But it is very much what they worry about, for established small businesses, anyway. They want as little regulation as possible, and they think the Republicans are more likely to do that for them.

He and his side of congress merely are attempting to treat symptoms and not the illness via misdirection. We're not mushrooms, the light is on and we've had enough excrement already. Do something that is actually productive or get the heck out of the way.

I'm not sure who you mean by "He and his side," or what you believe the illness is. I assume you mean Obama and the Democrats. Could you clarify?

Union Baby: I don't understand how any small business owner could vote for the republicans,

Own a small business Baby, then you'll understand. It's not about the government aiding small business, it's about the government staying out of the way so the small businesses can thrive.

Businesses do just fine with limited government intervention Baby.

so you don't want tax cuts for small businesses?

I think it's the belief that the Republicans would have provided those tax cuts anyway, along with less (perceived) regulation.

That is because you are not a small businessman. If you ever ran a successful small business, you know exactly why 75% of them vote Republicans. Democrats are going to increase my taxes sharply then turn around and loan a little back to me. Then they will tell me how much they are doing for me. Here is a suggestion!! Let me keep it in the first place, then I can just roll it back into my business. That is after you have caused massive increases in my health care costs. Increased the government regulations so it increases more costs and gives me an additional 5 hours of paperwork a week just to keep up with the regulations. Then you want to pass Cap & Trade to double my energy costs, one of my major bills every months. Then you want me to thank you after I bend over to take it. Gee, the Democrats are such a pal. Where do I sign up!!

I said it first. Neener neener.

If you have ever ran a small or medium business you would realize that every policy passed in the last two years is a detriment to that business succeeding. If you ran a small-medium sized business you would realize the "dream" of the middle-class factory worker died 3 decades ago.

I am continually amazed about the term "obstrucitionism". Especially when the Democrats are only one vote in the Senate short of a Super-Majority (how in the heck did you lose Ted Kennedy's seat?).

Republicans have only controlled the Congress for 6 years in the last 50.

I truly wish people would quit "victimizing" themselves when their representatives are the one killing the economy.

At this point, only an idiot would keep blaming the Republicans and not re-think their economic stance.

As a small business person, Anon Monster is absolutely correct. I want only necessary, as opposed to excessive, regulations and STRICT and CONSTANT oversight, i.e., enforcement of those necessary regulations without exception and in an on-going manner with respect to ALL businesses. Necessary regulations are those regulations that prevent me and my business from exploiting the users of my services or purchasers of my products in a criminal or clearly unacceptable manner. I do not want regulations that allows the public to abdicate its obligation for thoughtful, informed and responsible business decisions and that transfer that requirement to me and my business.

As a for instance, existing federal lending disclosure regulations are voluminous and must be provided to every borrower who makes a loan from an insured financial institution or an institution that sells its mortgages to a federal agency. If the borrower doesn't understand the disclosures and/or the provisions of the mortgage so that borrower knows what his/her obligations for that mortgage are, the borrower should request and get an explanation that clarifies those obligations to his/her satisfaction; if one can't get such an explantion DON'T sign the mortgage. As the lender, it is my responsibility, according to the existing regulations, to provide all the information the borrower needs to understand the terms of the mortgage and it is my responsibility to truthfully answer all questions the borrower has about the mortgage. It is not my responsibility to tell the borrower what to ask or to anticipate what the borrower should ask; that is the borrower's responsibility.

