If the federal government was meant to create jobs, it would have created a surplus of them by now, and unemployment would be far below 7.8 percent -- considering the exorbitant amount of money the Obama administration has, as it says, “invested” to do so.
According to the Weekly Standard in July 2011, a report by the administration’s Council of Economic Advisors found Obama’s method of job creation via economic stimulus was relatively ineffective and quite expensive, costing taxpayers, their children, and grandchildren $278,000 per job created.
More than three years ago, a fresh-faced and hope-filled President Obama said our ailing U.S. economy could be fixed if taxpayers would allow him to spend what is now more than $800 billion in “stimulus” funds promising this “investment” would create a ginormous amount of shovel-ready jobs, and would reduce unemployment to at or below 5.6 percent. Three years later, even President Obama admitted the jobs were “not as shovel-ready as we expected.”
As good as all that sounded to the unassuming ear, the latest October 5, 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report showing 7.8 percent unemployment pretty much proves, as well-intended as it is, the federal government cannot replace human ingenuity and hard work to create jobs.
The White House would like us to believe the slight drop to less than 8 percent unemployment is proof positive the economy is headed in the right direction, and all this administration needs is four more years of economic experimentation to get it right.
The slight decline in unemployment is nothing to brag about if this is all the administration has to show for after four years of effort. The BLS reported that, in September, 12.1 million people were unemployed; 6.5 million people lost their jobs, an additional 2.5 million were unemployed for less than five weeks, 4.8 million had been unemployed 27 weeks or more, and 2.5 million were “marginally attached” (unemployed and not seeking employment in September). Approximately 600,000 joined the ranks of “involuntary part-time workers” because their hours were cut back or they could not find full-time work and accepted part-time work -- raising the number of involuntary part-time workers to 8.6 million people.
Moreover, a study performed by the National Employment Law Project found that although more than half of the jobs lost from first quarter of 2008 through first quarter of 2010 were “mid-wage occupations” most of the jobs created by the Obama administration from first quarter of 2010 through first quarter of 2012 were “lower-wage” jobs.
The bad news for the middle class and especially single-wage households is that during the recession, 21 percent of jobs lost were lower-wage, yet a breathtaking 58 percent of new jobs created by Obama were lower-wage. Additionally, while 60 percent of mid-wage jobs were lost during the recession, only 22 percent of them were recovered. It is no surprise the amount of food stamp recipients has skyrocketed under this administration. The sad thing is, we can’t honestly say the tab for all this so-called “recovery” spending is being funded by taxpayer dollars anymore, but also Chinese yen.
Borrowing money to create jobs is unsustainable long-term. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) August 22, 2012 report projects 2013 will be worse than 2012, leading to “economic conditions in 2013 that will probably be considered a recession” with unemployment rising to around nine percent in late 2013.
The same report predicts that if “many current policies are continued” the “debt held by the public would climb to 90 percent of GDP by 2022—higher than at any time since shortly after World War II,” and would eventually “lead to a level of federal debt that would be unsustainable from both a budgetary and an economic perspective.”
Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com. Copyright 2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate.
Rich posted at 8:18 pm on Thu, Oct 11, 2012.
Of course it isn't. Obama has done a deplorable job. However, can Romney do better? Or is the establishment broken? I would contend it is, and the only vote you can cast wrongly is for a Democrat, or a Republican. Politics is like the weather, everyone talks about it, but no one does anything about it.
chatmandu002 posted at 10:41 pm on Thu, Oct 11, 2012.
Susan,
You are right. The government can not be the driving force to create jobs. That's the responsibility of free market enterprise. If we can get the government to left it's heavy regulatory boot off of the throat of business and lower some taxes our free market system would start the recovery. The government should allow for a level playing field for business to go wild and expand. I have yet to see a business grow outward from the middle class as Obama wants to do. The middle class grows by getting jobs from the job creators.
Romney has the experience and knowledge to get the jobs going, reduce the deficit, reform the entitlement programs, pass a health care reform bill and get our energy industry going.
wdgnas posted at 4:43 am on Fri, Oct 12, 2012.
susan, so the stimulus package didn't work. it couldn't possibly be the 37% of the stimulus package that was tax incentives for companies or the 'job creators' to CREATE JOBS. like any good welfare cheat, they took the money and ran with it.
loose stool posted at 5:28 am on Fri, Oct 12, 2012.
The stimulus was not about jobs, it was about paying back obama supporters and buying votes to get a second term.
soricobob posted at 5:46 am on Fri, Oct 12, 2012.
Stamper Brown (who is that, anyway?) is obviously a Bush supporter, since she never mentioned his involvement in the debacle, so I dismiss her "opinion" as a biased, political tirade!
