For the US, the Great Recession was an economic crisis brought about by the manipulative excesses of banks and big business that had an economic domino effect. That’s why in 2009, with the stock market nose diving at an unprecedented rate, the housing market crashing and absolutely massive job cuts, the stimulus bill was passed by Congress and signed into law by a fresh-faced new president.  With a $787 billion price tag, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was the hard pill the nation had to swallow in the hopes of staunching the hemorrhaging caused by the financial meltdown.  More of a calculated estimation of the perilous depths that the economy had plunged rather than an exact measurement of the damage done, no one was really sure whether the stimulus bill was enough, but everyone was certain that it was necessary.

What we know now is that it was not enough. Yes, the major banks were saved and payroll taxes were cut, and those unfortunate millions who lost their jobs received unemployment benefits — but that was only been the beginning. Or rather, it should have been treated as the beginning of ongoing recovery effort. But it seems that as soon as the recession had officially ended (in pure economic terms, at least) the recovery effort was discarded, with politicians and media pundits moving on to the next political hot topic. And though various troubling economic indicators have continually raised questions about the strength of our nation’s recovery, most have been ignored as opportunities to pick up recovery efforts from where they were dumped. That is until now, a period in which an onslaught of negative economic numbers seems to be rousing national ire.

Where last summer was dubbed the summer of recovery by the Obama administration, this summer has become the summer of the unraveling, in which many of the economic gains of the recent past are being negated. While the most recent unemployment numbers released show that 117,000 jobs were created, a higher than anticipated amount, it’s far from the 260,000 jobs that must be created to see the growth the nation desperately needs. To further compound the nature of this grim reality, only 58 percent of Americans are employed: the lowest that number has been in three decades. In addition, 6.2 million Americans have been out of work for more than six months and 46 million Americans are on food stamps — a national record.

These, along with other frightening numbers and statistics, bear a simple, concise economic ruling: the economy is still worse today than it was before the recession. Which begs the question: what happened to the recovery? And to go further, where are the jobs?

These are the questions Americans have been and will be asking themselves as they consider not only the nation’s future, but also the 2012 elections.  Even a recent CBS/New York Times poll confirms that Americans have jobs on the brain: 53 percent of respondents named the economy and jobs as the most important problems our nation faces.  Yet neither party leaders nor the Obama administration seem ready to offer substantive measures to deal with the concerns of the public.

A strong number of economists and commentators have brought up the need for another round of stimulus initiatives, seeing as we now know that the economic meltdown was far worse than expected and that the first stimulus bill was not enough. Many agree that this stimulus should come in the form of the extension of unemployment insurance so as to keep consumer spending going, slashing payroll tax cuts further so as to promote hiring new workers, especially in small businesses, and creating an infrastructure bank which would provide funding for projects meant to improve and rebuild our nation’s roadways, waterways, and overall infrastructure. Another substantive measure to pair with that stimulus would be ending the Bush tax cuts, but extending certain effective measures of the tax code such as marriage relief and certain incentives for children, families, and education. Also necessary is the closing of corporate tax loopholes, which would slash billions in wasted tax subsidies to oil, gas, and coal companies.

Though these suggestions seem to be among the most prevalent ones in economic and political circles, and are, in fact, featured in the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s The People’s Budget, Democratic and Republican congressional leadership have refused to consider such suggestions because of their destructive and unproductive fixation on spending cuts. Congressional leaders are not the only ones to be blamed — President Obama’s demeanor and rhetoric too have shown a willingness to avert his gaze from the problems facing our nation, rather than actually addressing them. Thus the administration has proposed a series of halfhearted measures like payroll tax cuts to businesses that hire veterans and patent reform — measures that do not really have the momentum to accelerate our jobs market or the economy. Not to mention such measures cannot compete with the deleterious effects of the massive cuts mandated by the recent debt ceiling deal. Already economic forecasts of the effect of the deal predict the plan would further slow economic growth. The progressive think tank Economic Policy Institute estimates a 1.5 percent drop in our already stagnating GDP next year.

What we have here is a failure in representative governance. In trying to maintain a spirit of compromise and a sense of civility, the president and his party have avoided confronting the challenging jobs crisis facing the nation. On the other hand, in trying to maintain party unity and political dogma, Republicans have equally failed in handling the tough economic situation we face. What both parties must do now is listen, not only to the major concerns of the American public, but also to the substantive measures being offered as solutions to those concerns.

Photo via Flickr.