President Obama acknowledged last week that the “shovel-ready” construction projects of his $789 billion economic stimulus plan were “not as shovel-ready as we expected.”  The first progress report from the administration’s Jobs and Competitiveness Council blamed unwieldy government regulations and permits for the delay in putting Americans back to work.

When the stimulus plan became law in February 2009, the President promised it would keep unemployment under 8 percent. He said the Recovery and Reinvestment Act would save or create 3 million jobs by the end of last year. Instead, nearly one in 10 Americans remains without work.

The President recently recast his ambitious forecast for economic recovery and admitted that the stimulus did not achieve its mandate as planned. He said last week, “It will take years to get back to where we need to be.”

Unfortunately, unemployed Americans and struggling businesses cannot afford to wait years. Nor do they have a reason to be optimistic unless the strategy changes. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the country’s unemployment rate has grown to 9.1 percent as of last month — a far cry from the 6.7 percent rate that the costly stimulus was supposed to have achieved by now.

Two years ago, I voted against President Obama’s stimulus plan because its strategy was wrong. We needed a targeted plan with results, and the stimulus offered a costly, wasteful approach. I opposed the corporate bailouts of 2008 for many of the same reasons.

We need to learn from past mistakes. We must not only restore the strength of the American workforce but empower it to be the catalyst of economic turnaround.  Taxpayers, homeowners and small businesses should be the focus rather than the government.

According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses create 60 to 80 percent of America’s new jobs. They are essential to the economic well-being of Mississippi and key to sustaining our job outlook. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce gave Mississippi a top-tier score this year and praised the work of Gov. Barbour for his promotion of job growth at the state level. The Chamber of Commerce study concluded that the elimination of unnecessary red tape could result in hundreds of thousands of additional jobs.

Small businesses should not have to fear threats of higher taxes or stifling regulations from Washington on top of tough economic realities. I supported successful Senate efforts this year to repeal provisions within the President’s expensive health-care plan, which hurt small businesses with unnecessary paperwork. Ultimately, the full repeal of Obamacare must be our goal. I will continue to seek ways to help these businesses streamline their operations so they can instead focus on innovation and job creation.

With almost two million more Americans unemployed now than when President Obama took office in 2009, the cost of big government programs like the stimulus is clear. I opposed the stimulus because it was a plan bogged down by unnecessary spending. We need a totally different approach — one that expands the private sector and encourages entrepreneurs and job creators.

Sen. Roger WICKER is a Republican representing Mississippi in the U.S. Senate.