Regulations, excessive or otherwise, are meaningless if they are not enforced. A prime example of this is the financial meltdown experienced in 2008. That meltdown was not caused by a lack of regulations. It was caused by a total and complete absence of oversight and enforcement of existing regulations by those in both the public and private sectors charged with that responsible. Additional regulations were not necessary to prevent the trillions of dollars of bad mortgage loans that were made from being made, bad mortgage loans which were then sold as mortgage-backed securities or derivatives created therefrom to investors and resulted in the trillions of dollars of losses to investors when the underlying mortgages securing those securities defaulted and the mortgaged real estate was of insufficient value to pay off the balance of the mortgage. Did a lack of regulations cause this? No. Allowing borrowers to make mortgage loans whileputting little or no money down, allowing borrowers to stipulate their incomes were sufficient to make the monthly payments and not requiring confirmation of that income, allowing borrowers to make mortgage loans, which borrowers' credit ratings were so low they virtually guaranteed default on the loans were the ingredients for the recipe that caused this lending disaster. These were the unsafe and unsound lending practices that were permitted during the expansion of the housing bubble, and these were the unsafe and unsound lending practices that caused the housing bubble to burst. No one called these unsafe and unsound lending practices to question. Check that, a few regulators did in the early to mid 2000's but were shouted down by the politicians who wanted the "everyone deserves a house mantra to continue and those politicians prevailed. Well everyone got their houses, albeit many, perhaps hundreds of thousands, only for a short time, and we, the taxpayer, are stuck with the bill.

Likewise with the recent offshore oil spill. Whether there are adequate regualtions in place with respect to that very risky process is being determined. What appears to have already been determined is that the regulations that did exist were not complied with, not the regualtions regarding the permitting process not the regualtions regarding the conduct of the drilling process on the rig. Make the determination of what additional regulations are necessary and be certain to place procedures in place to ensure those additional regulations are enforced and the oversight process is in place to ensure on-going oversight of adequate enforcement.

Actually I DO run a medium sized business with almost 200 employees.

Next argument please.

He didn't necessarily pass the legislation he wanted. Compromises were made, some real and some less than generous, to get broader support.

Also, a lack of demand is a far greater cause of the economy's current stagnation than distrust of White House economic policy.

When they trust...they'll spend.

Not before.

Someone has to be buying for them to have money to spend. A recent survey reported by Newsweek showed that the main concern of 30% of businesses was a lack of income (low demand), while only 15% reported that their main concern was an uncertain regulatory situation. Demand is the engine, and it's stalling right now.

What happens when you add lack of demand to the uncertainty by businesses about the policies of the Obama Administration?

You're seeing what happens.

I simply don't buy that. If companies had reason to expand, they would, regulations be damned. Demand is that reason. I don't disagree that it's a concern for business owners, just that it's far less of an issue than it's been made out to be. I suspect the issue has got so much political traction because it's an easier target.

Absolutely correct Anon. When there's demand business will hire. Why do Republicans hate America and repeatedly block action that could help Americans?

Let's be honest, the people have lost confidence in the administration. Even if you believe in everything the Democrats have done. To do it in a recession is just incompetent. Even to Democratic economists said today that this group in power are economy morons. The best we can hope for is a Republican congress will get spending under control and will turn American business loose. What can the government do then? Nothing, get out of the way, unshackle business and let them use fix the problem.

Then why are the Repub leaders and Ol' Rush telling Businesses and Corps to Not Hire Until Obama Is Gone?? Might that just have something to do with it?? Do they think that we do not SEE the ACTIVE collusion between the Too-Rich-To-Fail crowd and the Repubs in stalling EVERY piece of legislation that would help to get America out of this deep hole that the Repubs and the Rich have dug for us as well as the Rich not hiring??

The fact is that the Corps, Rich and Big Business are sitting on RECORD level profits and Record Level Cash on hand and for the last decade have had the Very Lowest Taxes in the last 60 years...Where are all the jobs that those tax cuts were supposed to bring, you know. the ones that the tax cuts were predicated on?? Why did the job market hemorrhage some 700k jobs a Month before Pres. Obama took office?? Why are they not hiring now?? All that I can see as a reason is that the Repubs and the Corps, Banks and Big Business (the last 3 heavily leaning Repub) are trying, (fairly successfully) to make the Dems and President look bad with economic numbers. They could be hiring easily and turning this economy around simply by opening that money spigot. Heck, even starting to loan to small businesses, who have been crying for the loans as is, would go a very long ways towards getting people back to work. EVERYBODY knows that in order for a business to make money that you have to have money circulating so that some of it comes back to you. Yet those sitting on the most money are doing nothing but playing the stock market or buying bonds with it, not hiring even though doing so would actually increase their profit levels due to the returns.Right now between 60% and 70% of ALL the wealth in America is owned/controlled by just 5% of the population, which means that the rest of us have to try to get along on 30% to 40%...exactly the reverse of where it was only 20 years ago. The Bush tax cuts and de-regulation of the financial markets have redistributed the wealth from the poorest and middle classes to the very richest which is WHY our Nation is doing so very poorly now.

