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First, it is important to make a distinction between the number released earlier today and what is happening in reality.  Don’t let the 10.2% figure fool you.  Out in the real world, unemployment is 17.5%.  The figure released by the Department of Labor does not include those individuals who have given up on finding work or those who are underemployed, such as individuals working part time but looking for full-time work. 

Meanwhile, back in D.C., Nancy Pelosi and President Obama are intent on passing legislation on global warming and health care which analysis has shown will kill jobs and only exacerbate our current economic woes.

When roughly 1/5^th of the American population is unemployed or unable to find full-time work, why is the President and Speaker intent of making work harder to find for even more Americans?

The Cash for Clunkers program gave car buyers rebates of up to $4,500 if they traded in less fuel-efficient vehicles for new vehicles that met certain fuel economy requirements. A total of $3 billion was allotted for those rebates.

The average rebate was $4,000. But the overwhelming majority of sales would have taken place anyway at some time in the last half of 2009, according to Edmunds.com. That means the government ended up spending about $24,000 each for those 125,000 additional vehicle sales.

Facing these horrible numbers, the Obama administration still insisted the program was a success:

"It is unfortunate that Edmunds.com has had nothing but negative things to say about a wildly successful program that sold nearly 250,000 cars in its first four days alone," said Bill Adams, spokesman for the Department of Transportation. "There can be no doubt that CARS drummed up more business for car dealers at a time when they needed help the most."

The point that this program was a total waste of money and failure in economic philosophy is apparently lost on this administration.  Do they really think the federal government could pour money into an industry and not have positive sales?  The point Edmunds.com makes is that the return on investment taxpayers received for their money was pretty negligible.  Meanwhile, the wasteful spending has stopped and *surprise!* the car industry is still hurting.

The ad says that these players support the card check legislation. Two questions: Are any of them on your favorite team? And do you really think these multimillionaire athletes really understand what's on the table or care about the average American worker?

For those interested, the count is two Phillies featured in the ad (Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins) to one Yankee (Mark Teixeira). If the big bosses here at Townhall permitted endorsements, I think that might swing it to the Yankees.

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A top White House economist says spending from the $787 billion economic stimulus has already had its biggest impact on economic growth and will likely not contribute to significant expansion next year.

Christina Romer, the chair of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, said Thursday that the $194 billion already spent gave a jolt to the economy that contributed to growth in the second and third quarters of the year. She told a congressional panel that by the middle of next year, the impact of the stimulus will level off. Romer said spending so far has saved or created 600,000 to 1.5 million jobs but warned that unemployment will remain high, above 9.5 percent, through the end of 2010.

I'm not sure how much of this I buy, especially since even CNN reported that the government doesn't know how to count money or jobs.  Saved or created 600,000 jobs?  At least 200,000 of those jobs are federal government positions! 

So what do you think?  Has the $787 billion stimulus do anything but grow the government? 

Unemployment rose in 23 states last month as the economy struggled to create jobs in the early stages of the recovery.

While layoffs have slowed, companies remain reluctant to hire. Forty-three states reported job losses in September, while only seven gained jobs, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

Some of the states that lost jobs still saw their unemployment rates decline, as discouraged workers gave up looking for work. People who are out of work but no longer looking for jobs aren't counted as officially unemployed.