Growing Our Party

The Stimulus is working . . Well,

The 9.7% unemployment rate is really +20% when you include the following important data:

Number of people unemployed more than six months - 6.1 million - they don't count as unemployed

Number of people working part-time who are seeking full-time - 6.2 million - they don't count as unemployed

As we all know the economy last year was horrible. Obama instituted the stimulus package to improve the employment picture. How's it working?

Overall, non-farm payrolls declined in February for the 25th time in 26 months. How about specific key industries?

Let's compare Feb '10 to Feb '09
Construction ---- down 15%
Mining ---- down 10%
Durable Goods Mfg. ---- down 10%
Non-durable Goods Mfg. ---- down 5%
Financial ---- down 4%
Retail Sales ---- down 3%
EDUCATION ---- UP 2%
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ---- UP 6%

What's wrong with this picture? The only areas of growth occurred where the money was taken from the taxpayer without approval. The Education industry - it truly has evolved into an industry from what was a service - cries it is being destroyed when it is the only large sector outside of the federal government that continues to grow.

In Arizona, funding for the education industry continues to grow at an alarming rate. State funding for this sector - k-12, colleges and universities - now exceeds the total state tax revenues. That sounds impossible, but true.

We are paying for all the rest of state government by borrowing, fund sweeps and accounting gimmicks. The school unions continue to cry for more money for an industry that has seen unprecedented increases in funding this last decade. Meanwhile, the state is incurring debt that the children of the children currently in their charge will have to pay off.

It's Time to say NO in May to more taxes, NO next week to more overrides and NO anytime to more debt.