009 11:34:54 AM

      Bush implemented one tax cut during his presidency and added 2.5 million jobs as a result. His problem was after re-election he went on a spending spree with the democratic congress instead of holding spending down and ran up the deficit. That deficit looks mighty small compared to the current one. Reagan cut taxes across the board when took office with double digit unemployment, 18-21% mortgage rates, gas lines, horrendously low tax revenue due to the high tax rates under Carter, and an economy in a dead stand still. He did borrow money he cut taxes and freed up revenue to people and businesses as did Kennedy and many other presidents when faced with a poor economy. Our government must live within its means and that goes to both parties. Obama however, wants to grow it to become the contral control of everything even down to the types of light bulbs you use in your home and you were worried about Bush's computer interception of cell phones and e-mail (triggered only by key phrases words or apparent codes)as being a govt. takeover. Obama wants you from the cradle to the grave and with national health insurance the grave will come quicker just ask those in England who were told they could not have new cancer drugs because they cost too much. But it is free remember. The government should write laws, apply regulation where needed, provide a military and turn everything else back to the states as the constitution lawfully requires.

    • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/03/2009 11:21:36 AM

      The media assault,the war in Iraq and GWB cost the republicans - remember Mc Cain lost by around 5 percentage points but Obama outspent him 7 to 1. After Cap and Trade guts our economy the GOP will have congress back they may anyway the dem poll number are falling everywhere including Messiah Obama's.

  • Posted By: RO in Reno @ 07/03/2009 3:33:00 PM

    The unemployment rate is already over 10% in many states and is clearly going to continue its rise.
    The economy is and always has been dependant on the consumer; the consumer was those who once were dependant on manufacturing.
    Manufacturing employed 28% of all Americans and now employs 8%.
    These people think the US can function as a service economy. (A gift from Nixon) While that service economy has been propped up by TARP at least for the moment. The question is just who is the service sector going to provide services to in the long term?
    The failure to recognize and make the effort to rebuild the manufacturing infrastructure in this country will only continue the economic grief..
    I realize the effort to base the economy on green industries is a good idea but is it really going to be enough and provide the numbers of consumers needed to turn this economy around.
    We need a few more good ideas than just that, the high speed trains and the simpletons who think a lower tax rate for the wealthy and lower wages for the working people is the answer.

    • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/03/2009 8:51:50 PM

      The only way manufacturing returns to the U.S. is by massive tax cuts since our wages.benefits are higher then a lot of emerging economies and it won't happen with this bunch in office. 35% is too much money to take out of business when they have payrollo to meete SS to pay benefits to pay pension plans to fund. In addition the money is taxed twice once to the business then to the emplyees. The same is true for stock devidends too. The company is taxed and thenn the dividend is taxedto the shareholder this is damn near criminal. Attend a tea party tomorrow and let Wash DC know enough is enough. TERM LIMITS PLEASE!!!!

  • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/03/2009 12:00:40 PM

    By the way a legacy of surpluses the GOP Congress forced Clinton to balance the budget although it was balanced by borrowing all the money out of social security robbing Peter to pay Paul however Clinton left office with an additional 1.2 trillion dollars added to the deficit balancing the budget a couple of years is not alegacy of surpluses and leaving an additional 1.2 trillion in debt sound to me he left office just like everyone has going back to the decade of 1912-1920 when two republican presidents actually left office with real surpluses in the treasury.

    • Posted By: RO in Reno @ 07/03/2009 3:49:38 PM

      Sorry but the President from 1913 to 1921 was a Democrat...Woodrow Wilson.
      Following him were three Republicans, from 1921 to 1933. Harding best known for corruption Cooledge and Hoover who gave us the Great Depression.
      Not unlike today and certainly not a legacy to be proud of.

      • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/03/2009 8:23:51 PM

        I was typing too fast and grabbed the wrong decade Here is the accurate account and the last time any presidents left office with an overall surplus during their tenure. After WW I, Republican administrations ran budget surpluses for eleven straight years, reducing the debt by 40% to $16 billion. Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge are the only 20th century presidents who actually reduced the debt.

  • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/03/2009 8:15:16 PM

    I was typing too fast and grabbed the wrong decade Here is the accurate account and the last time any presidents left office with an overall surplus during their tenure. After WW I, Republican administrations ran budget surpluses for eleven straight years, reducing the debt by 40% to $16 billion. Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge are the only 20th century presidents who actually reduced the debt.

  • Posted By: gvillagran3 @ 07/03/2009 10:52:35 AM

    JOHN DOUGH.

    In all the usual talking points by the Republicans in all things economic there's allways the disconect of fact Vs. fiction, or misrepresentation of the problems. For example an old, tired, and frankly way overused "solution" to all economic problems is to get still another "tax cut" . Tax cuts are fine..... But tax cuts are not ALLWAYS fine , as the Republicans ovbiously say they are. Republicans want tax cuts in recessions, in boom times, in times of war, in times of peace, etc.... Does that not strike you as stupid ??? Because it does to any Economist in this world.

    There is no doubt that our deficits are out of control.... After having to spend trillions of tax payers Dollars bailing out the Financial industry that you Republicans love to portray as the "superior private sector" , and a trillion to desperately try to pull us out of a death spin with the stimulus package , I would say that yes, absolutely we have spent too much. But you Republicans make it sound like is Obama's fault. Is like the guy walked into the White House with a legacy of surpluses, and no deficits, and decided to buy half of Wall Street, and the Automotive INdustry because he is a U.S. vertion of Cuban Castro. ...

