December 3, 2010 9:31AM 

# How’s that Stimulus Working, Mr. President? 

By [Daniel J. Mitchell](https://www.cato.org/people/daniel-mitchell) 

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics [announced this morning ](http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm)that the unemployment rate jumped to 9.8 percent last month. As you can see from the chart, the White House claimed that if we enacted the so-called stimulus, the unemployment rate today would be about 7 percent today.

![Media Name: obama-unemployment.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/Obama-Unemployment2_0.jpg?itok=r8FNLjR9) 

It’s never wise to over-interpret the meaning on a single month’s data, and it’s also a mistake to credit or blame any one policy for the economy’s performance. But it certainly does seem that the combination of bigger government and more intervention is not a recipe for growth.

Maybe the President should reverse course and try free markets and smaller government. After the jump is a helpful six-minute tutorial.

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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