ABC News writes today, “After months of withering job losses and weak economic growth, summer was going to be the season of recovery, the Obama administration heralded in June. Thousands of infrastructure and construction projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act were to come on-line during June, July and August, helping to ‘create jobs for American workers and economic growth for businesses, large and small.’ The White House dubbed it ‘Recovery Summer’ and President Obama declared the economy had begun ‘growing at a good clip.’ Vice President Joe Biden predicted weeks earlier that creation of 250,000 to 500,000 new jobs a month could soon be on the horizon. But with summer quickly coming to an end, those jobs gains and a robust economic recovery have not yet materialized, leaving Democrats on the verge of a fall election campaign in which Republicans are poised to make them eat their words.”According to Politico’s Playbook, Vice President Joe Biden is unveiling an administration report today about the $862 billion stimulus bill claiming “the Recovery Act’s $100 billion investment in innovation is not only transforming the economy and creating new jobs, but helping accelerate significant advances in science and technology . . .”

But as ABC News points out, “[T]outing summer 2010 as ‘the most active Recovery Act season yet’ and, implicitly, as a period of job growth, belies a reality many Americans say they are experiencing. Only 27 percent of Americans see the economy as improving, according to the most recent ABC News/Washington Post poll. And a new low — 43 percent — approve of Obama’s handling of the economy.”

Indeed, there’s been little economic news to celebrate in this so-called summer of “recovery.” The beginning of the month saw another 131,000 jobs lost and unemployment remain at 9.5%, a level it’s hovered near for months. Just last week, new unemployment claims “climbed to a nine-month high,” according to Reuters, with 500,000 claims in the second week of August alone. Earlier this month, Bloomberg News reported, “The number of Americans who are receiving food stamps rose to a record 40.8 million in May as the jobless rate hovered near a 27-year high . . . .” The Los Angeles Times reported in July that American home foreclosures “hit a record high in the second quarter.” And today, The Wall Street Journal reports, “Existing-home sales plunged to their lowest level in 15 years in July as inventories soared, painting a grim picture for the housing market absent government support in a stubbornly sluggish economy.”

All this comes within days of last week’s passing of the date from Biden’s February 2009 prediction that the stimulus “is about getting this out and spent in 18 months to create 3.5 million jobs and to . . . tee this up so the rest of the good work that’s being done here literally drop-kicks us out of this recession . . . .” Last week marked 18 months from the signing of the stimulus bill, but instead of creating 3.5 million jobs, 3.3 million jobs have been lost since then.

It’s hard to believe that many Americans agreed with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner when he wrote “Welcome to the Recovery” at the beginning of August. Rather, Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, told ABC, “‘Recovery Summer’ is their ‘mission accomplished’ without the banner.”

We agree.

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