Aren't you tired of people saying that:  "Why can't America be more like Europe?"  Well those people are finally getting their way.  America is becoming more like Europe ... in terms of our unemployment rate.

Let's take a jog down memory lane.  The Obama stimulus package that cost $787 billion had to be passed and it had to be passed immediately in order to cap our unemployment rate at 8% and turn this economy around.  Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office warned us that all of this spending is eventually going to shrink the economy "in the long run."  Well guess what?  Unemployment is now higher than it would have been had Congress done absolutely nothing.

The Washington Post reports, "The official U.S. unemployment rate, reported last Friday, now stands at 10.2 percent, compared to 9.7 percent in Europe.   This is the highest rate in more than 26 years, and marks a huge change from the recent past, in which unemployment was double the American rate in much of Europe."

Three Cheers for The Community Organizer!

Earlier this year Obama was urging other countries to pass massive stimulus plans, similar to ours.  Misery loves company, I guess.  Perhaps The Chosen One wanted other countries to pass a similar stimulus plan so that if it didn't work he wouldn't be sticking out like a wart on a beauty queen's nose.   It's essentially the opposite of the aphorism "a rising tide lifts all boats."  France, for example, refused to adopt an American-like stimulus package and it's unemployment rate hovers at 10% (ours just topped 10.2%).  Germany adopted a significantly smaller stimulus package and currently has a 7.6% unemployment rate.  Reports show that as of right now, countries that did NOT adopt an Obama-style stimulus plan are faring far better.

So how do you feel about this hopey-changey thing now?

As time passes from the passage Obama's crafted-by-radicals $787 billion stimulus, we learn more about what is really going on. A whole 'lotta spending and not a lot of stimulating, that's what.

Michigan, for example, received $5.2 billion in federal stimulus. Now we're told that 22,500 were "created or saved." It doesn't take a math genius to figure out that our taxpayers forked out $231,000 for every job created or saved in Michigan. And when it all comes down to it, our government can't even do an adequate job of figuring out how many jobs it created/saved. Check out how it calculates a "job" created or saved by federal stimulus money. You'll love it.

And while you're in a checking-out mode, here are some of these examples that have surfaced lately. Read on and find out what our imperial federal government and the ACORN Administration consider crucial to turning the tide of this economy:

Let's start with $100,000 for a program in Maryland to keep tabs on how often doctors and nurses wash their hands at hospitals. Now that is really going to stimulate some jobs, isn't it?

We're not through trying to horrify you .... Check out this lengthy list from Tom Coburn's office:

- $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state.

- $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.

- $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.

- $430,000 to repair a bridge in Iowa County, Wis., that carries 10 or fewer cars per day.

- $800,000 for the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., serving about 20 passengers per day, to build a backup runway.

- $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women.

- $2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid.

- $3.4 million for a 13-foot tunnel for turtles and other wildlife attempting to cross U.S. 27 in Lake Jackson, Fla.

- $1.15 million to install a guardrail for a persistently dry lake bed in Guymon, Okla.

- $9.38 million to renovate a century-old train depot in Lancaster County, Pa., that has not been used for three decades.

- $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.

- $6 million for a snow-making facility in Duluth, Minn.

- $173,834 to weatherize eight pickup trucks in Madison County, Ill.

- $20,000 for a fish sperm freezer at the Gavins Point National Fish Hatchery in South Dakota.

- $380,000 to spay and neuter pets in Wichita, Kan.

- $300 apiece for thousands of signs at road construction sites across the country announcing that the projects are funded by stimulus money.

- $1.5 million for a fence to block would-be jumpers from leaping off the All-American Bridge in Akron, Ohio.

- $1 million to study the health effects of environmentally friendly public housing on 300 people in Chicago.

- $356,000 for Indiana University to study childhood comprehension of foreign accents compared with native speech.

- $983,952 for street beautification in Ann Arbor, Mich., including decorative lighting, trees, benches and bike paths.

- $148,438 for Washington State University to analyze the use of marijuana in conjunction with medications like morphine.

- $462,000 to purchase 22 concrete toilets for use in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri

- $3.1 million to transform a canal barge into a floating museum that will travel the Erie Canal in New York state.

- $1.3 million on government arts jobs in Maine, including $30,000 for basket makers, $20,000 for storytelling and $12,500 for a music festival.

- $71,000 for a hybrid car to be used by student drivers in Colchester, Vt., as well as a plug-in hybrid for town workers decked out with a sign touting the vehicle's energy efficiency.

- $1 million for Portland, Ore., to replace 100 aging bike lockers and build a garage that would house 250 bicycles.

