(PHOTO CREDIT: Justin Sullivan/GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Six months since the Obama administration pushed through the massive $787 billion economic stimulus package. So where are the jobs?
House Republican Whip Eric Cantor says he doesn't think the program is working as well as it was advertised, and says no one should be highlighting the benefits of the plan.
Cantor points out that when this thing was passed - the administration predicted it would keep unemployment lower than 8.5-percent. The jobless rate in July was 9.4-percent.
The White House has pushed back against critics of the stimulus bill - saying it's working as planned - by easing but not erasing the impact of the recession.
They say it will take a "very, very long time" to fill what they call a "very, very deep hole." That's fine… but where are the jobs?
Most economists agree the recession would have been worse without the stimulus... although they don't agree on how much it has helped.
Meanwhile - a new USA Today/Gallup Poll shows most Americans think the stimulus package has cost too much money and isn't doing enough to end the recession.
57-percent of those polled say it is having no impact on the economy or making it worse. 60-percent doubt the plan will help the economy in the future... and only 18-percent say it has done anything to help their personal situation. Not exactly rave reviews.
Here’s my question to you: Why hasn't the stimulus package produced more of a recovery in the jobs market?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Stacy from St. Augustine, Florida writes:
I've been in Delaware since the middle of May. There is road construction everywhere you go. There are a lot of dump trucks on the road. When the dump trucks are moving, construction is happening. Everybody around here says "Thanks Joe".
Michael writes:
Very silly question. When we are funding studies on the brown marsh mouse, more unemployment benefits, more food stamp benefits, etc. with a stimulus package, should we wonder why it isn't working? The stimulus package was nothing more than political payback to those that voted for Democrats. Very little infrastructure spending, which actually would have had a double benefit: more jobs and better infrastructure.
Dave writes:
Jack, The last I heard that only 12-percent of the package has been sent out. And the states are still awarding contracts so we need to give it time to work its way through; it's only been 7 months.
Bob writes:
The bailout has failed because small businesses and consumers still can’t get affordable financing. The Wall Street bailout let horribly run firms stay in business. That prevented new more responsible lenders from replacing them, and that is preventing Main Street from recovering.
Don from Alabama writes:
Jack, As a college philosophy teacher, I have to say that the biggest problem with the stimulus package is not the package itself, but the culture that needs the package. We, the people of the American Culture of Bounty, are spoiled to the point of absurdity....wanting quick fixes for our own comfort, rather than giving the potential process time to work its way through the 'wilderness' our traditional demand for 'bounty' has produced.