Jobs

At the White House on December 9, 2009, House GOP leaders urged President Obama to scrap job-killing policies that are causing small businesses to hold off on hiring and presented him with a better plan to put people back to work. Republicans are renewing this call to action a day after President Obama proposed doubling down on the trillion-dollar “stimulus” that isn’t working.

“As we prepare to enter 2010, the American people face the daunting prospect of what is, at best, a jobless recovery – something quite different from the immediate job creation and lower unemployment rates they were promised when the massive ‘stimulus’ was signed into law,” the leaders wrote in a letter to President Obama. “The truth of the matter is that small business, not government, is the engine of job creation in America. … Yet instead of receiving relief from Washington, small businesses have watched with anxiety as their government has devoted its attention to enactment of a job-threatening government takeover of health care, a job-threatening ‘cap and trade’ national energy tax, and other policies that discourage job creation.”

The leaders note in the letter that Republicans began presenting President Obama with common-sense proposals to help small businesses create jobs as early as his first week in office. The letter calls on President Obama to consider taking action on the GOP proposals as families and small businesses continue to ask “where are the jobs?”

The letter to President Obama and accompanying GOP Economic Recovery Solutions Group Plan can be viewed and downloaded below.

View & Download: GOP No Cost Jobs Letter and Plan Presented to President Obama

In February, Democrats promised the American people that by borrowing another $1 trillion to pay for their American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the "stimulus" bill), national unemployment would peak below 8 percent and the economy would receive an immediate jolt.  In reality, the "stimulus" bill has not worked as advertised and instead has led to more of the same from Democrats: record borrowing and government spending.
 
Deficits:
Through the first ten months of fiscal year 2009 the federal deficit is $1.3 trillion.  CBO predicts that the FY 2009 deficit will reach a record $1.6 trillion, which is 3.5 times more than FY 2008's record deficit of $458 billion.

Debt:
The total national debt is $11.6 trillion.  Debt held by the public, which excludes intergovernmental debt and debt held in the Social Security Trust fund, is $7.3 trillion.  The Office of Management and Budget predicts that the national debt will rapidly rise to $23.3 trillion by FY 2019 under the President's budget.  Treasury Secretary Geithner sent a letter on August 7, 2009, asking Congress to raise the debt limit above $12.1 trillion. 

Jobs and Unemployment:
The unemployment rate in August was 9.7 percent, up from 7.6 percent in January when the President took office and is the highest level of unemployment in 26 years.  14.4 million job-seeking Americans are without jobs.  Since the Democrat "stimulus" was signed into law in February, two million Americans have lost their jobs.

Income:
Personal income in the month of June was down $133.1 billion from the month before the "stimulus" was passed.

"Stimulus":
To date, the White House reports that $80.9 billion of the $787 billion "stimulus" bill has been paid out.  Of that spending, $26.8 billion has been spent on Medicaid grants to States, $13 billion for State education funding and student aid, $15 billion for unemployment insurance, $13 billion for one-time Social Security payments, and $3 billion for food stamps.  Only $1.7 billion or 0.2 percent has been paid out for transportation infrastructure projects.

Government Spending:
In FY 2009, the government will spend an estimated $3.65 trillion, surpassing last year's record for federal spending by $670 billion.  Over the last year, Democrats have increased discretionary spending (including the "stimulus") by 25 percent and non-defense discretionary spending by 57 percent.