This, my friends, is what happens when government takes money from the private sector to spend on stimulating our economy. It ends up being spent to create votes, not jobs. There can't possibly be one cogent American who thinks that these items were big-time job producers. Any jobs created are, at best, temporary ... and government. Spending our money in this manner should be punishable by law. As it is, it is only punishable by votes .. and let's hope the votes are out there in one year.

Knowing that the nation's schools are doing so poorly teaching basic math skills to our children; and assuming that parents, being the ultra-responsible lot that you are, will try to fill in the gaps with some home schooling --- I thought it might be useful to present you with some numbers you might want to use in your remedial education efforts. The added bonus here is that you can also use these numbers to reinforce in your children that President Barack Obama really is, as has been written, "sort of" a God and is clearly succeeding in his quest to lead America to a golden new economic age.

30,383 That's the number of jobs the Obama Administration claimed to have "saved or created" in a statement last Thursday. The trouble is, there is no clearly defined way to determine jobs "saved or created." You can pretty much choose any number and run with it. The New York Post tells us that the tab comes out to $71,500 per saved-or-created job. Ask you child what they think might happen if small businesses had this money through tax cuts to use to expand and grow their businesses.

48,000,000 Since we're speaking of jobs, that's the approximate number of people employed by America's small businesses - specifically the ones that employ between 1 and 49 people. Medium-sized businesses employing 50 to 499 workers count for another 42,000,000 jobs. What about large businesses that employ over 500 people? Try 17,000,000. Surprising, isn't it? Now while you're working through these numbers with your kids be sure to tell them that the vast majority of these small and medium-sized businesses report their business income on their owner's personal tax return. These business owners, then, will be the ones hit when Barack Obama gets his tax increases on people earning over $250,000 a year. They employ most of our workers, and they're going to take the tax hit. Ask your child how they think this is going to work out! If you work for one of these small businesses you may want to give that some thought yourself.

$2,300,000 That's the amount of borrowed stimulus money that was sent to beauty schools in the Tampa, Florida area to train hairdressers, masseuses and nail technicians. People who are already licensed to do hair, nails and give massages in the Tampa area are looking for work. There will be no jobs waiting for the students who use this money to get their "beauty" licenses. The Florida Cosmetology Association says only 1% to 2% of beauty school grads will be working in that field five years after graduation. Use these numbers to try to convince your child that there are better things for them to train for than cutting hair, polishing nails and giving massages in Tampa.

61.4% Percentages are fun! It's bonus time when you can use percentages to teach your children about the perils of debt. At the end of 1999, as we were moving into the last year of the Clinton Administration, the amount of money our government owed was 61.4% of our GDP; the total value of all goods and services produced in this country during that year. By the time George Bush was through that figure had gone up by 8.8 percentage points to 70.2%. Not good. But ... by the time Barack Obama gets his first year all wrapped up that figure will have risen another 20.2 percentage points to 90.4%! We're on a roll! And here's your final fun percentage figure: In 2011 that figure will reach the magic 100%. At that point we owe more than the total value of our economy. That has to be the definition of something! Bankruptcy? Oh ... and we're not even talking unfunded liabilities here.

Finally ...

9% That's an unemployment figure. That's how high Barack Obama said our unemployment figure would go if we did not quickly pass his super-effective stimulus plan earlier this year.

7.9% That's how high Obama said unemployment would rise if we would just give him over $750 billion dollars to stimulate our economy. We did; and ....

9.8% That's our latest unemployment figure. Looks like the stimulus worked! The figure includes hairdressers, nail techs and massage therapists - in case you're wondering.

#1 As in Rule No. 1. Elections have consequences.

Barack Obama and the White House have decided that their $787 billion economic stimulus bill has been a success. How do they figure?? They base this on the fact that as many as a quarter of the jobs that have "saved or created" are government school teachers.

The chief economic advisor for Joe Biden says that recent data shows that at least 250,000 educational jobs have been saved or created. Oddly enough, no one has actually SEEN this report. The Republicans point out that 250,000 jobs were lost last month alone and 3 million have been lost since the economic stimulus bill was signed. But don't slow us down with the facts! Let's celebrate that we have done exactly what we wanted to do: get more people on the government payroll. After all, folks, remember that these teachers are nothing more than glorified government bureaucrats. They are paid by the government, report to the government, abide by government regulations to fulfill their jobs requirement ... they are government employees.

So we spend $787 billion to provide pork barrel projects and hire more government workers. That sounds like stimulus to me!

