The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has been around for so long that many people think it is a government agency. However it is NOT related to the government in any way and it a private non-profit organization.

Many advertisements you see might show the BBB logo as proof that they are a trusted business. Over the years, they have symbolized a watchdog agency that stands for consumer’s rights and honesty in business. Companies always want to get a good rating from them because it increases their trustworthiness in the eyes of customers.

However, just because you see a BBB logo on an advertisement doesn’t necessarily mean they should be trusted. Now days with the Internet, advertisers tying to sell you information on grants, loans, debt relief, and all sorts of other things try to trick you into believing they can be trusted by showing the “As seen on” logos from CNN, FOX, NBC, ABC, as well as the BBB logo which they might have just copied and pasted to their website. Always click on the logo to make sure it takes you to the Better Business Bureau website where you can see the companies grade.

Most disturbing of all though, are the claims that the BBB is requiring money in exchange for the good grades they are giving out. The 20/20 video exposes some very troubling issues with them and shows how in some cases, good grades from the BBB were gotten by business who paid money for those grades. Obviously, if you need to pay money to get an A grade from the Better Business Bureau, that grade is meaningless and can’t be trusted.

What this means is that whenever you see the BBB logo on a website or advertisement, understand that you should not automatically assume that it can be trusted. Do some more research first to verify the BBB grade and search online for more information about the company BEFORE you give them your credit card.

As people continue to search for how to get stimulus money, the question now being asked is whether the stimulus Recovery Act was a success or a bust?

When the stimulus grants bill was passed in February 2009, the United States had an unemployment rate of  8.1% and about 12,500,000 people were out of work. The latest data from September 2010 shows that we have an unemployment rate of 9.6% and about 14,800,000 people were without jobs! Why has unemployment gotten worse when President Obama sold the stimulus bill as the only way to keep unemployment under 8%?

Additionally it is reported by the Congressional Budget Office (which is non-partisan) that the final cost of the stimulus bill will end up being closer to $814 billion dollars instead of the original $787 billion. Other reports put the final cost even higher! So the stimulus package is bigger than what was forecast and things are still getting worse.

This is why so many Americans are wondering whether the Recovery Act or stimulus bill (whatever you want to call it) was a failure? They see their personal lives having not gotten any better and they are looking for all the new roads and bridges that were supposed to have been built with the money. Have you seen any?

It turns out that about 70% of the stimulus money has gone to the different state Medicaid programs and to public schools while only about 14% has gone toward infrastructure projects for transportation. This is what the Government Accountability Office has reported.

Many people will tell you that the Stimulus Recovery Act was a success and has saved a lot of jobs. They will tell you that things would even be worse than they are now if it hadn’t been passed. That may be true and it is impossible to know for sure what things would be like if there were no stimulus money.

But unfortunately, the unemployment rate has continued to go up and people are frustrated. Until that changes, people are going to be angry. The unemployment rate is the key as it is easy to get angry and upset when you can’t find a job.

Lots of people have directly benefited from stimulus money but this is a big country that has an awfully big population. The stimulus bill can’t help everyone and those that haven’t been helped will call it a failure even if it has done good things.

There is lots of news about the November midterm elections about how Republicans and conservatives are angry and there might be changes to the Senate and the House of Representatives. Right now, Democrats control everything: the Presidency, the Senate, and the House.

If angry voters come out and vote for Republicans, can that hurt the changes that have been made such as the Obama stimulus grants? Will there be less money going out from the government to the people who need it?

The answer is that even if Republicans win enough votes to take over both houses of Congress (unlikely) or just one section, there will probably be very few changes that you will notice. President Obama will still be the president for two more years and he will most likely veto anything they try to do.

Republicans and conservatives want to stop the government spending that they say is out of control. So, they will say no to any of President Obama’s ideas that require spending. But the 2009 stimulus bill has long been passed and nothing will change. The Obama student loans bill went through and that is not something that they would likely try to change either.

