President Obama is going to give a major jobs speech next Thursday, September 8th. He plans to give it in front of both houses of Congress and that means it is a big deal as that only happens a handful of times during any Presidency. But why is this speech such a big deal and can Obama really create jobs?

The fact is that no President can directly create jobs, at least not in the private sector. The only jobs he can make are government jobs or government funded jobs like the ones that were supposed to result from the stimulus bill of 2009. By signing legislation that opens up federal money for the states, jobs can be created but many critics say those are aren’t long term sustainable jobs as the government is not a business and does not contribute to the GDP. The stimulus bailout has not helped create jobs in the numbers that were needed and many of them were temporary jobs anyway.

Indirectly a President CAN help businesses in the private sector by lowering taxes and doing away with federal regulations that hurt companies ability to grow. Government can stifle business with all the the red tape that has to be gone through now days and many economists are frustrated with Obama because they say he is not “business friendly”. They feel he has done more things to hurt the economy than help it.

The unemployment rate has gone from 7+ percent when he got elected to 9+ percent now which is why there is so much attention focused on this speech. That unemployment number needs to come down soon and this jobs speech is one of his most important if he wants to keep his Presidency in 2012.

According to a recent Gallup poll, President Obama’s approval rating is very low at 39% and down significantly from it’s highs. In order to get that approval rating back up, he needs to show leadership and new ideas in the jobs area because it is the countries biggest need right now. Obama’s jobs speech on Thursday may be a turning point for the economy and show that he is the right man for the job.

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.

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.

Even though you may not be able to directly benefit by getting free Obama grant money, you might be able to get a job that comes as a direct result of a grant. When the Obama grants are handed out to these institutions, it should create more jobs that you can get. In addition, the stimulus bill that was just passed is supposed to produce more than 3 million new jobs to get America back working. The US government grants is going to be giving out more money than ever before and you can benefit one way or another. After all, that is the whole purpose of the Obama stimulus plan and grants: to create more jobs.

If you are in foreclosure, lost your job, or have other moeny problems, you need to keep your head up and keep looking for that job. You might look into the Obama grant process to see if you qualify for any of his grants and it is free to apply. Applying for government grants is always free so you can apply to as many as you like. There is going to be a lot of free Obama money out there soon and you have to know how to get it.

Those of us that pay taxes are always the ones who pay for this free moeny that is handed out by the government. If you don’t pay taxes, you will probably get some of this stimulus Obama money. There are supposed to be stimulus jobs created so the lucky ones will figure out how to get those jobs.

Will there be more government grants as a result of this bill? There probably will be more Obama grant money for those that can qualify for it. Once you qualify for it then it is yours for whatever purpose you said you needed it for. It is indeed a good day for the poor and underprivileged in America.

The money he is giving out this time is different than Obama government grants. What he says is that he wants to put America back to work building bridges, movie theaters, high schools, roadS, and whatever else the individual states think needs rebuilding. So, you would be getting the stimulus job from your state and not from the federal government.

Of course there are lots of debates on whether these jobs are really needed and the things likely to be rebuilt or updated really need to be. Since the government wastes so much money, probably most of this stimulus money will be wasted too. But if it is going to be wasted, it might as well be wasted on you, right?

Finding the new stimulus jobs is probably going to be difficult but you should try at your state’s or city offices. Ask around and see if any one knows anything. The stimulus package has not quite passed yet and once it does it will still take a while for the jobs to be created. But if you get an early jump on things, you will be at the head of the line for that governement handout…oops…I meant stimulus job.