So Where Are All Those Jobs Being Created?
- Print print this page
- Discuss Comment, Blog about
Advertisement
One quote that's pretty much helped form the way I look at politics is this one from conservative humorist P.J. O'Rourke:
"The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then get elected and prove it."
And boy, have they proven it lately.
See, the Republicans sort of painted themselves into a corner. Their electoral strategy for taking back Congress was built around hammering President Obama and the Democrats for the high unemployment rate and promising that if they got in, there'd be jobs, jobs and more jobs.
What they momentarily forgot is that another pillar they claim as part of their philosophy is that "government can't do anything, especially create jobs."
For a while they've managed to obscure that contradiction by spinning everything they want to get rid of as being about jobs. They cast the Affordable Care Act as "the job-killing health care bill" - which, after the tragic shootings in Tucson they amended to "job-crushing" or "job-destroying" health care bill.
Whatever the name, they vowed to repeal it, in the name of Almighty Jobs, even though the Congressional Budget Office predicted a small effect on employment - a half a percent - with most of that coming from people voluntarily working less because, for instance, they could retire earlier or take less demanding work due to the availability of insurance outside their jobs.
But as always, who needs facts when fear-mongering will do? If jobs are all people are thinking about, the GOP decided, then everything we don't like will be "job-crushing" or "job-destroying." And there's nothing they hated more than the health care bill.
Problem was, they knew going in that they weren't going to repeal the health care bill. They didn't have the votes in the Senate, and they knew they didn't have enough votes anywhere to override the inevitable presidential veto.
So the House Republicans huffed and strutted and voted on a repeal bill - and it died in the Senate, just as everyone knew it would. Total jobs created: zero.
Meanwhile, Darrell Issa (R-Gone in 60 Seconds), chairman of the Congressional Oversight Committee, sent letters to more than 150 corporations and trade organizations, asking them to tell him which regulations they didn't like - oh, sorry, which regulations are, in their sole opinion, "harming job growth."
Republicans have also opposed greater regulation of food safety, mining and deep-water drilling.
I suppose you could make a case that that kind of deregulation is aimed at creating jobs. After all, the more miners or oil rig workers who die in preventable accidents, the more job openings there'll be. And those who don't qualify for the jobs can help clean up the dead wildlife after spills.
Another "job-creating" measure the Republicans want to undertake is cutting $100 billion of government spending, which will somehow create jobs by throwing an estimated 994,000 government employees out of work, to say nothing of the independent contractors who hire people to work on government-sponsored projects.
Speaker Boehner's response? "So be it." After all, government workers or people on government contracts aren't actually real people with real jobs to Boehner and the GOP. As far as they're concerned, the only people who have real jobs are the corporate CEOs who employ the lobbyists. You know, the people who have paid for 180 golf junkets and other corporate-sponsored trips for Boehner over the past six years.
I guess as long as he's in power, caddies, waitresses and bartenders in his vicinity can rest easy at night knowing their jobs are secure. The rest of you can go whistle.
Meanwhile, back on the House floor, the Republicans seem less concerned with job creation than they are with using the budget battles to push a radical anti-abortion agenda.
They introduced a bill that would redefine "rape" in such a way that it excludes statutory rape or date rape, and threw in a provision that would allow hospitals to let a women die rather than perform an emergency abortion that might save her life.
Both measures failed. Total jobs created: again, zero.
Looks like the only jobs these mooks really care about are their own. Whoever they're working for, it sure ain't us.
Dusty Rhoades lives, writes and practices law in Carthage. Contact him at dustyr@nc.rr.com.
More like this story
Advertisement
Comments
madstork 2 years, 2 months ago
One more time DR...business leaders need some clarity in financial infrastructure before they invest either their own money or the shareholders they report to.
The ambiguity the administration has shown on issues such as taxes and over regulation has contributed to the current pause. Neither party has done a very good job at clearly laying out a 5-year vision that corporate America can leverage. Business planning revolves around 5 year roadmaps with the ability to either expand or contract in response to business conditions.
Business does not hire to get a tax credit. They hire to grow the business. That simple.
DaveyNC 2 years, 2 months ago
That's pretty much all of it, right there. Business owners see O doing things like tossing GM's bondholders under the bus in complete contradiction of existing law, imposing oil drilling moratoriums without concern for the jobs and investments affected and they pull back. Why would any business make an investment when the egotist in the White House could yank the rug out on a whim?