If conservatives win in November (big or small), it will just be a minor setback for Obama as he will still be in charge. He can block anything they try to do because they won’t have enough votes to override his veto. So, if you are looking for Obama grants for moms, back to school grants, Obama small business grants, or any other type of grants or financial aid from the government, it is likely that nothing will have changed after the November elections no matter who wins.

The important thing to remember is that President Obama will be in office for at least two more years and he could get elected for four more years after that. So, nothing drastic is going to change during that time. There will still be the stimulus grants money that is available and President Obama will most likely continue to try to pass government programs that are designed to help the people in need.

People may be wondering whether there are any new Obama grants or stimulus money that becomes available in 2010. Everyone is searching for Obama school grants and other things they might get from the government that will help them out financially. Times are tough for a lot of people and they are hoping that Obama and the government can help out.

To my knowledge though, there are no new Obama stimulus grants programs for individuals that kick in during 2010. Nothing has changed since 2009 and it remains very hard for individual people to get any kind of special financial aid from the government. Right now there is a lot of chaos in Washington as so much emphasis was made on health care reform and now it looks like that is on hold. Ever since the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts, emphasis has shifted away from ObamaCare.

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama said he was going to concentrate on jobs as that is where the most need is. Of course he is right that there is a jobs crisis in this country but what can the government really do? Raising taxes on everyone who earns more than $250,000 means that taxes are being raised on most small businesses. Doesn’t Mr. Obama understand that small businesses is where many of the jobs come from and that raising taxes on those businesses will mean more people have to be laid off?

You still have to be careful in 2010 when you are searching for debt relief grants and any other information relating to back to school grants for moms and other things associated with Obama and the stimulus bill. If you have questions about grants you should go to Grants.gov as that is the official government website. Likewise if you are interested in the stimulus recovery you should go to the official website Recovery.gov. It should be known though, that those two websites might be hard to understand and navigate for the average citizen looking for any stimulus grants help.

2010 looks like it is going to be a rough year financially for many people in the United States just like 2009 was. Whether President Obama’s programs and policies will lead to more jobs and a better America has yet to be determined. Right now though, all you can do is be thrifty with your money and hope for the best.

The Internet is a great resource and it brings so much information right to our fingertips. But sometimes it can be confusing and it can be hard to find exactly what you are looking for. President Obama is in office and many people are now interested in college financial aid and other financial aid grant programs. Where does one go to find out more information about such things in the year 2010? Well…they go to the Internet of course.

The usual thing to do is to go to Google and do a search for “Obama financial aid” or “financial aid for college” or whatever you are specifically looking for. You will then get the top ten results listed on the first page. The problem is that many times these results are dubious and confusing and often they are downright useless.

People need money and they need debt help. They voted for a new President in hopes that they could get some financial aid from Obama and the government. They are now turning to the Internet to find out what is available and what they are finding is very little information that they can actually use and understand.

As an example, I looked for Obama financial aid information and found almost nothing of any use. This goes to show why people get confused and don’t know where to turn to get accurate information on stimulus grants, Obama moms back to school grants, and other things that might help them out financially.

Of the first 10 results for Obama financial aid, I found only one site that was really of any use (ED.gov) and the others where all articles or blog posts that didn’t help at all. No wonder people find it hard to get real information and end up so easily scammed when they start looking for new Obama grants and other ways to possibly profit from the new government stimulus bill.

Government programs are difficult to understand for everyone and there is always alot of wording that you have to sift through. While Obama government grants are free, the process of finding them, qualifying for them, and apply for them is a very difficult thing for a regular person to do. This leaves the door open for other companies to come in and try to get your business by offering to help. Unfortunately, sometimes some of these companies are less than honest.

If you are looking for Obama financial aid or grants of any type, it is smart to be careful what you sign up for and who you give your credit card to. Always read the fine print which includes the privacy information as well as the terms & conditions for each and every website. This is where you will find the hidden charges if there are any. If at any time you feel uncomfortable with what you are reading, you should go somewhere else and not use their services.

