FAIRMONT — Anniversaries are not like birthdays. Usually they represent a time to reflect, to understand where you were and compare it to where you are now.
I bet President Obama wishes anniversaries were more like birthdays, too. Then he could blow out one candle on a truly scrumptious cake while all of his friends and co-workers sang a song. People would bring gifts to a grand party. A band would perform. There might even be a clown to tie balloons in funny shapes.
Instead, after the one-year anniversary of the $787 billion economic stimulus package, the only thing people are bringing Obama is criticism — and that’s not even wrapped up in a pretty package with ribbons. There’s not a clown tying balloons into funny shapes ... congressmen and senators are throwing up numbers like confetti. For instance, $1.6 trillion — the increase in the national debt. Or 9.7 percent — the nation’s jobless rate.
And no one’s singing, unless you count asking in unison “was it worth the cost?” He shouts back that the stimulus has or will have created 2 million jobs that weren’t there in 2009.
“I don’t know what that is,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele told Fox News. “I don’t know what that looks like. If I can’t put my fingers on it, if I can’t touch it and if I can’t get up at 6 o’clock in the morning and go to work there, then it’s not happening, and that’s the reality of a lot of people right now.”
Obama’s administration spent last week highlighting the stimulus’ successes, in all making more than 30 stops across the country where bricks-and-mortar and infrastructure projects are putting people back to work.
“It’s gonna take us a while to get us out of this ditch, but it’s working. It’s working,” Vice President Joe Biden said while in Michigan and touring a jobs training program at Delta College that received stimulus cash.
“I absolutely refuse to accept the notion that the United States of America is not going to lead the world economically throughout the 21st century,” Biden said. “Second place is not an option for us,” he said.
So, since it’s a debate, you knew we’d be there to see how our own online readers feel about the issue. Last week on our Web site, www.timeswv.com — which got a bit of a makeover last week, we hope you noticed — we asked our readers on our online poll to answer the question “After the one-year anniversary of the American Recovery Act, how do you feel about the outcome so far?
For one out of 10 of our responders, or an even 10 percent, the answer is “we’re putting America back to work and building up again.”
Coming in with more that twice the number of votes, or 21 percent, are those who realize that a huge chunk of the stimulus money hasn’t even been spent yet so it’s unfair to gauge any success at all. Those voters said “it will take years to see the full effects.”
But for 69 percent of our voters, $1.6 trillion is a big number. A huge number, considering the jobless rate has grown and the economy is showing signs of recovery, but not big ones. Those voters said “Well, the national debt sure has gotten bigger.”
Well, maybe after the two-year anniversary, we’ll eat some cake.
This week, let’s talk about the issue at the forefront of everyone’s mind, the potholes.
Log on. Vote. E-mail me.
Misty Poe
Managing Editor
mpoe@timeswv.com
