Three years in, and the Obama administration's attempts to fix unemployment have been about as effective as trying to scratch your ear with your elbow.
Despite countless tricks, schemes and maneuvers to change the labor outlook in this country, the administration either lacks the ability to work their way through the problem, or it simply refuses to for fear of going against their progressive agenda. Good leaders usually surround themselves with those qualified to make up for their weaknesses. Given Obama's obvious executive experience shortfalls, one could only hope he would have chosen experts, rather than far-left job-killing ideologues, which are to job creation what Hurricane Irene was to the East Coast.
As Obama prepares yet another speech to introduce his latest and greatest "plan" to jump-start the economy and create jobs, his hand-picked minions are scurrying to-and-fro doing his dirty work. One shining example is General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, who Obama appointed as chairman of Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. Immelt's appointment seemed illogical considering under his watch, GE's stock dropped nearly 60 percent and Immelt was named as one of the five worst CEOs in 2008 - not to forget his business dealings with Iran and weaseling out of paying corporate taxes.
Nonetheless, Immelt was appointed. Speaking at a GE plant in Schenectady, NY, in January, President Obama recognized Immelt as someone who "understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy." I'm sure it is somehow Bush's fault, but somewhere between Obama's mouth and my ears, the word "compete" got lost in translation. To the average person, competing in the global economy means winning, but it apparently means something quite different to those who embrace "spread the wealth ideology." For Immelt, it obviously means spreading America's jobs around - to China.
On Aug. 24, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-OH, demanded that Immelt resign in order to save the Obama administration the embarrassment of his firing. In a press release, Kucinich accused Immelt of "exporting highly-sophisticated technology to the Chinese in order to book short-term profits for GE." Referring to a report in the Washington Post, Kucinich claimed Immelt gave airplane display system "Synthetic Vision technology created by NASA" and subsidized by American taxpayers.
"U.S. taxpayers' investments," Kucinich wrote, "will end up creating jobs in China." Kucinich claims under Immelt's leadership, "GE has cut one-fifth of its U.S. workforce while increasing overseas employment." Kucinich closed with the statement that Immelt "is more qualified to be head of "Jobs and Competitiveness for a country other than the United States."
The job-killing mania does not stop here, but continues with the Obama administration recently making a brazen attempt to dictate where a large job-creating company, Boeing, can and cannot produce its 787 Dreamliner aircraft. According to the New York Times' Joe Nocera, Boeing has "827 Dreamliners on order" to be built by non-union workers at a plant in North Charleston, S.C.
The word "non-union" is significant here, and the Obama administration has its fingerprints all over the recent action taken by the National Labor Relations Board, which is filled with a number of labor union-loving Obama appointee zealots who care more about unions than they do about the 5,000 North Charleston workers who may be unemployed if the NLRB complaint against Boeing is not reversed.
Five thousand workers in Charleston pales in comparison to the recent discovery that the Environmental Protection Agency, under the direction of Obama appointee Lisa Jackson, is expected to unroll new ozone regulations that, according to a Manufacturers Alliance study, could cost up to 7.3 million jobs by 2020.
Obama has wasted three years playing golf, appeasing his political allies and promoting his progressive agenda rather than creating jobs, and is blind to the suffering of everyday Americans, many of whom would like to celebrate the possibility of a job to go to on this Labor Day 2011.
• Susan Stamper Brown is a nationally syndicated columnist and can be reached at writestamper@gmail.com
Rich posted at 6:29 pm on Tue, Aug 30, 2011.
The government is not in control of the situation, government really can't be. Business can't take, it must earn, government cannot earn and must take. Anything government can give must be taken from some entity that earns. When people sit and collect, from essentially other people, the situation has to stagnate. When people decide to work, they earn, maybe not much and it may be an uphill battle, especially with a government taking, but the solution does not lie with Obama. He is far too incompetent to make any dent one way or another. When unemployed people decide they have had enough collecting and decide to earn instead, it will change. Obama's policies ideas, and posturing have nothing or zip to do with that.
Cerulean posted at 10:24 am on Wed, Aug 31, 2011.
Rich,
Obama is competent.
He must work with a congress that has not shown up. The Republican approach is to ‘stagnate ‘the process with partisan bickering.
As Howard Schultz CEO of Starbucks recently said,
“ This is a time for citizenship, not partisanship. It is a time for action.”
