Obama’s Lackluster Focus On Jobs
By Wes Keene | March 10, 2010 | In Category: Economy, General
We’ve talked before about Obama’s jobs flop. Admittedly, there isn’t a lot the government can do to directly create sustainable jobs (despite what progressives believe). However, government can create the business environment needed to bring unemployment down from its perch.
After endless debate over a 2 trillion dollar health reform bill and passage of countless other multi-trillion dollar packages; the real question is: why do we only have a measly 15 billion for “jobs”? It seems like Obama would want to create the appearance of caring about job creation. He is free to continue to fail on the economy but we’d assume he wants to look like he cares. No such luck.
Instead, on a jobs package that actually has a small amount of bipartisan support, we give it the Congressional equivalent of a spare nickel. For what we spent on the auto bailout alone we could have had several jobs bills. Don’t get me wrong. Any jobs bill will have only marginal impact, but one that focuses on sustained broad tax cuts would definitely do more than the State bailout package (a.k.a. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act).
We put every progressive spending bill above the economy. We continue the same monetary printing press mentality that has indirectly or directly led to every boom and bust cycle we’ve had – The same boom and bust cycle Obama repeatedly condemns on the 2012 campaign trail. Even if Obama’s sick fascination with environmentally friendly stimulus programs were to succeed, only the smallest fraction of workers could benefit. Even then, a recent look at Spain’s green jobs efforts shows what the true costs of these programs are to the workforce as a whole.
Since Obama’s in campaign mode he might want to worry less about building monuments to himself and come to the realization that his throne will be up for re-election in about 2.5 years. A health care bill we’re paying for and getting nothing from and unemployment that’s still twice what it was under Bush will simply open the door for a Reagan/Carter moment at the debates: “Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?”.
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