There is a very vocal minority screaming about the Dems doing nothing, but at the same time there is a silent Majority that sees the Repubs blocking everything that could be helping America get back on track. They also see the record profit levels in the papers and news all the time and, like me, wonder how come those Uber Wealthy ones are not doing their part do get America back going. Many of them, like myself, see that the Repubs, Banks, Corporations and Big Businesses have been anti-Obama since day one and KNOW how the deck is stacked, against him. Is it any wonder that where there have been Dem Primaries there have been much larger numbers of voters than the heavily contested Repub Primaries?? The People can see what is going on, and I think that the Repubs have been believing their own press statements a lil too much since the press happens to concentrate on the discontent and volatility of the vocal few. America was fooled for 8 long years, and voted in someone responsible, articulate and intelligent as a direct result of the huge lies, deceit, misdirection, incompetence and rampant vote tampering (can you say DieBold?) from the Repubs.

America has been watching closely to how the Senate has been working, or in the case of the Repubs, Not Working. They see the Dems doing everything that they can to get bi-partisan support on their bills, have the Repubs insert their own ideas, and then turn around and vote NO NO NO on the, now, watered down bills that do pass or get held up by the procedural rules akin to a filibuster. We are NOT being fooled. Oh, the watchers of Faux Neuz are, but most of them are so set in their minds that they will ALWAYS vote for the Repubs, even though the Repub Party is NOT the same as it used to be. They make the same words come out of their mouths, but act totally different. many of the 'Lean Repub' have LEFT the Party of NO because it no longer represents them to any degree. They see the Dem Party, which covers the entire spectrum from Left to Right that USED to be split between the Dems and Repubs, actually are doing the very things that the Old Repub Party USED to do, and some will vote for the Dems rather than have the New Repub Party back in power. The Repubs have gone soooo far to the right that it is not even recognizable to the old style Repubs, and those on the Right who actually do not vote via knee-jerk will NOT support them any longer.

America can PLAINLY see that the Very Rich, the Corporations, Banks, Wall Street, Big Business and the 'news' outlets (all corporate owned) are solidly in the tank for the Repubs and are intentionally making things worse for the Middle Class and the Poor so that the economic numbers, and the anger associated with them, work to discredit the Dems and President Obama. We SEE this, on Main Street, in the Business meetings, at the Banks, in the Papers, on the News and on the Radio. We KNOW where it is coming from and WHO is doing it and WHY. The Repubs and Those-Too-Rich-To-Fail are trying to destroy America so that they can be seen as 'the Saviors' and come in and pick up the pieces, just to go back to their same old ways and finish destroying the middle class so that the Rich, the Corporations, Big Business and Banks have the equivalent of slave labor to run their factories, offices and stores, Just like they have overseas.

The People have plenty of confidence in this Administration, who they have lost ALL confidence in is the Repubs, the Rich and the Corporations and TOTALLY distrust the Banks and Wall Street Brokers. Too much money, which SHOULD be being used to get this Nation running right, is tied up by the Too-Rich-To-Fail crowd, making huge profits for them, yet the REST of America is just barely getting by. I think that the Repubs are going to be very disappointed when Nov. 3rd comes around and will not understand why they were left sitting in the dirt by the Voters. The REST of us, however, clearly do because we have SEEN and HEARD their game and how they are playing it and are going to soundly REFUSE to give the Repubs the chance to gain real power again. Oh, they may pick up a few seats, but there is just as good of a chance, if not more, that they will actually LOSE seats. Polls do NOT reflect the entire spectrum of people that Vote, precisely because many plain do not take part in the Polls. Repubs are more likely to than Dems because most Dems are smart enough to know that Polls are terribly slanted and refuse to take them. I know, I used to do telephone polling, and can tell you for a fact that the Repubs use push polling (specifically designed to sway people's perceptions of the issues) MUCH more and MUCH more Blatantly than the Dems do. Repubs tend to put a lot more money into polls as well, polls designed to come up with certain numbers, via the way that they are worded, so that it reinforces their own ideology and try to sway those that did NOT take the polls into thinking that more people feel the way that the polls show than really do. I quit that job specifically because of that reason: The Repub polls disgusted me and most of the people that I was polling, they would hang up on me mid-poll. We would ALWAYS top out on Repubs before we got enough Dems to complete the sample. The 2006 and 2008 final votes were proof of that, they did NOT match the polling numbers well at all.

