Sunday, March 7, 2010

"Really Good" Jobs Report Courtesy of Harry Reid

Thank goodness for Harry Reid. No, I mean it. Without Harry I would have thought Friday's unexpected (yet again!) jobs report was bad news. I was trained in the old fashioned school of economics where full employment is a good thing and high levels of unemployment is not so good. So, I was more than pleased to hear Harry Reid tell the nation, “Today is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good.”

Really good. What a relief. I must remember to tell my unemployed friends what a great day Friday was for America. They will be so pleased.

Perhaps Washington needs to understand the economic implications of "spending ourselves into prosperity." We need to understand that it never has and never will work. The laws of economics prohibit it. The laws of physics. The laws of logic. The laws of living as a grown up in a cold, cruel world. Leaders in Congress: You can't spend money you don't have. Mr. President: You can't borrow or print money indefinitely. At some point the borrowing spigot will dry up or the money you are printing at breakneck speed will be worthless.

At one point even FDR understood this. Amity Shlaes writes in her book The Forgotten Man, Roosevelt scribbled in his copy of Road to Plenty, a treatise on progressive economic policies in the early 1920's advocating (among other things) increasing government debts and deficits: "Too good to be true--You can't get something for nothing."

True enough. And you can't create jobs from nothing. What business owner in their right mind would increase employment in this environment. Never mind that the economy is stalled, business owners are used to contending with business and economic cycles. They understand how to manage their business through the ups and downs of a free market economy. It is the uncertainty of future tax and regulatory policy that stops them dead in their tracks. The Obama Administration has shown an utter disregard and even hostility toward business. This was most apparent during the first Jobs Summit (remember that debacle?) when Obama imperiously ordered the group of businessmen/women gathered to come up with plans for jobs growth. One intrepid soul dared mention that the uncertain tax and regulatory proposals rumbling through Congress were freezing up employers (my words) and causing great uncertainty. Radio Silence. And despite the President's laser beam focus on jobs, he moved gamely on to health care once again despite the Scott Brown, Virginia, New Jersey election mandates against health care "reform."

Next.

The sheer lunacy and dare I say immaturity of our leaders in Congress and, the President himself, is troubling. While the economic health of our country hangs in the balance, we have a President so concerned with his personal legacy we now know he will do ANYTHING to pass health care un-reform. Including trampling on the will of the people, Congressional rules and the Constitution.

Meanwhile, his party, the party of the people, celebrates when another 36,000 fellow citizens hit the rolls of the unemployed. A big day in America, indeed.

"The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." Lady Margaret Thatcher




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