    That is absolutely intellectualy dishonest, and you guys should be ashamed of yourselves. You know quite well that Obama came into Washington inheriting this crysis, inheritingthe largest deficits in the history of the U.S. inheriting a bail out financial package to Wall Street in the trillions, with GM and Chrysler in the brink of going bakrupt, with the international financial order to the point of collapse..... And you wanted him to cut spending under this sircunstances, balance the budget, and cut taxes ???

    What the hell is wrong with you people?



    • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/03/2009 11:41:17 AM

      It was Obama's fault Bush spent only 350 million of the original TARP funds Obama added the other 1.5 trillion to it. That is his spending not Bush's. Besides check the dems votes they all ovtoed for it too remember they controlled congress not the GOP.

    • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/03/2009 11:39:28 AM

      Im African American and do not appreciate being called "you people". There is nothing wrong with me look what Reagen did with a far worse mess than this - cut taxes curb spending and this economy will recover. It likely will still recover but it is going to take years with this kind of spending look at FDR and the New Deal. By the time he took office the stock market had recovered but unemployment remained high. He increaed spending and created a bunch of make work jobs that did provide some good infrastructure but could not sustain jobs. He should have cut taxes and spending and many economists worth their salt now believe he prolonged the depression does this look familiar?

  • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/03/2009 11:16:59 AM

    Question #1: What does the goevenment produce? Nothing they consume. The stimulus package is creating a bunch of make work jobs that will expire when the stimulus package runs out of money. Explain to me why every time taxes are cut across the board the economy picks up and govt revenue increases. Simple when people and business have more of their own money to spend and invest they do people consume and businesses expand. Our Corporate tax rate of 35% is the highest in the world and is crippling business here and forcing more jobs overseas for businesses to remian competitive and in business.

    Question #A: Most economists today are socialist economists and they believe the answer to the economic and social woes of this world are through government spending and control. Consumers spend less because they have less money to spend. Lowering their tax burden would give them more income to spend raising taxes would reduce their disposable income and cause people to spend less. Right now every govt is lowering spending except the fed to curb their deficits and this is a wise and prudent policy to take. As far as companies having no revenue that is true for some but when the government takes 35% right of the top it makes it hard for them to generate revenue. Cut the tax and free up capital for them to use.
    Question#2: Most governments are socialist and those countries again believe that the government is the answer to the global recession. It simply is not true. Government is the cause of the recession. Our governments have grown so large that even in socialist countires with 80% tax rates they are running deficits. It is time to get the government out of the retirement business, out the heatlh care business and out of private enterprise freeing it up to meet those demands.

  • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/03/2009 11:16:01 AM


    Question #3: Why are republican economists helping Obama. They were hired to do what he wants them to do and they are doing just that. The only bailout that hould have occurred was to the banking industry to prevent a run on the banks and Bush did that while in office. The govt. loaned billions to GM and Chrsyler to help them avoid bankruptcy guess what it did not work. The government spent 200 billion bailing out AIG and they were a little selfish in doing so since that is where their pensions were invested.
    Question #4: Argentina - their government followed this same course stimulus-failure, more stimulus-more failure, more stimulus-more failure until they hyper-inflated their economy into the mess it is today. As for that not happeninig to us - where did you ever hear the now famous phrase "Too Big to Fail". China Russia and a host of other nations are so concerned about our debt and the state of our currency that they want to displace our currency as the global standard. That is where this mess is taking us. You seem to equate me with the GOP party and GWB. I am not a GOP member and certainly no fan of GWB after his re-election when he became a tax and spend democrat. Bush however saw the collapse of Fannie and Freddie coming as early as 2002 and tired in vain to re-regulate those two giants (See the New York Times 09-11-03) only to be blocked by the democrats everytime with Frank, Obama, Kerry, Kennedy, Dodd,Clinton and too many more to name blocking the way. In 2005 Mc Cain said their collapse was inevitable again the dems blocked the attempts. Fannie and Freddie then began to go under when the housing bubble burst, thousands defaulted on their mortgages and the rest is history.

  • Posted By: John Dough @ 07/03/2009 11:15:47 AM

    Question #1: What does the goevenment produce? Nothing they consume. The stimulus package is creating a bunch of make work jobs that will expire when the stimulus package runs out of money. Explain to me why every time taxes are cut across the board the economy picks up and govt revenue increases. Simple when people and business have more of their own money to spend and invest they do people consume and businesses expand. Our Corporate tax rate of 35% is the highest in the world and is crippling business here and forcing more jobs overseas for businesses to remian competitive and in business.

    Question #A: Most economists today are socialist economists and they believe the answer to the economic and social woes of this world are through government spending and control. Consumers spend less because they have less money to spend. Lowering their tax burden would give them more income to spend raising taxes would reduce their disposable income and cause people to spend less. Right now every govt is lowering spending except the fed to curb their deficits and this is a wise and prudent policy to take. As far as companies having no revenue that is true for some but when the government takes 35% right of the top it makes it hard for them to generate revenue. Cut the tax and free up capital for them to use.
    Question#2: Most governments are socialist and those countries again believe that the government is the answer to the global recession. It simply is not true. Government is the cause of the recession. Our governments have grown so large that even in socialist countires with 80% tax rates they are running deficits. It is time to get the government out of the retirement business, out the heatlh care business and out of private enterprise freeing it up to meet those demands.

Reply

Report Abuse

Enter comments if any for reporting abuse