The Repubs represent the top 2% of the wealthy: Those-Too-Rich-To-Fail who happen to be MAKING the rest of us fail so that they can go back to business the old way with the Repubs giving them the Nation on a Gold Platter backed up by Chinese Credit so that they can have a captive labor force that will HAVE to work at much lower wages. They will continue to reap obscene profits and ungodly bonuses for doing less and America is in great danger from Those-Too-Rich-To-Fail and their bought-off Repubs in Congress. AND WE SEE IT.

We Refuse To Be Fooled Again by the right and the Votes in November will show it! The Repubs had their chance and, instead of making America stronger, they nearly destroyed us, leaving the mess for the Dems to clean up. They are NOT going to be getting the 'keys to the car' any time soon, if ever again. The Repubs are toast!

Anon Monster!

He didn't necessarily pass the legislation he wanted. Compromises were made, some real and some less than generous, to get broader support.

Also, a lack of demand is a far greater cause of the economy's current stagnation than distrust of White House economic policy.

What you continually ignore along with the President is that he made concessions to the Democratic PAarty and not the Republican party.

During the Healthcare debate while controlling a Super-Majority, he made all his back room deals with moderate Dems and not the Republican Party.

Everyone continually points out the Party of NO, yet ignore the Democrats voting Nay on the same laws.

Democrats need to realize it is not only the Repugs voting this way but their own people.

I was being nonspecific for a reason. At times, concessions were made to Republicans, and yes, some were made to Dems. I wasn't intending to say that Obama bent over backwards specifically for Republicans.

Hobie81 - Lier in chief - wake up buddie! Georgie is no longer in control, but he is still the big lie.

Dude, The Tax Cuts are going to still be in place for people making under $250.000 a year... He's talking about letting the tax breaks for anyone over $250,000... I hear the propaganda from the right saying this will be the biggest tax hike ever.... AAAhhhh the GOP crafted the bill with a expiration date. The word raising tax's is not accurate... It's misleading. It's a expiration date. They had 10 years of this tax break and it did nothing to help the economy so what makes you think it will happen now????

Dude, The Tax Cuts are going to still be in place for people making under $250.000 a year... He's talking about letting the tax breaks for anyone over $250,000... I hear the propaganda from the right saying this will be the biggest tax hike ever.... AAAhhhh the GOP crafted the bill with a expiration date. The word raising tax's is not accurate... It's misleading. It's a expiration date. They had 10 years of this tax break and it did nothing to help the economy so what makes you think it will happen now????

47% of the 787 billion dollar stimulous consists of tax breaks placed in the legislation to placate the GOPers and bring some on board.

Even with all those tax breaks very few GOPers voted for it. Hmmmmmm

Additionally, these tax breaks were included at the expense of infrastructure spending.

Dude...really?!?! If you have ever held a job I bet the individual / partnership / corporation you worked for made more than $250K a year....see, that's where the jobs are....get it???

So Hobie, if the Bush tax cuts are so magical why did we have a recession?

he also kills jobs for the people in the south 350,000 or more jobs lost to his moritorium , I think he had something to do with the well disaster just so he could get his cap and trde bill passed,sorry charlie you and G.E. an Nbc will have to scam someone else. also instead of addeing thousands of gov. jobs with outrages pay rates and the best insurance for life,that reminds me why isn;t your healthcare project good enough for you and congress ,why cant you take what your shoveing/you/pelosi and Reid.It;s not good enough for your families but we have to take it or we will get fined what a double standard. america isn;t as dumb as you thinfk and come nov. and 2012 you will learn .You screwed a lot of people with your promises that were all lies thats why your rateings will be in the thirties before long.I hope the people of NY shove that mousque wright down your throat. and if it does get built mabe it might acidently fall.

