U.S. must learn to live within its means

The first week in April, the Obama Administration announced with much fanfare that the unemployment rate had dropped from 9.8 percent to 9.2 percent. They also claimed that this was evidence that the economy was improving. A week later, it was announced that an additional 1.5 million workers had quit looking for work and had been removed from the unemployment rolls the first week of April.

According to the Wall Street Journal, there are 6.3 million workers who have ceased looking for work and those 1.5 million resulted in

50 percent of the drop in unemployment. If the above analysis is correct, then the real unemployment rate is 10.16 percent. This is evidence that the so-called stimulus plan did not work. Several economists in the WSJ articles have stated that if you include people who are underemployed, the rate should be above 17 percent.

The Obama administration also claimed that 240,000 new jobs were created in February. A week later it was found that 200,000 of these were government jobs. It sure makes a good spin.

When Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent, reports the WSJ. When Obama took the presidency in 2009, the rate was 5.9 percent. These figures show that Democratic policies have not created jobs Obama promised when campaigning.

President Bush shares some of the blame as he tried to compromise with the Democrat-controlled Congress after 2007 and did not veto any of the excessive spending. He also signed the TARP bill sponsored by the new Democrat Congress.

There is a very simple solution to the U.S. deficit problem. “Live within your means.”

Glenn J. Drahn

Belle Plaine