Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, writing on “The Official Blog of the U.S. Department of Labor” (a thing that exists, apparently) is proud of what the Obama administration has, um, accomplished…
Without the Recovery Act, millions more would have fallen into poverty. Our efforts to expand unemployment insurance provided $167 billion in benefits to 17 million Americans. It’s the longest-lasting emergency unemployment program in American history. The Recovery Act provided incentives for states to expand UI coverage to part-time workers and new workers. This kept 3.2 million Americans from falling into poverty last year.
Um, it’s nice and all that the people who are getting unemployment checks aren’t starving out in the streets, but don’t you see any teensy little problems with bragging about the fact that you’ve actually had to implement “the longest-lasting emergency unemployment program in American history” while simultaneously talking about how awesome the Spendulus was? Like, I don’t know, that it might be an indication that the stuff you guys are doing hasn’t done jack shit to improve the economy? That a whole lot of people collecting unemployment indefinitely shouldn’t really be something to be happy about? Bueller?
I’m really not sure why I’m asking any of these questions since Solis begins her post by gushing about (and I’m not kidding here) LBJ’s “War on Poverty” programs. Yeah.
doubleplusundead 
Well, if your goal is to get the most people dependent on the gov’t their programs are a smashing success.
They are trying to put as many people in the “99%” as possible so they have to vote for the people who promise them the most goodies.
Which is why it kind of scares me whenever I see people talking about the BLS. I know they’re talking about the Bureau of Labor Statistics but all I see is the Basil Living Stipend that the People’s Republic of Haven give to the masses to keep them quiet. (Honor Harrington books)
Twenty-some years ago a friend of mine got a Darth Vader heelmt cake for her birthday. The icing started out as basic chocolate that was darkened with as much black food coloring as necessary. Very nice result.And it definitely was a gift that kept on giving, about a day after the party when all the guests starting calling one another…”You, too?!”.