As President Obama proposes tens of billions of dollars in new government stimulus spending, Americans might ask “how effective were trillions of dollars of past government spending in reducing unemployment?”  The answer – not effective at all.  As displayed below, since President Obama took office unemployment has risen by 2.9 million while the debt held by the public was pushed $2.6 trillion higher, lifting the “Obama Misery Index” to a new record high of 66% last month. 

Source: Ways and Means staff calculations, using Department of Labor and Department of Treasury data. 
Note: Numbers differ from previous releases due to revisions by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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