Hope(less) Change One Year Later

While I'm away on my break from the insanity, sulking in my moodiness (actually, I'm making fishy and nefarious and diabolical plans for the future ... Mmuuhahahahahaha!), I'm going to honor my link exchange offer for the blogaversy of this sadistic little place, starting with One Ticked Chick:

It’s been a year since the rock star campaign appearances, swooning fans, and telepromptered oratory all culminated in the election of Barack Hussein Obama as President of the United States. Now that the hype has died down and reality has kicked in, how are Obama’s politics of Hope & Change working?

For starters, the economy is hopeless. With more than $800 billion allocated for the stimulus package, the economy hasn’t shown any signs of improvement. Obama is touting the 3.5 percent growth in the GDP during the 3rd quarter as evidence that his economic policies are working. Economists disagree. They attribute the GDP numbers to stimulus money reaching consumers through the Cash for Clunkers program and first time homebuyer’s tax credit. The Cash for Clunkers program cost taxpayers $24,000 per vehicle, and the homebuyer's tax credit cost taxpayers $43,000 per home.

This year the federal budget deficit tripled to a record $1.4 trillion, topping last year’s record deficit of $459 billion. That’s nearly 10 percent of the GDP. And the Obama administration has forecast a 10-year budget deficit of nearly $9 trillion dollars to pay for all its big government spending programs.

Adding to the pressure on the economy is the devastating unemployment rate. Last November, the unemployment rate stood at 6.7 percent nationally. Today it’s 10.2 percent and even higher in 15 states including Michigan, Rhode Island, Nevada, California, Oregon, Ohio and Florida.

Obama claims the stimulus package saved or created 650,000. Since there's no such economic measurement as a saved job, we'll stick to job creation. If this number is correct, that’s a cost of more than $71,000 per job created. The fact is, the economy has lost 3.6 million jobs over the past year and continued job losses are expected.

Read the rest over at the Chicky's place, Coffee Milk Conservative.