Why Not Jobs?

Since Barack Obama first took office, claiming to be a populist, the highest priority expressed by the people of “Main Street” has been jobs, but the one thing that he and his administration has never addressed with any real enthusiasm has been jobs. Why the hell not?

Yes, I know there was the “stimulus bill” that was his first “big thing.” That, however, was more aimed at consumer spending than it was jobs; it was 42% tax cuts. That part which was aimed at job creation was diluted into small projects and was spread out over two full years, and unemployment continued to climb for many months after the bill passed. They claim that unemployment would be much worse if that bill had not passed, but that statement has to stand unsupported by any actual hard evidence.

Then “health care reform” became all consuming for more than a year, while the economy continued to shed jobs at the rate of 400,000+ per week. The Democrats were more interested in “doing something historic” before the mid-term elections than they were in getting Americans back to work.

Congress did slip through a $17 billion “jobs bill” during the "health care reform" debate, but that was not direct jobs creation, was tax credits for employers who make new hires. No risk on that bill, employers are still shedding jobs at 400,000 per week.

Now that Democrats have their “historic victory” to take to the election campaign, their next press is for “financial reform” which we all know will be more symbolic than real, and still no push for real jobs creation, no real effort to put the American people back to work. Why?

At the end of the Great Depression people could look at the Hoover Dam and other fruits of man's labor and they could say, “Not only did we survive, we built these things.” When, perhaps if, we survive, our only monument will be a massive federal deficit.