Posts Tagged ‘jobs’

Obama visits the Phoenix area today, and according to this report, thousands of workers involved in the expansion of the Intel facility the President is visiting are taking a forced, non-paid day off.

This was an interesting part of the story:

But some workers — who put in six, ten-hour days every week — disagree. Several expressed their frustration over losing out on 20 percent of their paycheck.

“[The president] is here to talk about jobs and the economy and yet he’s forcing middle-class people right out of work for a day,” said a worker who contacted KTAR. “We’re losing an overtime day. It hurts.”

Consider that, President Obama… it hurts.

I receive news alerts from the New York Times. This morning, I received this news alert related to job numbers:

U.S. Economy Adds 290,000 Jobs in April; Jobless Rate Rises to 9.9%

Three minutes later, wunderkind Senate Policy Committee staffer Chris Jacobs sent out an email:

169,000 Jobs Short…

While it’s welcome news that the economy created jobs last month, it’s worth putting it in context.  Not only do the jobs figures reflect a temporary bump in hiring of short-term government bureaucrats for this decade’s census, but they also fall far short of the number of jobs Democrats themselves promised during the health care debate.  In her opening statement at the White House summit, Speaker Pelosi noted that passage of the health care bill “will create 4 million jobs – 400,000 jobs almost immediately.”  But today’s jobs figures for April show that the private sector created only 231,000 jobs during the month – meaning that this month’s employment figures miss Democrats’ own mark for job creation by nearly half.  And job growth within the health care sector actually declined from March to April by 16,000 workers, according to the BLS survey.

Of course, it’s hard to argue that any legislation imposing over half a trillion dollars in tax increases will create jobs in the first place.  In other words, the Speaker – having taken her own advice that “we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it” – may well find that passing a $2.6 trillion government takeover of health care will kill jobs, rather than create them.

The Gray Lady must have felt squeamish – or they got a call from Capitol Hill – because 11 minutes later another news alert came across the transom:

Four-Month Rise Strengthens U.S. Job Outlook

It’s kinda cool that one smart Senate staffer can who offers instant response to news can rattle the cage of the self-proclaimed “most important” newspaper in the world.

One of Obama’s main arguments for passing his health care proposal is that it will reduce the deficit and create hundreds of thousands of jobs. Pelosi has even made the claim that the bill would create 400,000 jobs “almost immediately” (really, immediately?)

However, a study released today by Americans for Tax Reform Foundation and Beacon Hill Institute, a part of Suffolk University, blows a hole right through that claim.

Beacon’s study shows that rather than creating jobs, the Democrat health care bill will cost more than 700,000 jobs.

Ron Bonjean, communicator extraordinaire, takes the bark of this tree in this piece.

The national unemployment rate is fluctuating from double digit figures to the current rate of 9.7 percent. Millions of Americans haven’t had a job in more than a year and still receive unemployment benefits from the federal government. And now our nation’s debt is threatening our worldwide credit rating due to the trillions of dollars in runaway spending.

So given this drastic situation, why has the Democratic leadership tackled this fundamental problem of economic growth by proposing a massive government takeover of healthcare? It will threaten to place our country further in debt with billions in government subsidies to cover unfunded mandates and the federalization of the healthcare insurance industry. Businesses will be forced to pay major fines for not covering employees. Translation: The healthcare proposal will be a mammoth job killing terminator with a federal license to destroy American small business.

Every day that the White House spends on other issues besides working to create the right conditions for positive job growth is another day that millions of unemployed American voters grow angrier. A better idea would be for the majority to just call in sick to work since they aren’t doing the job voters want them to perform. Faking a head cold might be a better approach because if they pass this healthcare bill, many Democrats who vote for it will probably be looking for work after November.

November 3, 2009 will go down as the day that began the end of the Democrat stranglehold on Washington, D.C. If the huge win by McDonnell in the Virginia Governors race, and the solid win by Christie in the New Jersey Governor’s race say anything, it’s that Obama’s focus on a government takeover of health care, at the expense of doing anything of actual benefit to create jobs, will cost the Democrats the majority in the U.S. House.

Watch for the jobs report that comes out on November 6. It is likely to show unemployment at a full 10 percent. This will put the nail in the coffin of Obama’s claims that a stimulus bill was needed to keep unemployment below eight percent, and send the Democrats into the 2010 elections sucking wind.

And yet they still don’t get it. Speaker Pelosi is going to force a vote on a government takeover of healthcare on the House floor this weekend, and the arms she breaks to get to 218 votes will be dozens of House Democrats that will not be back in 2011. It’s clear that she is willing to lose seats to pass government run healthcare, but the risk she runs is that she will lose the majority.

And they think they have it all figured out…