Slabside posted at 12:37 pm on Fri, Oct 12, 2012.
soricobob, so it's all Bush's fault and Obama's campaign promise of lowering the unemployment rate has no bearing on the issue?
VofReason posted at 1:08 pm on Fri, Oct 12, 2012.
OK I will play. Yes, yes it was all Bush's fault. He told banks to lend to people who couldn't afford homes and sat back watching chaos ensue. No one at any other level of the Government (Barney Frank and Chis Dodd) had anything to do with any of the decisions leading up to the fall. Near impossible of course, but for arguement sake. So what has the Obama Administration done about it? Spent a bunch of money and not move the needle. Great, sounds like reason to elect him again- right?
Mike McClellan posted at 1:09 pm on Fri, Oct 12, 2012.
First, let's get an idea on the history of unemployment in our country.
When Clinton left office, the unemployment rate was 4.0%; when Bush left office, the unemployment rate was 7.8% and rising.
Prestimulus, the unemployment rate surged to 10%. Since then, the rate has slowly come down to its present 7.8%.
And much of the stimulus that loose stool was loose about went to us, the taxpayers. Loosestool should turn off Fox and do some reading.
mnjcpa posted at 1:56 pm on Fri, Oct 12, 2012.
There you go cherry picking statistics again Mike as if Obama's record is something to be proud of. Way to spin it.
samkat posted at 5:56 pm on Fri, Oct 12, 2012.
Mike: You must have been an economist as well as an English teacher. The economy is cyclical in that it takes years to swing up or down. Nothing Obama or Romney will or can do that can create an overnight turnaround. PS: You might consider actually watching Fox as well as CNN in addition to MSNBC. That way you will be able to actually broaden your real world knowledge.
VOR: of course you are jesting. It was actually the Clinton administration that pushed lenders to create subprime loans that did us in years later when the economy did it tailspin.
Mike McClellan posted at 6:58 pm on Fri, Oct 12, 2012.
Actually, samkat, I can't stomach more than a few minutes of either MSNBC or Fox, and CNN is, well, not much except for coverage of breaking news.
I'd rather read a variety of views, from the Washington Times to the Wall Street Journal to the Washington Post to the New York Times to the National Review.
And I agree with you that nothing either pres could do will turn around the economy "overnight."
But facts are facts. We had a balanced budget, a surplus and 4% unemployment at the end of 2000. We ran a $1 trillion deficit, an $11 trillion debt and almost 8% unemployment eight years later.
And let's not do historical revisionism: While Clinton certainly puhsed lenders, so did Bush. It was a bipartisan goof. And Bush's overseer of Fannie and Freddie pushed them, even calling them "sound" as they almost went belly up.
soricobob posted at 6:38 am on Sat, Oct 13, 2012.
Bobkat Goldtwait is right: if you hear someone call a Black President a "socialist" you can be sure it's code to other white people!
Slabside posted at 9:51 am on Sat, Oct 13, 2012.
DING DING DING! And we have a winner of the "Progressive Liberal Jack_a_s_s Racist Award"! Today's award goes to soricobob for interjecting racism when he has no valid argument to make. Congratulations you Liberal idiot.
VofReason posted at 11:50 am on Thu, Oct 18, 2012.
What did the prophet Bobkat Goldtwait say about calling Socialist President's socialist? Hey I am right there with you, I too hoped that the first black President would be a good one, but here we are.
Bluepoet posted at 3:56 pm on Mon, Oct 22, 2012.
In general, Obama has only made two mistakes in his Presidency, so far.
One--he didn't get enough stimulus money (yes you read that right!). While he and his staff did a tremendous job of getting what they did, and quickly, with very little pork added, they hit the wall of red tape afterwards, while trying to implement the construction jobs that were thought to be "shovel ready", and they were also blindsided by the Republicans, who suddenly disagreed with even their own projects, thanks to their leadership, who wanted only gridlock (and continue to hold the country hostage, to this day).
Two--he didn't do a decent job of explaining just how bad the economy was, when he took office (and, indeed, it was worse than even his advisers thought, when they made their recommendations). Of course, explaining how bad it would have been, falls on deaf ears, to the media, who are looking to reveal what's not working, to the public, who only see how bad it is right now, and to the oppostition, who decided to gamble on the welfare of the country, in order to gain a few seats in the next election.
After all, when herding cats, the ones who don't run away don't get any notice--it's just the runaways that do...
By the way, it's a source of amusement, to me, when the right talks about the liberal press. With few exceptions, the press doesn't care about right or left, they care about selling stories, and the influence that draws ad copy--which is the real fossil fuel that runs everything.
Welcome to the Future, everyone!
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