Too many changes, too sweeping, too fast, too ineptly handled. Imposed, not passed. Czars, an out of control EPA, higher taxes assured. Add it all up and it is a wonder that all of our businesses aren't already on the next boat for China.
dustyrhoades 2 years, 2 months ago
Funny you should mention GM, Davey:
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2011/02/24/1380804/gm-posts-4q-net-profit-as-comeback.html
Guess that bailout worked, huh?
And the stimulus bill cut taxes for 95 percent of working families.
DaveyNC 2 years, 2 months ago
Yeah, all it took was the complete dismissal of bankruptcy law and billions in essentially free capital and a patron who is willing and able to sic regulatory agencies on your biggest competitor. And yet, the government still owns 36.9% of the company.
One good year does not a turnaround make. They continue to lose market share in N. America, probably irreversibly so.
Altogether, no turnaround at all, just a delaying of the inevitable. Sort of the way our politicians like to handle the budget.
dustyrhoades 2 years, 2 months ago
Ah, the inevitable handwaving away of inconvenient facts. You lose, but thanks for playing.
DaveyNC 2 years, 2 months ago
You're a lawyer. Aren't you even a little bit queasy at the way that O just dismissed GM's bondholders and bankruptcy law?
Ross 2 years, 2 months ago
ok davey - now tell me what you "really" think of Obama.......
I do wonder how the EPA is out of control though :)
DaveyNC 2 years, 2 months ago
They're about to begin regulating your breath, for one.
Ross 2 years, 2 months ago
Yup - typical "dummy" response - no answers or facts - just 6 year old retorts!
DaveyNC 2 years, 2 months ago
Read this headline: "EPA is preparing to regulate emissions in Congress' stead"
From the Washington Post: http://goo.gl/uy8NZ
When a non-elected regulatory agency pre-empts the actions of our elected representatives, that is the definition of being out of control.
dustyrhoades 2 years, 2 months ago
"Mr. Rhodes is just another non-thinking liberal"
This is where I stop reading. I know no useful content or argument will follow.
Ross 2 years, 2 months ago
I agree - as soon as the "tags" come out - I simply move on.
Amazed 2 years, 2 months ago
guess that's why you saved this sentence for near to last "Looks like the only jobs these mooks really care about are their own."
guess your tags are ok...IOKILDI (it's ok if liberals do it)
Bflat 2 years, 2 months ago
If the government continues to spend more than it takes in and print more worthless money, that will not create stability or jobs either. Something will have to be cut somewhere because things can't keep going the way it is. I don't believe for one second that the recession is over with all the foreclosures looming on the forefront, high unemployment, and the overall unstable economy. Gas prices are going up which will in turn create higher prices on food and other consumables we must have daily. Without good education and a stable housing market, there isn't going to be job creation either. It is laughable that one political party is being blamed for lack of job creation.Good try, though.
Ross 2 years, 2 months ago
What I am really amazed at is the fact that this country has waited so long to "really" develop alternative energy. The oil embargo of the 70's passed without any energy plan.
I predict things are going to get very very ugly the next few years because of oil prices.
If I were "King" - I would create a "Manhattan" network - bringing the very best minds together via the internet to accelerate current alternative technologies.
I am certain this will never happen however as the big oil is far too powerful. Truly a shame!
DaveyNC 2 years, 2 months ago
We are decades, if not centuries, away from something that will replace fossil fuels. In the meantime, we have plenty: http://goo.gl/Bi7M4 Note the increase in reserves.
Then, there is this: http://goo.gl/sNMcb
Darkwing 2 years, 2 months ago
Hydrogen cars already have much the same performance. All we need is infrastructure - hydrogen cracking plants and fuel stations for it. Obama could easily kick-start this by ordering all government cars ordered in future be hydrogen cars. Then automakers would have reason to build more than a handful for a tax break.
Ross 2 years, 2 months ago
hey - I just saw that movie - he's now my hero - after "you" of course Jimmie :)
dustyrhoades 2 years, 2 months ago
The Pitts bill removes the exception in the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) that requires hospitals who receive federal funds (i.e. pretty much all of them) to either provide an abortion if necessary to preserve the life of the mother or refer the case out to someone who will. Section (g)(1) (C) and (D) of the Pitts bill allows them to do literally nothing at all, even provide a referral, with no repercussions.
Ross 2 years, 2 months ago
And ALL republicans can only see the tip of their long noses (all that fabrication). I wonder why no republican ever mentions alternative energy. All they can recite is "drill baby drill".
Sooner or later - this gooey polluting stuff is going to be too expensive to recover. By that time maybe the right will finally see the light............. NAH!
