The bill is a waste of taxpayer money, or more precisely, Chinese money, that we have to pay back someday. The cost for jobs "created" or (ahem) "saved" is exorbitant and more people would benefit if the unemployed were simply given bigger checks.
The country doesn't need more government employees, the country needs a growing economy. And that's achieved by across the board tax cuts.
Deficits are failures to rein in spending, not evidence of insufficient taxation.
First off, unemployment compensation is governed by the individual states, not the government.
Second, if you truly understood our economic situation one year ago when the ARRA was passed, you and others who oppose it wouldn't be making such statements. I agree that the ARRA was mostly directed at state and federal government entities, but since most every state was suffering financially and corporate American couldn't fix itself, it made sense to funnel monies to state and federal gov't projects in an effort to atleast spur the economy. The hope, of course, was to limit unemployment and spur job growth. That didn't quite work out as planned, but I think in the long term w/funding going to some of the infrustructure projects I identify below, job growth will come in time and people will be thankful the ARRA was passed.
Third, the idea of the ARRA wasn't to cut taxes but to help states either start or complete infrustructure projects, i.e., road, bridge, air port (re)construction, high-speed rail initiatives, foster tourism, improve urban and rural housing development, etc., etc. Most people (and politicians) who oppose the ARRA focus on the first 4 items and forget about the rest because they don't create this aura of sensationalism or give the appearance of "wasteful spending". Granted, some of that (wasteful spending) has taken place, but as we can all attest to from recent local and national media reports on ribbon cutting ceremonies, some communities have benefited from funding from the ARRA that obviously helped state and local governments and/or private businesses complete projects or start or reopen businesses. So, the ARRA hasn't been the wasted effort many people would like to label it.
Finally, to the deficit, Pres. Obama tried to form a panel that would review government spending, but was shot down mostly by members from the very political party that talks big about financial oversight. Thus, he had to go it alone. I'm sure he'll be heavily criticised for it, but sometimes you gotta do whatcha gotta go even in the face of opposition.
