Three years ago today, President Obama signed his infamous stimulus package into law. In exchange for $1.2 trillion (including interest), liberals said their plan would bring the unemployment rate down to about 6% today. It hasn’t fallen below 8% at any point in the last 36 months.

There has been a recent drop, though, which some Democrats claim as proof that their stimulus plan finally worked. But if that’s true, then where are the jobs?

As more and more people have learned recently, the official unemployment rate doesn’t actually count unemployed people who have given up looking for work. The above chart offers another look at the jobs data. It shows the “labor force participation rate,” which represents the share of working-age Americans who are either employed or unemployed but looking for work.

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It’s hard to believe a year has passed since the White House kicked off its “Recovery Summer” campaign. And it seems like only yesterday that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner bid us all a warm “Welcome to the Recovery.” But today is not a happy anniversary. As this now-infamous stimulus chart confirms, Recovery Summer never warmed up.

The stimulus didn’t work, and the federal government’s alphabet soup is only making things worse.

• The EPA has its “War on Jobs.”
• The NLRB is suing Boeing for creating new jobs in South Carolina.
• HHS has no “rhyme or reason” for who gets an ObamaCare waiver.

As one business executive recently told a top Obama aide, Washington “throws sand into the gears of progress.” The private sector, the people who actually create jobs, are stuck playing defense.  No wonder we’re in the slowest jobs recovery since the Great Depression.

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The talk of Washington this week is the $850 billion Democrat stimulus bill – with massive federal spending as our country’s debt tops $10 trillion.

The big-government approach is supported by President-Elect Obama, who recently said that “government” is the only one that can fix this economy.

We in the Republican Study Committee strongly disagree.

We don’t believe in tax-and-stimulate. We believe in cutting taxes to put more money back in the hands of the families and job creators that make our economy work.

We have an alternative stimulus plan that is more fiscally responsible, with tax cuts and spending cuts to promote real economic growth.

• We’re proposing a permanent 5% cut in personal income tax rates.
• We’re cutting taxes on businesses from 35% to 25% so they are better seated to invest and create jobs.
• We want to alleviate debt for future generations – by avoiding a trillion dollar spending spree
• Our bill will contain NO pork and NO earmarks

I encourage you to look at the Economic Recovery and Middle-Class Tax Relief Act here. Let us know how we can better serve you and your family.

Rep. Jordan is the Chairman of the Republican Study Committee’s Budget & Spending Task Force and is in his second term as Ohio’s Fourth District Representative.