"america isn;t as dumb as you thinfk"

Could've fooled me! UMEHRICUH! =D

Johnny1970

Dude, The Tax Cuts are going to still be in place for people making under $250.000 a year... He's talking about letting the tax breaks for anyone over $250,000... I hear the propaganda from the right saying this will be the biggest tax hike ever.... AAAhhhh the GOP crafted the bill with a expiration date. The word raising tax's is not accurate... It's misleading. It's a expiration date. They had 10 years of this tax break and it did nothing to help the economy so what makes you think it will happen now????

5% percent unemployment.

I am very much for letting the tax cuts expire.

Lord knows we are rocking the economic world right now, and we all know buy punishing those that hire will fix the economy ;)

"it's about jobs, stupid"

God bless being 43 and retired.

That's unusual math, Carlyssman. The moratorium only affects 30-some deepwater drilling rigs. Are there really 9,000 people working on each one? They don't look that big.

john Desmoines.... it;s not just people on rigs, its people that make food that goes out, its transportation workers ,insurance workers another words it a trikledown affect.already rigs are leaving never to come back. so those jobs are gone forever. but he dont care about the little people but its the little people that will get rid of him .

I repeat myself. These rigs generate 9-10,000 jobs each? That doesn't even come close to being a credible number. It's a tiny fraction of all the activity in the Gulf and everyone knows there's oil there.

Forget the Blue Dogs, Ginger...President Obama has PASSED what he wanted to pass. The economic stimulus bill he wanted PASSED, in spite of Republicans, Blue Dogs, and whatever other strawmen you can come up with.

So...what happened, Ginger?

Did you even bother to look at today's unemployment report...or those of the last three months?

Did you hear that?

Ginger....a few facts....

Unemployment under Bush was 5%; considered by many economists as perfect. After Clinton's .com bubble popped and the WTC got hit, the tax cuts got us back on the road to recovery quickly!

The Carter - Clinton - Frank - Dodd housing bubble crash caused the economy to crumble. Obama, Clinton, Dodd and Frank received the highest political contributions from Freddie and Fannie.

When Bush, and more importantly a GOP congress, took office the national debt was $5.7T. When Dems took over congress the debt stood at $8.5T, that's a $2.8T increase over 6 years. Today the debt stands at $13.4T, up $4.9T in 3.5 years. I hope you are one of the 50% of American's that pay tax 'cause I really want to share that pain with you.

Ginger, you want specifics? How about not passing legislation that will bankrupt the country? Not bailing out defunct automakers so that the fat assed unions can continue to steal the corporations blind?

How about actually providing tax breaks to small businesses instead of creating a projected 1.3 TRILLION dollar deficit (which is on the low side)? How about actually creating jobs instead of gving people a couple of weeks' wages for the census and claiming to make a difference in unemployment?

How about cutting the governmental bureacracy and spending that money on infrastructure improvements that we so desperately need?

How about stopping the spending on illegal immigrants to provide them with money, food, living accomodations, and medicine? Hell, let's actually DO something to stop the illegals. That would employ people, AND it would cut our welfare costs.

Obama could do much more than he's doing, but then he wouldn't be able to carp about how the repubs are holding him back. Like having the presidency, and a majority in congress weren't enough. The man is a classic whiner.

Hey Paul,

howsabout we make it harder for companies to hire illegals so Americans get those jobs. Something the GOP seems unwilling to do? (wouldn't want those business owners to pay a living wage now would we?)

Howsabout trimming the industrial war machine (defense budget) and spen that money on infrastructure?

And the tax breaks to small businesses, as well as low intereset loan funding is EXACTLY what the GOPers are voting NO! on. So why dont you yell at them about it instead of trying to blame the president for trying?

and those automakers you rail on about employ about half of my family. So why dont you stick it where the sun don't shine!