Keep in mind that data released last week by the federal government found that federal contracts paid for with stimulus money created or saved 30,383 jobs. That is not a lot of jobs, folks. In fact, the White House at one point had a goal of saving or creating 3.5 million jobs over two years. There is a pretty big gap between 30,000 and 3.5 million, wouldn't you say? So when in doubt, emphasize the fact that you kept the government school teachers around and hope that Americans are too ignorant to realize that the darn thing isn't working.

And while we're at it .. you do know this whole "created or saved" thing is a crock, don't you? There is no way the government can accurately tell you how many jobs have been "saved" by stimulus spending. What we have here is the local governments telling the federal government "Oh yeah! Thanks for the money! If it hadn't been for that money we would have fired a bunch of people!" Hogwash. This is nothing but a transparent PR scam designed to convince the public that this stimulus plan is working. Try to get some private business to talk about jobs saved

Not all that well, huh?

Have you gone from recognizing that the stimulus isn't working to actually trying to figure out why? Allow me to help.

Economists will tell you that the economy will really start to recover when people start spending money. Thus far, that isn't happening. The only stimulus money was actually put into the hands of the people was that pitiful $400 for individuals and $800 for families. Most of these people used the extra money not to buy something, but to either save or pay down some bills. They're scared, remain scared, and aren't in a buying mood right now. A one-time check doesn't really do it. They need to see a long-term and permanent increase in their take-home income, and thus a long-term increase in their ability to spend. How do you do that? Simple - tax cuts. Not just a one-time check, but a real tax cut. And not just a tax cut for the poor (who don't pay taxes anyway) and the middle class; but a tax cut for everyone, businesses included. Let the people who create the jobs keep more of the money they earn - and what happens? Do you think that somehow more jobs might be created?

President Hopenchange went the opposite way. Instead of a promise that people will be able to keep more of what they earn, his administration (and the entire Democrat party, for that matter) delivers a cacophony of rhetoric about increasing taxes on the very people we need to start the economic recovery. How smart his that? In the meantime they dump billions of dollars into idiotic government pork projects and call it economic stimulus.

It's the old Bill Clinton "You won't spend your money the right way" bit revisited. Just how long are we going to sit around and let these so-called "leaders" in Washington play us for such fools? When do the majority of Americans wake up and see this as the government power play it is? With so many Americans being government educated, there's not much real hope out there. Let's face it, the Republican Party sure isn't doing anything worth mentioning. They can't even come up with a counter-offer to Obama's socialized medicine.

Now ... Cristina has chosen some reading assignments.

When Obama was about to take office, his top advisors predicted that unemployment would stay at or below 8% if Congress passed his grand stimulus plans.  In fact, the report was written by Joe Biden's chief economist, Jared Bernstein.  So Congress passed his grand stimulus plans and guess what?  Unemployment is up to 9.4%.  Why is that?  Because it seems as though Bernstein's report was "not aligned with reality."

You do know, don't you, that  there were plenty of economists saying that Obama's economic stimulus plan would not only work but end up hurting out economy"  Well,  Joe Biden now says that "everyone guessed wrong at the time the estimate was made ...".  No, not everyone, Joe.  Just the people whom you relied upon to give you estimates that you wanted to hear, rather than those based on reality. 

This is the same thing that is going to happen with our healthcare debate, folks.  Last week I told you that the Congressional Budget Office ... sometime today actually ... is supposed to release its figures on the predicted cost of Obama's healthcare reform scheme.  Democrats, knowing that this cost projection is going to be WAY more than anticipated, are already preparing the public to discount the CBO figures and stick with estimates from the White House.  Clearly, those numbers will be far less daunting than those we can expect from the CBO.

The truth is that in Washington they don't care about the costs, either human or monetary.  They care about the power.  Nothing more.  Power is the motivating factor behind government health care.  These politicians know that when they control your healthcare they control you.  All too many Americans are willing to give themselves to the government in return for healthcare.  Sad.

Speaking of healthcare ......

Are you enjoying your whopping $10 a week from Obama's "Making Work Pay" tax credit? Well enjoy it while you can, because the government is more than likely going to re-seize it in the long run. This is because new IRS withholding tables could cause millions of taxpayers to receive more money than they are "entitled" to under the credit. For some, this will mean a smaller-than-expected tax refund. For others who calculate their withholding differently, you could end up owing the government, come next April.

Here are some prime examples of what some people may be facing.

-- A single worker with two jobs making $20,000 a year at each job will get a $400 boost in take-home pay at each of them, for a total of $800. That worker, however, is eligible for a maximum credit of $400, so the remaining $400 will have to be paid back at tax time--either through a smaller refund or a payment to the IRS.

-- A married couple with a combined income of $50,000 is eligible for an $800 credit. However, if both spouses work and make more than $13,000, the new withholding tables give them each a $600 boost--for a total of $1,200.

