The real unemployment rate is best reflected by looking at the figures of all who are unemployed and those working part time for fiscal reasons; those figures do not take into account all missed groupings of unemployed individuals.
Given the current unemployment situation, how can those we elected focus on projects like cap and trade, card check, TARP, the stimulus and health care? Each of these projects will end up costing the American taxpayer dearly while more taxpayers are out of work than at any time since the Great Depression.
Every month the government raves about how the newly unemployed figures are dropping. This is 100 percent misleading. The focus should be on what is the total number of American families with less than sufficient income to pay for food, clothing, heat, shelter and basic care. How can the American taxpayers be so ignorant of the smoke-and-mirrors game continually played by the government.
We need to start cleaning house in Washington. Every two years, one-third of the elected congressional representatives and senators come up for re-election. Starting in 2010, then again in 2012, and again in 2014, we need to vote every incumbent out of office. It does not matter whether we replace these incumbents with Democrats or Republicans since they have both demonstrated that they are too willing to pick the remaining flesh from our bones.
Robert M. Collinsworth
Harrisville, N.H.