Ted, first. I'm not a repub. Nor am I a democrap. I'm an independent, and I'll vote for whoever I believe is best for this country. And yes, it is distinctly my opinion as to what's "best for this country" that informs my vote. Anyone who says otherwise is deluding himself. I voted for McCain because eh was the lesser of two evils. I didn't vote for the dem or the repub in the previous two elections, because I found them both wanting. I did vote, because I don't believe one has a right to complain if one doesn't exercise his responsibilities.

Now to your questions. Yes, let's make it harder, and let's fine those who knowingly hire illegals. They are abetting a felony.

No, let's not trim the budget for the military. Whether you chose to believe it or not, there are many people in this world that want Americans dead. We have enemies, and we need our military to protect us. And don't give me any crap about how it's all our fault, or how we can make peace and love and friendship, kubaiya.

The reason the bill isn't passing is because the two sides can't agree on amendments that *Both* sides want to add. That makes both parties at fault. Obamarama claiming that it's the repubs is just his way of trying to make lemonade.

Ginger-Las Vegas

Mixed Bag,

President Obama has had Blue Dog Democrats (Dems in Name Only) to deal with--Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln anyone? If he'd pushed his agenda through reconciliation you G-NO-P'ers would be screaming about the injustice of it all.

Ginger, listen real close. Hear that Ginger ? It's the smallest violin, playing just for you, and for Obama.

Did George Bush ever get everything he wanted Ginger? How about Bill Clinton? GB the First? Reagan? They all compromised Ginger. They are/were not Kings. So quit the whining that Obama "Didn't get everything he wanted".

Ginger-Las Vegas

Mixed Bag,

President Obama has had Blue Dog Democrats (Dems in Name Only) to deal with--Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln anyone? If he'd pushed his agenda through reconciliation you G-NO-P'ers would be screaming about the injustice of it all.

What should President Obama have done...exactly? List some specific solutions to the problem of unemployment. If your solutions are simply to cut taxes to the bone why didn't we have full employment under the Bush Administration?

Tell us what should be done--I'm sure we're all interested in concrete steps that can be taken to wipe away the problems of 2 unbudgeted wars, several years of unfunded tax cuts, bailouts of the banking and Wall Street sectors (all done by Bush, not Obama).

I'm listening...

This shows how weak President Obama is as a leader. He was handed a Super-Majority. Bush the Idiot managed to pass more legislation, start 2 wars and accomplish more without a Super-Majority.

Why not explain how such an idiot like Bush managed to accomplish more with a tenious control of the Congress. Explain how he was able to bring on Dems to support his Agenda?

President Obama is incapable of controlling his party and is incapable of leading the country. Please explain how a Yale failure can outdo such an outstanding Harvard guy?

Are you an economist, pat...? I mean, a "real" economist?

I admit that I am not.

But...the folks who put together President Obama's economic stimulus package ARE economists.

So...I'll ask you, pat, as I did Ginger...

What happened? Have you been tracking the nation's unemployment for the last three months?

Is this what Obama's economic team was aiming for?

Why shouldn't voters hold them accountable for their performance with regard to the economy?

They're the supposed experts...not you or I.

Well, not me anyway.

So, economic expert pat...I've disqualified myself.

Tell us all what's wrong with the economy, expert.

"So, economic expert pat...I've disqualified myself."

Finally. Thank you, Pat. You forced one of 'em out into the open. "Your ideas suck, but don't ask me to give you some that don't".

I think this song has been at the top of the playlist long enough.

Sorry, drive-by...

It doesn't matter what I think about the economy...I'm in no position to impact it, beyond my single vote in the upcoming midterm election.

But...what do other American voters, as a whole, think about the Obama Administration's efforts to turn the economy and the jobs picture around?

That's what matters...

And, since we're on the topic...what did you think of today's unemployment numbers, drive-by?

And...the numbers for the last three months?

Obama's getting it done, right?

How about a high-five, bro...?

Here's ya' 'five' and I'll raise you five more.

I've posted a lot of times on here that what's going on with the ecomomy and jobs can NOT be fixed in two years' time. Not by Obama, not by ANYONE. It doesn't mean Obama's incompetent so much as it means it's one hell of a mean-assed mess.

And I believe all the Repubs and Tea Bag folks know it.

