Update: Here is a tragic chart showing 16 13 states with unemployment over 10%, Michigan leading the pack with 15.2%. Many of these states are at or near all time record highs.

America can and should measure the Democrats by their record on the economy and jobs. In fact, I dare anyone to sanely argue why we should not! Here is the source of the data. There is a great US map there were you can roll back to the 2008 election and see the damage done since then. It clearly shows the pain spreading out and deepening.

Major Update: The GOP has come out with a killer add which will destroy Obama’s support:

 

H/T Ed Morrissey, Bumped to the top because this is the future of America at stake. – end update

Some states are nearing the unemployment bottom of this recession. There is a bottom – we are just trying to plumb for it. The problem is, there may also be a shelf on the way to the bottom, but let’s assume we are now finally starting to see bottom as the monthly drop in unemployment slows down for many states and stops for some. 

However, there are signs in some states we are not done yet, and the rising foreclosure rates and lack of renters means we could be in for more drops in the future. Let’s look at the mind boggling unemployment pain in Michigan, where Obama’s Government Motors has taken over GM and Chrysler to ‘fix’ things:

Foreclosures are expected at elevated levels as unemployment-related foreclosures increase, said James J. Saccacio, chief executive of RealtyTrac.

Even with a host of federal, state and local programs to stop foreclosures, June represented the fourth-straight month with more than 300,000 filings nationwide, he said.

Foreclosure activity isn’t over in Michigan, either. The state’s unemployment rate of 15.2% in June could lead to more in the coming months.

15.2% unemployment. The underemployment number (adding those working part time or lower paying jobs to make ends meet) must be will into the 25-30% range. As the article notes this is impacting foreclosures. But the auto industry is a gigantic buyer of goods and services from around the nation. When Detroit sneezes we can all get the swine flu.

What seems to be happening this summer is continued spreading of the problem. It’s like ripples on a pond emanating from some of the worst hit states to date. As the damage spreads it does dissipate a bit, but it does seem to be spreading. Take NJ as an example:

New Jersey’s unemployment rate reached its highest level in 32 years in June.

The jobless rate increased from 8.8 percent to 9.2 percent last month as the state shed 2,100 jobs.

State Labor Commissioner David Socolow says the loss is the smallest since the recession began in December 2007.

Most of the job loss was in the private sector.

Lots of information here to note. The rate of drop is slowing per month, but it is not reversing. And what little stimulus money that has been spent (more on that at the end) has gone to keeping government bureaucrats in their cozy little jobs doing much of nothing. The private sector (where the vast majority of us work) is the one taking the pounding here.

I posted a sample of state unemployment yesterday, showing the spread of unemployment like a cancer across the nation. Today we can add historic unemployment in Kentucky, Idaho and Illinois. Is the stimulus package working? Of course not! The money is not getting out of the lethargic and bloated federal bureaucracy. The latest numbers on the 6 federal organizations I have been tracking is as abysmal as it has been for the last 5 months since the liberal stimulus-pork experiment was rammed through Congress. Here are the charts as of last week (July 10th, 2009).

 

In the first graph there are 4 sets of columns showing: (from left to right) (1) the amount budgeted for stimulus programs in that organization, (2) the amount allocated to specific programs, (3) the amount actually spent creating jobs (the bottom line) and (4) the amount unspent from the total budget. (click image to enlarge)

The second chart translates the dollar amounts for the last three sets of columns into percentages of the budgeted amounts. (click image to enlarge)

Bottom line: around 99% of the job-creating money for these departments/agencies is stuck in the government coffers – doing nothing. Here’s the latest summary across all 6 organizations:

• $105 billion was budgeted across the organizations to start new programs and create jobs (the largest amounts going  to the Departments of Energy and Transportation)
• Of that, only $30.9 billion (was $28.4B) as even been allocated to programs to be spent (29%)
• The total amount actually spent to date on stimulus programs: $0.987 billion (was $0.606B), which is a paltry 0.94%.

The Department of Transportation is well ahead of the other organizations in that it has 44% of its money now obligated to actual programs. All the rest are way behind in their percent allocated. But DoT still has only spent 1.5% of the money budgeted by Congress. Five months since passage of the stimulus money and less than 1% is actually stimulating job creation.

Karl Rove noted yesterday that Obama said he would be measured by how well his liberal economic stimulus experiment would create jobs:

In February, Mr. Obama said this about the goals of his stimulus package: “I think my initial measure of success is creating or saving four million jobs.” He later explained the stimulus’s $787 billion would “go directly to . . . generating three to four million new jobs.” And his Council of Economic Advisors issued an official analysis showing that the unemployment rate would top out in the third quarter of this year at just over 8%.

Now that he has failed miserably, President Obama is trying to change the gauge to measure him by:

White House officials told reporters the stimulus was to be applied over a two-year period to “cushion” the impact of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. They said the plan should not be prejudged by simply brandishing the latest unemployment numbers.

…

“I feel very confident that the American people understand that it will take a very long time to get out a very, very deep hole,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

How pathetic. The liberals in DC screwed up royally and now, while millions of Americans are unemployed or underemployed, they claim it is not their fault. Heck, VP Biden was out claiming all is well! Truly pathetic.

The only thing the liberals have done is wrack up massive debt this year WHILE not even spending stimulus money! Look at the new deficit projections for the Government Fiscal Year 2009 (ending in September) which will hit a stunning $1.84 trillion:

We have the data DC. We can see the spreading unemployment. We can see the lack of stimulus spending. We can see the rising debt. We can see the failed liberal experiments producing nothing while we go bankrupt. Does DC really think the rest of the nation is that stupid?

Addendum: record unemployment also in Nevada, Georgia, and South Carolina. Still awaiting the news from California which should have been out today. Maybe it was their furlough day.

Tags: Stimulus Bill, Unemployment