The U.S. government has set up a website to keep track of where all the Obama stimulus money is going. All it takes is one look at the website (Recovery.gov) and you will realize the magnitude of the giveaway. A person can literally spend hours on the site as it is a very complex and detailed setup of graphs, charts, and links. 

All the Obama free money is going somewhere and this is the place to find out who is getting what in terms of loans and grants. You need to navigate the site by the tabs at the top of the page and the one of most interest is the one titled “Where Is The Money Going”. This leads you to a map of the United States that you can use to focus in on any part of the country you want and to find out what businesses and colleges are getting and how much.

The map is quite slick really as it is peppered with different colored dots which represent either Obama stimulus loans, Obama stimulus grants, or Obama stimulus contracts. Some of them seem to be debt relief grants for businesses that have stumbled on hard times. You can then click on the dot and get more information such as how much it was for and to what business entity it went to. The map has so many dots that they often overlap and in the populated cities it is difficult to see them individually. If you have ever wondered just how many agencies, local governments, businesses, colleges and other entities are getting stimulus help, Recovery.gov is the place to go. 

There are a lot of other resources on the site as well that may or may not answer the questions you have. The map is fun at first but it does become tiresome to navigate and I tried unsuccessfully to find some sort of list that would lay out all the information in a more user friendly searchable format. The amount of information on the website can be overwhelming and it illustrates how far reaching the governments role has become in distributing our tax dollars.

This Recovery.gov website is supposed to be the window of transparency between the government and the general public with the intent of making sure there is no doubt to the legitimacy of the Obama stimulus money program. The amount of money being distributed to across the country is unpresidented and there have been a lot of doubters to the process. If you have any doubts of your own, you should make sure to take a look at the site and see if it helps you understand what is happening and diminishes any of your doubts.

There are many government grants scams out there and you need to know how to spot them and what will happen if you sign up for one of them. This is all part of the stimulus grants scams that have been all over the Internet.

You will see these debt relief grants scams all over the place and they will try to get you to sign up for a free kit or some other information package they will send you for $1.97 shipping or some other small amount. What you won’t see because it is in the “terms and conditions” or just the ‘terms” is that if you don’t call and cancel within 5 or 7 days, you will then be charged anywhere from $49.99 up to $99.99 EVERY MONTH. This is all in the fine print so most people miss it.

Many people have reported that when you do call up to cancel, you are given a hard time or the number phone number doesn’t even work. There might also be additional charges on top of the one I just mentioned. In the end, it becomes a nightmare for many as they scramble to get these charges reversed and stop any future charges from happening.

People are unfamiliar with government grants and so many people erroneously think there are additional Obama government grants just because of the stimulus bill. This has meant the interest in grants have skyrocketed and many people are trying to cash in and profit. Government grant scams have popped up all over and many people are being tricked into signing up and they have no idea they will be charged later until it is too late.

These grant scams all appear to be endorsed by CNN, FOX, MSN and other big news organizations because they include their logo on the ads. However, this is not true and none of these news services have ever, to my knowledge, endorsed any of these scammers.

There is also something just out called Google Money Grants. This is also a scam and this product is not even about grants but they are trying to trick you into thinking the product is endorsed by Google. Google has nothing to do with this Money Grants kit and the kit is just a fake make money online get rich scam anyway.

If you are looking for stimulus grants or Obama free money, you might be disappointed with this new development. First of all, this story is further proof that all politicians will say whatever they need to in order to get elected. It doesn’t matter whether they are Democrats or Republican, they will lie and lie often in order to get power and stay in power.

For the longest time, candidate Obama promised that taxes would NOT be raised on the middle class. There would be NO Obama middle class tax hikes he told us. And the country believed him and voted for him.

Of course, who and what constitutes the middle class was never clearly defined and he and Joe Biden kept saying different things in regards to this. Sometimes it was no taxes for anyone below $250,000 and other time the number would be $220,000. I’m sure it was other numbers too as the campaign wound down and the campaign traveled to different states.