Darkwing 2 years, 2 months ago
Because the alternatives proposed are not legitimately alternative solutions, but blind alleys. See my blog post on 'clean coal vs offshore wind' for a discussion of what WOULD work.
Tommy 2 years, 2 months ago
ChiefHammer, that's the big contradiction - energy - that I wonder about. Not this careful cherry picking of exaggerated points by Mr. Rhodes to get some badly needed cheers from his choir.
How do the Democrats reconcile all their feigned caring and compassion for the little guy while at the same time pushing an incomprehensible energy policy that will inevitably raise gas and energy costs to the point where the little guy primarily will be utterly crushed? All for green aims that require a decade or more of development?
That single issue reveals more about the lack of wisdom, lack of management skills, hypocrisy, and short-sidedness of this administration.
dustyrhoades 2 years, 2 months ago
If all else fails, change the subject. Thanks for playing.
Yukonjohn 2 years, 2 months ago
I think to help lower gas prices, all Demorats who do not support drilling for our own oil should pay an additional $2 a gallon tax.
Chief Hammer, trust me, we will ALL pay the 2 dollar a gallon tax here soon. We already pay right at 4 bucks a gallon, and that's in our two cities. In the villages, it approaches 10 bucks a gallon. Same price as milk! Well, for all of you "non drillers"....we can wait as long as you can. If gas sells for 7 or 8 bucks a gallon down there, we will be rolling in money up here!!! Although, I have no use for Sarah Palin, she coined one good saying....Drill, Baby, Drill
OldPilot 2 years, 2 months ago
Jimmy Carter years ago called an oil embargo which occured during his presidency the moral equivalent of war, argued for an immediate, all out comprehensive program leading to energy independance in 20 years...and was roundly and soundly ignored. Good column Dusty! Logic and a few good, pointed political jabs delivered with humor.
dustyrhoades 2 years, 2 months ago
Thank you, OldPilot!
Bflat 2 years, 2 months ago
And, I remember being in long lines to get gas while Carter was in Office.
huntrJ 2 years, 2 months ago
@DR
First off, socialized medicine will cost America jobs and doctors. http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,399537,00.html Like it has in Germany and other European countries, a step toward it will inevitably end in leaps and WILL cost jobs not to mention the loss of Intellects. The long term must be considered and apparently while in your attempt to destroy you neglected to even acknowledge.
Next, no they didn't appeal it, however they made a vow to atleast try when they were elected. Or would you rather them not and be like everyother kind of politician? If you promise something you need to fulfill it.
As to the deregulation, apparently you missed the Economics class in highschool. Less regulation = more production = more profit = more room to grow and make jobs. Perhaps you ought to look into the Facts instead of relying on the Non-fact based Ideology that you have become a follower of.
Lastly, why should there be so many government workers? Why should the beuracracy be of such a magnitude? Its beyond ridiculous to say "Well it keeps us safe" because time and time again it has been provent that the bigger the beauracracy, the less cooperation and communication. As to Boehner's golf trips, please. I don't know of any politician who hasn't taken something from some interest group or lobbyist organization.
Reason is apparently abandoned by you in your attempt to portray the GOP as villains. You use void arguments and attempt to show them as hippocrytes which unfortunately for you has failed. I suggest you start trying to understand Reality and quite the convaluted measures you take to protect yourself from it.
huntrJ 2 years, 2 months ago
Please enlighten me on the points inwhich I diverged from the subject and where I may need to clarify my points. I am quite interested.
huntrJ 2 years, 2 months ago
My apologies.
Ross 2 years, 2 months ago
huntrJ - I think he made that comment "before" you posted. whew!
Tommy 2 years, 2 months ago
Mauiman, if you mention any real issues in a Dusty Rhoades "Wingnut" bashing column that's what is meant by changing the subject.
sgmartin 2 years, 2 months ago
As always an intelligent discourse on ideas to make America stronger. We live I fear in "interesting times". DR, I appreciate your sense of irony - mirrors my own. Thank God the world doesn't revolve around Pinehurst
huntrJ 2 years, 2 months ago
@ Ross
Are you studying electric engineering, mechanical engineering, genetic engineering, or any field of science that will find the answer to our oil problem? If not, please give it a rest. Solar panels don't cover the cost it takes to put them up, wind mills are only economic in high wind areas, and ethanyol has generated health problems and pollution of its own. So please, unless you are actually working on the issue, it is no use to say what you would do because you aren't trying to do it right now.
And Big Oil? Really? Tell me what the Democrats and liberals did to stop big oil and find these alternative sources of energy? Other than subsidize the alternative sources (which has generated zilch) and put a moratorium on the Golf after the spill they have yet to do anything productive.
