A Happy Labor Day for American Workers?
September 4th, 2011On the Friday before Labor Day the Department of Labor reported there were zero job gains in August. Unemployment was 9.1%, underemployment at 16.5%. It’s worse for minorities with black unemployment at 18.6%, and black youth unemployment at 47%. Gallup reported 9.5% unemployment, and 18.5% underemployment.
News nobody on either side of the political spectrum wanted to hear. I would be perfectly content if Obamanomics had the economy booming, after all I have a family to support. Yes I opposed Obama policy since before his election, because history tells us his liberal ideological desires could not fool the laws of economics, and we would end up where we stand today; a disaster of an economy.
The president will make yet another jobs speech this Thursday. What will be different that could effect a positive outcome for the private sector? Will he repeal Obamacare, Frank Dodd, EPA’s jobs killing agenda, irresponsible energy policy that keeps gas and food prices high? Will he stop threatening the wealthy, consisting primarily of small business owners desperately needed for job creation, with raising their taxes? Exactly how do jobs get created in the private sector when you take more of the private sectors money and give it to government?
Winston Churchill said it best; ”For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket trying to lift himself up by the handle.”
We can get out into the weeds and debate the minutia, but all we need do is look at the results of Obamanomics. There are the fewest number of people working in America today since 1983 because there are 3.25 million fewer jobs. In spite of adding $4 trillion to the national debt in just 3 years attempting to spend our way to prosperity. It appears we could substitute the word tax, with spend, in the Churchill quote.
We could play the blame game, as does the president shamelessly, but that won’t help the over 14 million workers out of jobs a record average of over 40 weeks. That won’t help the record number of people on welfare or food stamps. That my friends is not playing the blame game, those are the cold hard facts found in the results of Obamanomics.
Quoting from the business guru’s at Investor’s Business Daily, who can say it better than me, [quote]:
In every speech, Obama simply dusted off the same crabbed list — more money for roads and “clean energy,” various temporary tax credits, more unemployment insurance, temporary payroll tax cuts — despite the fact that each has already been tried on his watch, and all proved to be expensive failures. A rundown:
• In December 2009, Obama’s big jobs speech called for billions more on roads, extended unemployment benefits, tax credits for weatherizing homes and some temporary help for small companies.
• In his 2010 State of the Union address, Obama said “jobs must be our No. 1 focus in 2010″ and touted his “new jobs bill.” What was in it? Money for roads, a small-business tax credit, weatherization credits and investment in clean energy.
• On Labor Day that year, Obama delivered yet another jobs speech, but offered only one idea — $50 billion more for roads.
• His 2011 State of the Union speech was also supposed to focus on jobs, but all he had to offer was a vague “innovation agenda,” another push for clean energy and — you guessed it — more money for roads.
• And then in July 2011, Obama argued that once the debt-ceiling debate was finished, the country could turn again to jobs. His big ideas: extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, and spend more on roads.
The problem isn’t just that these ideas aren’t “bold,” it’s that they’ve all been tried since Obama took office, and they’ve all failed. Among those he’s expected to include this time around:
More infrastructure spending. The stimulus bill spent nearly $100 billion on infrastructure*. Yet when the bulk of that money started to get spent in the “Recovery Summer” of 2010, the economy shed 329,000 jobs.
A new-hire tax credit. Obama signed the $17.5 billion HIRE Act in March 2010 that offered companies up to $6,000 in credits and exemptions for hiring unemployed workers. Obama said this would “encourage businesses to hire and put Americans back to work.”
Employers apparently didn’t get that memo, since the number of private-sector jobs climbed a meager 0.6% by the end of the year.
More unemployment benefits. These have been extended several times in the past few years. The administration thinks they will create jobs. But every credible economic study says that extending unemployment benefits mainly extends unemployment as many workers wait until benefits run out before taking that next job.
Extending the payroll tax cut. In January, Vice President Biden claimed the one-year payroll tax cut that had just kicked in would “put $112 billion into the pockets of 155 million workers … spurring growth and creating jobs.”
The results so far this year: virtually no GDP growth and 104,000 more unemployed. Economist Bruce Bartlett summed it up: “There is no evidence that the lower payroll tax has done much of anything to stimulate either spending or hiring.”
Money for clean-energy jobs. In January 2010, Obama announced a $2.3 billion clean-energy tax-credit plan that would, he said, “give a much needed boost” to this industry.
Today, the landscape is increasingly littered with failed clean-energy companies, including Solyndra, a solar panel manufacturer that got $535 million in stimulus-backed loans but which is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Will Obama go bold this time? What other options does he have? The nation’s in no mood for another massive “stimulus” plan after the last one mainly just doubled the nation’s debt.
And he and his economic advisers don’t appear ideologically capable of embracing genuine free-market solutions that would generate actual growth — real tax reform that cuts rates and dramatically simplifies the code, significant relief from Obama’s own out-of-control regulatory machinery, an end to the looming ObamaCare nightmare, major entitlement reform, among them.
Instead, the administration appears eternally wedded to the idea that endless government meddling and tinkering in the private sector with targeted spending, temporary tax credits, and eye-of-the-needle tax relief will somehow, someday miraculously combine to spark growth.
[end quote]
The president and the party that claims to be for the working man sure have a funny way of showing it.
Happy Labor Day! You can take heart in the knowing that shortly following next Labor Day there will be an election on November 6, 2012.
*Economists from Stanford University could only confirm $4 billion was spent on infrastructure from the Stimulus out of the $805 billion they studied. Another $60 billion was added to the Stimulus to pay for extended unemployment bringing the total spent to $865 billion not counting interest.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of Fritz Pfister or identified sources, and not necessarily those of RE/MAX Professionals of Springfield or RE/MAX International.