So...you're happy with the trend in unemployment, and that the Obama Administration is turning the economy around, and there's a rainbow just around the corner.

We agree about the rainbow...for me, it's the midterms.

MB.

Mixed Bag,

If you can disqualify yourself from taking part in offering solutions to the economic discussion on the basis that you're not qualified, why should you expect anyone here to offer objective answers to your questions? Moreover, you start from the basis that the economic policies of the Obama administration haven't work - can you be certain they're correct? As previously stated, I understand it's difficult to advance the argument that we could have been worse off without the stimulus, but can you, as a non-economist, offer a convincing argument that we wouldn't be?

Drive-by, I agree that no one could have solved the current economic situation in two years or less, but I disagree that a substantial portion of the American people know it. What's more, that doesn't help a substantial portion of American voters, weaned on talking points, members of the "I want it now" times we're in.

Anon-Monster!-

Do this week's unemployment numbers, or the figures for the last three months, suggest to you that the economic policies of the Obama Administration are creating sufficient private-sector jobs to turn the economy around?

You don't need to be an economist to realize that the U.S. economy isn't growing to any significant degree...because actual economists are lining up to tell you that.

That wasn't my question. My question was whether or not you could provide a convincing argument as to why the stimulus hasn't left us better off than we would have been without it.

Clearly the economic outlook is less than rosy. I also note that the Government only has the reins to one third of the economy; turning the beast around with that level of control is difficult. I'm not apologizing for the government's actions, only noting that it's more difficult for government to keep the economy chugging along than the people it governs.

I, of course, believe the stimulus has worked to some degree, though I think greater direct investment in infrastructure and fewer tax cuts would have been better. Obviously, it hasn't worked as well as anyone hoped. Whether that's due to the nature of the stimulus, an underestimation of the recession, the size of the stimulus, or some combination is up for debate.

The only Stimulus that worked was TARP I & II. I still say all of them should have failed.

The Recovery Act of 2009 was nothing but a waste of money to payback political players.

Congress drags Goldman Sach's into a hearing, does nothing but squeal. Goldman Sach's received 0 bailout, because AIG/CITIGroup/Fanniie & Freddie had to pay them per their TARP II terms.

We essentially paid for TARP II to sustain Goldman Sach's.

Wow Ginger. Do you own Mao's Little Red Book? Companies are "sitting on 1.8 trillion dollars." SHAME on them! They should give it to all those not-hard-working couch potatoes, huh?

Evil corporations! They make a profit and don't give it to the "entitled" unemployed. We should force the corporations to make a profit, and give it away! Yeah! That's the idea!

Idiotic thinking at its best.

Ginger, you are really sucking down the Obama kool-aide today. You act like businesses are conspiring against Obama and America. They are not. They are doing what's best for their investors and for keeping their companies as profitable as possible. That is what companies do. If they thought expansion would improve their market share, and their profits, they would do so. They don't see the demand necessary to do that both today, and for the future. You want to debate why that is, we can do that. But one thing companies do is manage risk well, because if they don't, they won't be around very long. And right now, companies see too much risk to attempt expansion.

Consumers will spend;

Large corporations will hire;

Small businesses will hire;

...when the Obama Administration shows the slightest indication that they have any clue whatsoever about how to manage the national economy.

Judge them on their RESULTS thus far, Ginger.

If you do that...you might be even tougher on them than I've been.

"...when the Obama Administration shows the slightest indication that they have any clue whatsoever about how to manage the national economy."

And that will increase DEMAND from people with no jobs or money, HOW?

Don't you mean "...demand from "MORE" people with no jobs...", drive-by?

That's what today's jobs report...and, the last three jobs reports, means.

Try hard, squint if you have to, drive-by...there's a trend-line showing here.

It adds up to failure, despite the Obama Administration's massive $800 billion+ stimulus package, to stimulate the economy in a meaningful way.

Spin it...play with it...call it what you will.

As far as the the upcoming midterm elections go...for the unemployed, it still adds up to failure.

Ginger-Las Vegas

Aha, just as I thought, you have no solutions just like the Republican party has no solutions except to say no--or CUT TAXES. When Bush took over in 2000 he had a surplus, started 2 wars (OFF BALANCE SHEET) and then told us to go SHOP (it was our Patriotic Duty).