Atleast the "Drill baby drill!" presents a short term solution. The alternative solution is "Maybe we'll find the answer some time, but until then we have to spend money on projects that MIGHT work". Give me a break.
And so I can tie it to the subject of Dusty's article, guess what more drilling would result in? Jobs. More refineries, more drills , and more oil transportation = more jobs.
Sources: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9647424 http://www.weatherimagery.com/blog/solar-panels-cost-effective/
Ross 2 years, 2 months ago
huntrJ - actually - i ALREADY have a masters degree in electrical engineering - so YOU give it a rest!
You are typical of short sighted republicans - all wind and no sail! All you can ever do is try and maintain the "same ol" - and have this aversion to anything new.
btw - solar technology has increased in efficiency twofold in the last few years thanks to obamas tax credits. In fact - the cost for solar power plants now rival nuclear - and just a matter of time - will be cheaper.
I advise you to get that head out of the sand - and do some research!
But - I'm sure you won't - after all - you're a republican :)
Darkwing 2 years, 2 months ago
This from the guys who pulls stakes when the tags come out?
Ross 2 years, 2 months ago
it saves me from useless perusal .......
huntrJ 2 years, 2 months ago
Funny, because I'm NOT a Republican. I'm a Libertarian. I believe this is the second time you have written that Lie, so please get your facts straight.
And what proof is there that it will be cheaper? Where are your sources for the Solar panels being twice as efficient? Please, show me. I am dying to see it.
Lastly, I would be only to happy for some great inventor to find a solar panel that would totally supply my house with electricity and will actually take off electricity I've used from my meter. If they can present this then I will renounce all the oil companies and attach one to the top of my car.
Amazed 2 years, 2 months ago
@Ross...I'd love to see some links to the information you refer to about solar technology increasing in efficiency and in a matter of time, will be cheaper. Facts only please.
Ross 2 years, 2 months ago
Amazed - there are a plethora of sites. here are a few:
http://theenergycollective.com/oshadavidson/40559/study-solar-power-cheaper-nuclear http://inhabitat.com/solar-power-is-cheaper-than-nuclear-for-the-first-time/ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110220091834.htm
Matt_Woodruff 2 years, 2 months ago
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
moonchild7 2 years, 2 months ago
Here's a few things Bob Herbert wrote in the NYT: (2-21-11) "How bad have things become? According to the national Employment Law project, a trend is growing among employers to not even consider the applications of the unemployed for jobs that become available." Herbert also wrote: (2-25-11) "Among the many heartening things about the workers fighting in Wisconsin is the spotlight that is being thrown on the contemptuous attitude of the corporate elite and their handmaidens in gov't toward ordinary working Americans; police officers, firefighters, teachers, truck drivers, janitors, health care aides, so on. These are the people who do the daily grunt work of America. How dare we treat them with contempt.....the predators at the top, billionaires and millionaires, are pitting ordinary workers against one another." So, I say to TEA PARTIERS and REPUBLICANS: WHERE ARE THE JOBS? YOU NEED NOT TAKE ANOTHER DAY OFF FROM CONGRESS UNTIL YOU PUT EVERYONE BACK TO WORK, NOW!!!!!!!!!!!
BigE 2 years, 2 months ago
We produced 17,444 cars and trucks in '05. In '09 that number was down to 10,601. How many automotive related jobs do you suppose have been wiped out by the financial crisis? Care to guess how many fewer construction jobs exist today? Any guess on where these two industries stand relative in size to other labor related employment drivers? (A hint- they were larger.)
Tie in the number of non-automotive manufacturing plants that have closed and gone "offshore" over the last 5 years. While we are at it add in the concept that making Obama a one-term president is, should I dare say, Job One for the Republican party. And, for yucks, throw in the almost one million government jobs the fiscal conservatives would like to eliminate in the name of fiscal (in)sanity.
And all the lemmings think we snap our fingers and instantaneously replace what has been destroyed. Everything will be better again for America as we reclaim our glory of a post WWII victory celebration! (It amazes me all the mythical stuff people believe!)
What was it that I read about the difference in the perspective of the right and the left... The right thinks that the way things use to be was great and the left sees the potential for how great we can become.