The United States has given much to corporations, when are corporations going to tighten the belt a bit and give something back? Corporations are sitting on a trillion dollars of liquid assets. With that privilege comes responsibility, they need to hire.
http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2011/08/24n_co_howard_schultz_pledge.cnnmoney/
chatmandu002 posted at 11:11 am on Wed, Aug 31, 2011.
Obama can't lead because he has no experience. He is an organizer not a business leader. And all the experts he has around him are theoretical economic experts, they have no actual real world experience either. His policies of big government spending, social entitlement programs and redistribution of wealth can not be supported by a free and open market enterprise system.
Rich posted at 12:58 pm on Wed, Aug 31, 2011.
"Obama is competent."
If so just when is he going to demonstrate some of his competence? And stop copping out with Congress, his party controlled that for two years and he wasn't demonstrating any more competence then than he is now.
"...when are corporations going to tighten the belt a bit and give something back?"
Never, And besides they aren't the sector of the economy that controls employment. small and medium size companies do.
Cerulean posted at 2:31 pm on Wed, Aug 31, 2011.
chatmandu002,
I hope you do not believe that Bachman has the answer to the issue of jobs. Her business experience is to study hard how to live off the government. Also she said she would eliminate the EPA.
President Obama recently assigned Alan Krueger to head his team of economic advisers. Professor Kruger has authored many books, but one in particular is ‘Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policies’. Interestingly Mother Jones published an article in April of this year titled: IT’S THE INEQUALITY, STUPID. The article is full of pictures, graphs and charts for those who have difficulty understanding that the real problem is that there is too much wealth consolidated at the top.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph
Rich,
President Obama is competent.
I may not appreciate everything that Affordable Health Care provides or the way it was legislated, but I do appreciate the fact that some of the systemic problems in health care delivery have been addressed - finally. I think that demonstrates a level of competence.
I appreciate that bin Laden and much of al-Qaeda leadership has been captured or killed under the Obama administration.
Cerulean posted at 2:34 pm on Wed, Aug 31, 2011.
To add
Rich, I will appreciate even more when we end our adventures in all foreign countries except those that have NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) or United Nations participation.
And, Rich, see my link above for 100 medium to large and small companies who pledge to do what they can to get the US back to work. They also are trying to encourage congress to get its ‘House’ in order.
Cerulean posted at 2:38 pm on Wed, Aug 31, 2011.
P.S.S
When I say 'see my link above for 100 companies who pledge to do what they can to get the U.S. back to work.' I mean the first link or this link:
http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2011/08/24/n_co_howard_schultz_pledge.cnnmoney/
Rich posted at 11:19 pm on Wed, Aug 31, 2011.
"President Obama is competent." At what?
"I may not appreciate everything that Affordable Health Care provides or the way it was legislated, but I do appreciate the fact that some of the systemic problems in health care delivery have been addressed - finally. I think that demonstrates a level of competence."
Actually about all it does is sit an expensive governmental bureaucracy on top of an expensive insurance scam that has made medicine unaffordable. Nothing addresses the scam that caused the problem. Hardly competence.
"I appreciate that bin Laden and much of al-Qaeda leadership has been captured or killed under the Obama administration."
Billions of dollars, our armies in two countries, and we still haven't managed to wipe it out in a decade? You have a very strange concept of competence.
wdgnas posted at 5:04 am on Thu, Sep 1, 2011.
rich: Never, And besides they aren't the sector of the economy that controls employment. small and medium size companies do.
then why do they keep on getting tax breaks or tax cuts or tax incentives?
Cerulean posted at 9:51 am on Thu, Sep 1, 2011.
I absolutely LOVE President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court choices! Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan are outstanding representatives for the court.
These choices are more than competent!
Rich posted at 11:57 am on Thu, Sep 1, 2011.
wdgnas - "then why do they keep on getting tax breaks or tax cuts or tax incentives?"
So they can afford to donate to candidates who give them tax breaks or tax cuts or tax incentives.
Cerulean- If you leave political ideology out of the equation there are a several hundred legal scholars who are vastly superior to either. These appointments aren't competent so much as the return of political favor.
VofReason posted at 11:55 am on Fri, Sep 2, 2011.
Can't wait to hear "competent" Obama's Job fix speech. My guess is there will be little change and more excuses.