Yesterday the consequences of Barack Obama's first big mistake became obvious: depending on which set of numbers you use unemployment has risen to something like 9.5 to 16.5%.
What was Obama's first big mistake? He failed to include a genuine jobs program in his first hundred days' agenda.
The so-called stimulus package is not a jobs bill. It consists of tax cuts for people who already have jobs and small amount of infrastructure work that will most likely go to existing contracting companies. Much of the money will go the way of the Katrina funds: a big general contractor will win the bid, rake off a profit, and then hire several layers of sub-contractors to perform the work. Inevitably, much of the work will be performed by illegal aliens working for less than the minimum wage.