BigE 2 years, 2 months ago
The 994,000 estimate has been reported and regurgitated many times by folks agreeing and disagreeing with it. I'm sure you were able to find that fairly easily in a search as well. (Here is one that popped up on a quick Yahoo! search - http://www.epi.org/analysis_and_opinion/entry/epi_addresses_the_critics/)
My use of it was to emphasize that people can't complain about the high unemployment numbers while taking actions to cut a significant number of jobs at the same time. It's talking out both sides. The right acts like all money spent on government related work is money down the drain. That's like the left complaining about military spending. That money all goes to families who pay taxes, spend it and put it back into circulation. WRT to your view of the size of the number, well I think you are taking a too narrow approach. Add up Fed, State, and third party positions that rely on government dollars and the employment number is much larger than the BLS numbers you refer to.
Arestorer 2 years, 2 months ago
Stick your hand in your pocket and pull out that little I-phone....Remember what phones looked like 2 years ago????Technoligies are growing faster that most could imagine...Problem is what people think is neccesary to invest Money and Time in...If we would have invested as much time in Alternative Energy as we have in Communication, We would have affordable Alt. Energy now..
Ross 2 years, 2 months ago
mauiman - you ask for proof - I also ask for proof. Show me that Obama "hasn't" helped jump start the new technologies so long sleeping because of administrations both dems and rep - unwilling to have any vision of the needs of the future ......which is now the "present".
Ross 2 years, 2 months ago
Look - do the google yourself. This admin has provided dollars for green technology. If you choose to ignore it then so be it. Just don't expect me to provide the proof!
Bflat 2 years, 2 months ago
Seems to me that the Dems had control of Congress from 2007 until last election and voted in the budget For FY 2008-2011. O voted on that budget before he became Presy and voted to put through those massive spending bills. He then says he inherited all those problems. Pelosi and Reid bypassed Bush and went ahead anyway to keep govt running until O could be elected. Trying to blame Rep for all the trouble with job creation at the snap of fingers is ludricous. Hasn't the deficit gone up about 4 times since O took office? Look what happened to jobs while the Dems controlled Congress.
fugitiveguy 2 years, 2 months ago
"Show me that Obama "hasn't" helped jump start the new technologies"
Thats so "liberal", all good things come from the "O" unless proven otherwise.
Ross 2 years, 2 months ago
whew.........you are so jaded with hatred of democrats you miss the point entirely. I am saying BOTH parties should have and could have solved this problem by now. No vision.
Now - can you digest "that" apolitically?
Bflat 2 years, 2 months ago
The point I've tried to get across in both my posts previouslyis that no one party is to blame for the lack of job creation.
Tommy 2 years, 2 months ago
I don't think we dispute that solar technology has improved with all the money and help that has gone towards it the past few years. What I can't fathom is stopping (and reducing by almost 15%) our oil production here at a time when folks are hurting - all for the sake of being green and to give alternative energies a chance to be developed. That is one example of how this administration is blinded by ideology. We are asked to sit by and suffer (and our poor will suffer the most) to give solar and wind and hydrogen the chance to replace fossil fuels. Seahawk declared bankruptcy today as a direct result of the oil drilling moratorium. That is lunacy. That hurts jobs and the economy. That is one of the biggest hurdles the Republicans are up against in turning this economy around.
Ross 2 years, 2 months ago
mauiman - All I read - is "liberal" this and "liberal" that. It gets very very old after after a bit. So - in frustration - liberals simply give back what they get.
Almost all of your posts refer to the "liberal" bogeyman. So please - don't feign innocence - and - as Michael Corleone" said - "it insults my intelligence"
huntrJ 2 years, 2 months ago
@Ross
I will first make the statement that dismisses your question "Show me that Obama "hasn't" helped jump start the new technologies". The fact is you can't be asked a double negative. It's the same reason why Atheists have yet to falter with the question of "Show me that there "isn't" a god", it simply doesn't filter into logic. To prove the non-existance of something is ridiculous, for it to even be a legitimate question there has to be prove of its existance.
Secondly, like I said before, I am a Libertarian, not a Republican and you stating earlier that I was a republican is an absolute fallacy and the second time you have made that mistake. I ask you that you don't make that mistake again unless you wish to promote your apparent ignorance and tendency to call names.
As to the Solar panels, I will agree with you that they would be more beneficial to set up than nuclear power plants. However when you say that this is due to Obama's tax credits, not even your articles support it. In fact one stated that the decrease in price has been steady leading one to believe that the price was already falling during Bush's presidencey.
Bflat 2 years, 2 months ago
You left out the "Wing Nut" section. :)) I really want to see who's in that one.
teufelhunden 2 years, 2 months ago
Sounds fun. Seeing & talking to everyone in a friendly setting would be very interesting for sure.
moonchild7 2 years, 2 months ago
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
moonchild7 2 years, 2 months ago
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
fugitiveguy 2 years, 2 months ago
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.