With employers in the U.S. cutting 467,000 jobs in June, the unemployment rate rising to 9.5 percent, and hourly earnings stagnating, many in America are really starting to wonder where the stimulus to the economy is.

Wasn’t the $787 billion stimulus plan supposed to create millions of new jobs? Just 10 days before taking office, didn’t Obama predict that unemployment would remain at 8 percent or below through this year if it won congressional approval? And even if there is an economic recovery once all the stimulus money is finally spent, will the economy be able to survive our country’s ever mounting debt and its accompanying inflation, interest rates, and tax hikes?

On another level, is anyone surprised? Did we seriously expect to see real stimulus from spending money on things like children’s wooden arrow makers, beer ingredients, a walking tour of Boydton, VA, the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine, urban canal inspection, a honey bee factory, a parking garage, a tattoo removal violence outreach program, cricket control, beaver management, a Center for Grape Genetics, a school sidewalk, the promotion of astronomy, “smoking cessation activities,” toilet repair, or, ironically enough, pig odor research?

Now they’re saying that we might need a second stimulus? Holy cow.

Folks, I hope you enjoy Independence Day this weekend while you can, because slowly but surely we are losing that which we have celebrated and been defined by for 233 years.