So we did shop-til we dropped--used our houses like credit cards, had a housing bubble, the banks got themselves into trouble (as did Wall Street) with CDO's, got bailouts (under BUSH!) and now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Companies, Mixed Bag, are sitting on 1.8 TRILLION DOLLARS of CASH that they are NOT willing to spend to hire people. Why NOT? They're scared, they say. I submit to you they are NOT as afraid as the average Joe who has lost his job and is having trouble putting food on the table!!

Why don't you save some of your vitriol for CORPORATE AMERICA that is so very cash rich and REFUSES to hire? Why not take to task, BANKS that REFUSE to lend?

What are youre solutions? You allways post the Repugs do not have one, yet you don't either.

Let's hear it. Obviously Dems/Inds/Reps think President Obama does not have it, yet you admit you have the solutions.

So let us hear your brilliance?

Me?

I would reset 2009 recovery act, put that money into any business under 300 emplyees.

Keep the Bush Tax Cuts across the boards, and I would end the Earned Income Tax Credit.

I would admit that failuire of actually regulating leads to more problems than creating more regulations. Just create laws.

Bernie Madoff..Democrat..Failure of SEC to regulate.

BP failure to regulate.

State's are recquired to balance their own budgets. Illegalize any Federal grants to States.

Teacher's, Police Officer's, and Teachers are a State Issue and not the Federal Governments.

Rather than address why the Dems failed to regulate they create more regulations.

Idiocy at it's best.

Can someone please put a name to the evil corporations that are sitting on record profits? I'm genuinely curious. Sure, I know the oil companies were recording record profits when gas was $4 a gallon, but since we can't build any new refineries, can't drill off shore and can't drill on shore, I can't quite figure out where it is they're supposed to be adding jobs. The American auto industry has been on the brink of bankruptcy, 2 of the 3 only made it because of government bailouts, so if they're sitting on major profits, well, I want to know why we're getting paid back with borrowed government funds form another spot on the books. And if people aren't buying the cars (at least not since cash for clunkers artificially inflated car buying for a couple weeks) then why would the auto makers hire more people to build more cars? Maybe my hometown's the exception but I've seen dealerships close and the ones that have remained open reducing their inventory on the lot for a couple of years now. Manufacturers don't want to have that much sitting unsold and dealers can't afford the overhead. It's been years since manufacturers have produced any sizable inventory stores- they make what they can sell and not much more because demand has been lagging. Why would they hire more and produce more if they can't sell it? It's contrary to logic. And consumers- the smart ones have been cutting back on spending and saving for a rainy day. Those of us who are lucky enough to have jobs are making sure that we pay down debt and increase our savings accounts "just in case". It's what we should have been doing well before the crisis hit but at least we're trying now. So when people are working aren't spending and people who aren't working can't spend, manufacturers aren't making more than what we are buying. When the government keeps spending money we don't have on theories that aren't panning out to job creation, consumer confidence is not likely to increase. We were promised ARRA "stimulus" money would go toward shovel ready projects that would stimulate jobs. We weren't expecting that spending to happen 2 or 3 years later while things continued to trend down as we wait. If the government stops passing multi-billion dollar spending packages every week, if they are honest about what they've already passed, maybe things start to stabilize because we see the real picture. I think right now everyone's holding back because of the possibility of what might be coming.

Lordy, how much do you hink you deserve for your effort?

The only time that I have been unemployed was a five-month stint as a stay-at-home dad. As a small business owner, no matter how heavy the burden of government, and it's as heavy now as it's ever been, I will not be a victim of another's doing. I will always create solutions that benefit my family and my employees.

What peeves me is that there are jobs available in my community right now but those receiving umemployment insurance are in no rush to fill those jobs - as long as they can scam the system into believing that they are sincerely looking for work or anticipate recall to their previous employment, the checks just keep on coming. That costs our community twice - lost wages that could be churning through the local economy with the unfilled positions, and the cost of paying into the government subsidy programs.

Bingo! Every Small Business bill has been crap and has attached public spending.