In Spain and France the unemployment is going over 15%!!! The North Americans can move out and try to live in Europe.

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You guest just did a swift combination when answering Brian's question about market utopianism. He said that the consumer's only power was to walk, to walk away from a bad hotel, a bad car dealer (okay, agreed, there is power in that) a bad insurance company. Wow! I don't buy bread at the corner grocer that says something. I choose not to buy from Blue Cross, no one notices unless it's a mass movement. While individual choices can turn into a mass response to a quality issue, because of marketing and size, it seldom happens. Your guests metaphors sound right, but don't play.

the stimulas has worked fo many people,its very hard to see when you dont have too.Unemployment has been extended so much but nobody wants to credit the reason why,so many people that are receiving unemployment are very thankful.

Keynesian economics is the ONLY known economic philosophy that has ever worked. FDR saved the US from the repbulican economic depression with it; Clinton saved the US economy from the disasterous Reagan/Bush years and now Obama is saving the economy with it since the republicans crashed the economy, again, and gave us the 2nd worst fiscal disaster in US history thanks to their completely failed "supply side" nonsense.
Obama has cut the RATE of unemployment growth in half, he saved the US auto and housing industries (that were crashed by the tax cuts under Bush), and helped redistribute wealth back to the poor and middle classes - who pay FAR more in taxes than the rich do as a percentage of their income (fact).
So yes, it's working great. Thanks Obama for saving us from yet another crashed republican economy.

A total waste of taxpayer money. With this expenditure unemployment wasn't going over 8%. How did that hopey, changee, thing work out.
This is just a giant slush fund for blue states and crooked democratic politicians.

The problem with the stimulus is that Keynesian economics DOES NOT WORK!!!
In New Jersey we have had a situation where government has grown much faster than the private sector for well over a decade. The politicians have raised taxes again and again and finally the voters said ENOUGH.

We pay the highest property taxes in the nation,have t among the top five highest marginal tax rate on income in the nation(10.25 %) and still the government is FLAT BROKE!!

In fact people are moving out of NJ-especially those with high incomes. The stimulus tries to pick winners and losers-from Washington,DC and from people who have NEVER worked in the private sector. Ever! Exhibit A is President Obama himself.

The debt rang up in one year is staggering.The stimulus did not fool the American people.It was foolish from its inception and that is why now the Administration wants a "jobs bill" because they are too afraid to use the term stimulus!!!

Some of the money has gone to assist people like me with afford health insurance while I search for a new job.

The policy makers have to review whether companies that outsource jobs are benefiting from tax credits. As often various loopholes exist that allow companies to continue to benefit whilst regular workers can barely make a living.

The stimulus bill is working as best it can.

First- the place and state the country was in prior to the passing of the stimulus package is not a place I want to return to. I know we all remember the palpable air of demise that had fallen over the country like huge, thick, TARP - pardon the PUN.

I believe the stimulus served to keep many jobs (mostly public sector) that would have been lost without it and ease the air of demise.

Second - Neither Obama nor any bill the House can pass can generate sustainable jobs. Many, if not most, of the sustainable jobs of the past have been automated and/or sent overseas. They cannot or will not be regenerated.

Large companies that continually send jobs overseas seems to be working against the American economy.

It is up to the private sector to generate jobs, as it always has.

If the private sector cannot generate enough jobs to support a vibrant middle class, then the America we've known is a thing of the past. I'm afraid this is something we're going to have to get used to - stimulus package or not.

I have been attempting to find out from Senators Gillibrand, Schumer and my congressman Ackerman on where the money went. In the calls I have made, I have been hung up with this question many times. In fact I have called GIllibrands office in NY and DC, and the phone has rung and rung (no answering). She is my pet project, as she never answers the phone or responds to email. In my market of 11050, an affluent burb of NYC, there was $6,7 million was spent. However, the breakdown is missing a few million. THe 2.5 jobs that were created come from 125 K. So we have an unaccounted $6.5 million where no one was hired- no contracts and no loans, this was all granted. Ackerman's office was outright hostile and said to me, to find it myself.