Grandview Area Republican Club

The Democrats’ Nautilus Shell economy plan seems to be working – as the economy continues to spiral downwards before it goes upward.

In October, the National Unemployment Rate rose once again, from 9.8% in September, to 10.2% in October, marking the highest Unemployment has been since 1983. While the official numbers suggests 1 in 10 Americans are currently out of work, some estimates suggest that it could be closer to 1-in-5 Americans.

From The Associated Press:

The unemployment rate has surpassed 10 percent for the first time since 1983 — and is likely to go higher.

Nearly 16 million people can’t find jobs even though the worst recession since the Great Depression has apparently ended. TheLabor Department said Friday that the economy shed a net total of 190,000 jobs in October, less than the downwardly revised 219,000 lost in September. August job losses were also revised lower, to 154,000 from 201,000.

But the loss of jobs last month exceeded economists’ estimates. It’s the 22nd straight month the U.S. economy has shed jobs, the longest on records dating back 70 years.

While the unemployment numbers are bad enough, it has much higher ramifications for the economy in general. Without jobs, Black Friday may very well turn into Red Friday, not to mention that we’re in some of the hardest economic conditions since the Great Depression. To make things even more entertaining, the Obama administration is being questioned on just how many jobs have been saved as a result of the $700+ Billion Economic Stimulus Package.

Draw your own conclusions – but many economists are saying despite the government’s excitement to say their spending programs are working, we’re in for a very, VERY long winter.

Read the AP Article Here

Once again, Governor Ted Strickland (D) continues to play a shell game with the citizens of Ohio and their possibilities of employment in this state. This time, its found in creating agencies set to create economic opportunities – which do so by not meeting.

Dispatch Politics, an online division of the Columbus Dispatch, shed a little light on Gov. Strickland’s Economic Growth Cabinet. According to the Governor, they have worked tirelessly to bring jobs back to the State of Ohio. Despite the fact that they’ve only met three times.

From the Columbus Dispatch:

Saying he has no greater priority than getting Ohio’s economy moving again, Gov. Ted Strickland created a new Economic Growth Cabinet one year ago to “focus on creating jobs and increasing economic growth opportunities.”

But the group has met only three times. And although no one denies the effects that the global recession has had on all states, Ohio continues to fare worse than most others in net job losses.

“I will concede to you that I think more can be done,” Strickland said last week after announcing a $33 million expansion of the Rolls-Royce facility in Mount Vernon. “But I am very proud, and very appreciative, of all the efforts of my cabinet members and of our Department of Development.”

Administration officials say the measure of the new cabinet is not how many times it has met but how much work has been done behind the scenes to help agencies work together daily — often in unprecedented ways — that is bearing fruit.

Still, a promised “unified economic development budget” to increase transparency in spending and a scorecard to monitor progress of development remain works in progress.

Further proof that Gov. Strickland is playing a shell game with Ohio’s economic future – saying one plan, creating larger government in order to accommodate that plan, and being completely and absolutely ineffective in that plan. The result is money – which could have gone directly to serving Ohioans, and creating jobs – are being wasted on fruitless plans that serve nothing but the governor’s own inner circle.

Take heart, Ohio – only one more year before we can call John Kasich our governor…and get rid of this perfect mess in Gov. Ted Strickland.

Read the Columbus Dispatch article here

So much for change.

On Tuesday Morning, August 25, the Federal Office of Management and Budget announced that this recession is deeper than we all expected. How much deeper? Unemployment will hit 10% nationwide in the next year, and the Federal Budget Deficit will grow to over $1.5 Trillion Dollars.

From Bloomberg Business News:

U.S. unemployment will surge to 10 percent this year and the budget deficit will widen to $1.5 trillion next year, reflecting a “deeper recession” than previously expected, White House budget chief Peter Orszag said.

The Office of Management and Budget also forecasts that the U.S. economy will shrink 2.8 percent this year, worse than the 1.2 percent contraction the OMB projected in May. For next year, the budget office said the gross domestic product will grow 2.0 percent, less than the 3.2 percent expected in May. By 2011, the economy would be well on its way to recovery, growing at a 3.8 percent annual rate, according to the administration’s mid-year economic review, released this morning.

Read the full article here