-- A single college student with a part-time job making $10,000 would get a $400 boost in pay. However, if that student is claimed as a dependent on a parent's tax return, she doesn't qualify for the credit and would have to repay it when she files next year.

And when it comes to Social Security and veterans, there are a whole heap of issues there too. But don't you worry. Tax cheat Timothy Geithner says that he is "exploring ways to mitigate that effect."

That should make you feel much, much better.

Barack Obama has decided to help out the auto industry by having the government purchase 17,600 new US-made fuel-efficient cars. These are cars that the government more than likely doesn't need. But they will be purchased in order to boost the auto industry. Is this a long term boost? A true economic stimulus? Absolutely not. It is nothing but a government gimmick. The government is not really buying these cars. The government doesn't have the money. The government is borrowing the money and sticking you, the taxpayers, for the payments. All this to make some sort of a political point about green cars.

Imagine what the American taxpayers could do with $285 million. You could spend it on cars that you will actually want! Not cars that the government wants you to want. Buying what you want is a free market exercise. Buying what the government wants you to buy - or the government buying it in your name --- well, that's certainly not free enterprise.

The government decides what you want. More change you can believe in.

A listener asked me this question last week. Fair enough. If (and God help you if it ever happens) I was the one making the decision, what would I do to stimulate our economy? Well .. here would be some of my first steps:

• Say something positive about the power of the free market system
• Call for immediate passage of the FairTax
• Lower the top tax rate to 20% while waiting for the FairTax to pass
• Immediately eliminate capital gains taxes
• Declare a tax amnesty to allow all American funds invested abroad to come to work in our economy with no tax consequences
• Cut the corporate tax rate significantly. Having the world's second-highest corporate tax rate doesn't exactly make us a magnet for new businesses and jobs.
• Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley
• Declare a tax holiday of from four to six months where the federal government forgives all individual income and payroll taxes.

There's more to be done for sure ... but the goal here is to get the economy moving NOW, not two years from now. The big problem with all of the steps outlined above, of course, is that they empower the private sector and individuals, not government and politicians. The goal here is to grow our economy, not our government.

Now ... aren't you glad I'm not up there making any decisions?

The Democrats want to print and spend about one trillion dollars. They say that they are doing this to "stimulate" the economy. The more discerning among you know that this is crock. This is nothing less than a massive government spending program ... one that will result in much higher taxes down the road.

Did you know that there is $13 trillion dollars out there ready to stimulate our economy? This $13 trillion dollars - 13 times the size of the Democrats spending bill - doesn't have to be printed. It's already out there. It would not add to our national debt. It would not add to the deficit. It would not be inflationary. Putting this $13 trillion dollars into our economy would not result in higher taxes down the road. Simply put ... we just take this $13 trillion that is already out there working in other world economies and bring it home to work for us.

How? The Fair Tax. This $13 trillion belongs to American citizens and businesses and is working overseas - offshore - to get away from America's punishing tax system. Pass the Fair Tax and this $13 trillion starts coming home to work in our own economy. No deficit spending - no tax increases - no creation of new money that leads to inflation - just $13 billion coming home to work here to boost our economy.

Tell me why this is such a bad idea. You can't? Well the Political class can certainly tell you why this is a bad idea. It takes power away from politicians and gives it to ordinary people. The $13 trillion I'm talking about are private funds. When that money comes back home private citizens and private businesses get to decide where it's spent ... not politicians. This is money that can't be used to reward political supporters and special interests. This is money that can't be used to buy votes. Politicians would sit back and watch the private sector drive the economic revival. The private sector would be revitalized and strengthened. Politicians .. especially Democrats ... don't like this.

For those of you who want to see it for yourself, here is a copy of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. [pdf] Basically what you are looking at is a litany of pork-barrel and grow-the-government spending projects under their new and improved label, "stimulus." What you are also looking at is a big fat "thank you" from Barack Obama to any and all people who supported him .. he is going to pay off on his campaign promises, and he's goi9ng to do it in the name of "economic stimulus." Rather than waiting four years to work through your proposals, why not just get it all out on the table right from the start and take advantage of this historic economic situation.

By the way, the stimulus includes just $275 billion in tax cuts, which is clearly less than the $300 billion originally proposed.