In this day and age, any voter who trusts any politician to keep his or her word is a fool. Period. And boy are there a lot of fools that trusted Obama as he possibly goes back on his word. Now that everybody is trying to figure out how to get free Obama money and take advantage of the Obama grants they erroneously thought were going to be available, comes word of the possibility of new taxes on the middle class. That’s right, Obama higher taxes for the middle class that he said he would NEVER do!

If you don’t believe it read this story on middle class tax increases from MSN. You see, the government has been so free with our tax dollars that they need more. There is no free government money that comes from some secret vault….it all comes from us, the taxpayers. And when Obama and the Democrats run out they are going to come to us to get more of our money so they can keep redistributing it.

This is why so many people distrust the government and politicians. They take our money and give it away to others that haven’t earned it. If you have nothing, then you don’t care and just want to get your hands on some of that Obama free money. But if you are a taxpayer, you should pay attention to what Obama says and when he and his ilk lie, you should get upset. You have gotten upset and voiced your concerns about the Obama health care that he is trying to ramrod down your throats and you should get upset about the higher Obama taxes on the middle class too!

The stimulus plan was passed a while ago and now there is even talk of a second one. We all know now that there are no new Obama grants in the stimulus bill for normal citizens but are there any new stimulus jobs?

Unfortunately for people looking for work, there are not that many Obama stimulus jobs that are brand new jobs. Most of the money from the stimulus bill is earmarked for existing jobs and saving jobs and payrolls that were in trouble. This is good of course for those people who have jobs because their jobs might be one of the ones saved. But it does little for the man on the street who has already lost his job and is trying to find a new one.  

A lot of lawmakers and politicians are now not so sure the stimulus bill is working. With unemployment still rising, many economists agree that it has not topped out yet. There is more pain ahead and now the stock market is beginning to head back down again after rallying nicely for the last couple of months.

If you are looking for Obama stimulus jobs, your best bet is to look for local and city jobs around your town. While the stimulus bill is working to mainly save jobs at this point, there are some new jobs created but not a lot. If you keep looking and asking questions, you might turn up a lead or two that might help you get your foot in the door.

Likewise, individuals will not be able to get any Obama green grants but they might be able to get jobs that result from them. This grant money is going to increase research and production of electric cars and other things that will save on energy. The money is going to large companies and not individual people who want to make green house upgrades.

Please not though that times are tough right now and competition is high for all jobs whether they are stimulus jobs or not. At this point, depending on where you live, there might not be many jobs at all to choose from.

There are scammers out there and they know you are searching for stimulus grants and other things like it now that President Obama has been elected. Somehow, people think that Obama is giving away free money. Well he is, but just not to you or me.

You see, all the stimulus money is going to big companies that are in trouble, state and local governments, and politician’s favorite pet projects. We can get into a debate all day about who does and does not deserve government money but the bottom line is that it is not going to individual people.

There is no special Obama debt relief, Obama stimulus grants, or Obama free money no matter what anyone has told you. If you voted for President Obama only because you thought you were going to get free grant money then it is unfortunate.

If you want to profit from the stimulus bill your best option is to try to find a job that has come specifically from that bill. There are lots of new jobs fixing highways, bridges, and roads that have been funded by this stimulus package. There are also lots of existing jobs that are continuing because there is new funding. Is free money being given away? No, but you can find a way to work for it perhaps.

One thing that could change in the future (but not yet) is Obama student loans. You see, he wants to take private companies out of the equation and only have student loans be issued by the Federal government. He believes Uncle Sam can offer a lower rate than the private companies and thus save students lots of money. Whether this will ever happen has yet to be determined.

Scammers want you to think that President Obama has initiated a whole bunch of new grants and they want you to sign up for their program that will supposedly help you get it as well as unclaimed grants. But these Obama stimulus grants are not real so it is basically a scam to get you to pay for something that does not exist. The normal everyday grants that have always been there still do exist but there is no special stimulus grants.

I hope this clears things up a little for those hoping to get some Obama free money.