Unemployment in January 2009 was 7.8%
All of this deficit spending and additional debt resulted in unemployment reaching 10.1% at its peak and remaining at 9% and above ever since.

Fact-In 2010, all tax revenue collected by the Internal Revenue Service went to paying interest on the debt and mandatory payments.
Every single dime in the stimulus package and all other discretionary spending in 2010 was borrowed, with half of the borrowing from foreign nations.
2010 replicated the horrendous practices of socialist European governments and is fiscally unsustainable.
Just look at Greece.

All democratic governments *everywhere* spend every penny they can get their hands on buying the next election. To them *any* other consideration is secondary (regardless of what they might tell the electorate).

If the Euro nations had stuck to the borrowing rules (3% GDP per year, 60% total) they wouldn't be in the mess they're in now. But they all saw what was happening, what the others were doing, and they all kept their mouths shut because they were shovelling money into securing their re-election as fast as possible too. If somebody had stood up and said something the party would have been over for all of them, and they couldn't have that.

The money that they spend on the next election in the United States comes from private sources and doesn't contribute to the national debt though.
The policies politicians enact to get reelected does contribute to the national debt and the crisis just as you say.

Gross Federal Debt Debt Held by Public
FY 2012 $16.7 trillion $10.8 trillion
FY 2011 $15.5 trillion $9.9 trillion
FY 2010 $13.5 trillion $8.2 trillion
FY 2009 $11.9 trillion $6.8 trillion
FY 2008 $10.0 trillion $5.3 trillion
Gross Federal Debt is the total debt owed by the United States federal government. It comprises “debt held by the public” and “debt held by federal government accounts,” such as IOUs owed to the Social Security trust fund. “Debt held by the public” includes debt actually held by the public and foreign governments, and also debt held by the Federal Reserve System, i.e., monetized as part of the monetary base.

Use National Deficit rather then Federal, the number is higher so it makes the situation sound worse...