Here are just some of the examples of what Obama considers "economic stimulus":

$3.836 billion for rural water and waste grant and loan programs

$6.2 billion to help low-income families reduce their energy costs by weatherizing their homes and make our country more energy efficient

$400 million to help state and local governments purchase efficient alternative fuel vehicles to reduce fuel costs and carbon emissions

$6 billion for broadband and wireless services in underserved areas

$650 million to continue the coupon program to enable American households to convert from analog television transmission to digital transmission

$400 million to replace the 30 year old Social Security Administration's National Computer Center to meet growing needs for processing retirement and disability claims and records storage

$3.1 billion for infrastructure projects on federal lands including improvements to visitor facilities, road and trail restoration, preservation of buildings of cultural and historic importance, rehabilitation of abandoned mines and oil fields, and environmental cleanup projects

$400 million for ready-to-go habitat restoration projects

$850 million for hazardous fuels removal and other efforts to prevent wildfires on public lands

$1 billion for 21st century classrooms, including computer and science labs and teacher technology training

$66 million for formula grants to states to provide services to homeless children including meals and transportation when high unemployment and home foreclosures have created an influx of homeless kids

$2 billion to provide child care services for an additional 300,000 children in low-income families while their parents go to work

$30.3 billion to extend health insurance coverage to the unemployed, extending the period of COBRA coverage for older and tenured workers beyond the 18 months provided under current law

$500 million to rehabilitate and improve energy efficiency at some of the over 42,000 housing units maintained by Native American housing programs

$1 billion to help low-income families pay for home heating and cooling at a time of rising energy costs

I hope I'm getting the point across here. Barack Obama and the Democrats made some pretty hefty spending promises during the campaign. Now that they're moving into power they see a wonderful opportunity to implement virtually all of those promises. They just cite the financial crisis and apply the "stimulus" label to their spending plans. Pretty clever ... but then again maybe not so clever when the realize that the media will go along with the scheme.

Part of the economy stimulus package may include incentives for people to buy cars and financing to help auto companies develop better batteries and alternative fuel. Auto executives and lobbyists say that they have discussed options with Obama officials that would allow the stimulus bill to spark new credit, boost technology development, get people into showrooms and help auto companies achieve fuel efficiency goals. Dan Becker of the Safe Climate Campaign at the Center for Auto Safety says, "The stimulus is about creating jobs. If the automakers are able to sell the cars they make, they will be able to put people to work. Better technology requires more people."

So there you go ... a plan for the government to finance a new car credit if consumers turn in their older, less efficient cars. Another possibility for this stimulus is to double an Energy Department grant program to help bailout companies GM, Ford and Chrysler speed up their development of hybrid and electric cars. That would cost $50 billion.

Are you starting to see what is happening here? Yesterday Obama gave a big speech about his economic stimulus plan .. he is calling it an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. Well there's a nice focus group title. "Reinvestment," by the way, means "spending." We could call this the "American Government Growth and Spending Plan." Anyways ... so we have this speech yesterday and the clouds are starting to break. I am starting to see the light .. and it ain't pretty. This economic recovery plan is nothing but a camouflaged way of enacting the promised spending programs of Obama's candidacy.

Someone 'splain something to me: How on God's green Earth is investment in education supposed to stimulate the economy? Even if you wait a generation for that education to pay off .. these people will have been educated in government schools. So that doesn't seem too promising. But part of Obama's stimulus speech was that he wants to "equip tens of thousands of schools, community colleges, and public universities with 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries." He also wants new computers and new training for teachers. And just how does THAT stimulate our economy? Answer: It doesn't. It stimulates teachers and their unions. Stimulation you pay for under the guise of economic stimulation.

Another one of Obama's plans to stimulate the economy is to double the production of alternative energy. He wants to improve energy efficiency. He wants you to go out there and build solar panels and wind turbines. Oh and by the way, Obama says that these will be jobs "that pay well and can't be outsourced." That's a pretty ballsy thing to promise. How can he guarantee that? He can't .. unless he uses the force of government to do so. Goodbye whatever is left of the free market. Again, this is Obama deciding where your money should be spent, not you. If you want to spend money improving energy efficiency they you can do so. This is nothing less than Obama using economic scare tactics to enact green campaign promises.

Then there's healthcare. Again, can someone please explain to me how switching all of America's medical records to computers is going to provide an immediate stimulus to our economy? Anyone? I didn't think so. It isn't going to. But this was one of Obama's great promises on the campaign trail. Which allows me to reinforce my point .. PEBO is going to capitalize on America's economic crisis in order to enact his agenda. Pretty clever, huh? Anything that Obama proposes will, from here on out, be part of his efforts to "stimulate the economy."

Do you now see how much this man loves government? PEBO said, "At this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe." That's right. Only government. Not your personal self reliance or perseverance. Not your commitment to your community. Not your employer's paycheck or benefits. Not more money in your pocket. No more economic activity from the private sector. Only government.