The December jobs report was a disappointment for this Administration. They expected a mere decline of 10,000 jobs and were hit with an 85,000 loss. They will, of course, downplay the numbers and say how many jobs they “saved” even though that is a statistic no one can measure. But what are this administration’s priorities?
Upside Down Priorities
Let’s look at the priorities of this administration:
- Bailouts
- Health care
- Cap and Trade
- Jobs
- National Security
Leaving aside that the top three are questionable as being within the constitutional authority of the president, what does it mean to job growth?
The Little Engine That Can’t
The engines of job growth in this country are small businesses. If you run a small business and you don’t know what your expenses are going to be, you will be very cautious about hiring. In the list of items above, the first four have this administration on a spending binge that can only result in higher taxes because despite the rhetoric, that’s what statists do. They will claim they only tax the rich, but many small business owners will fit into that definition of rich without having the cash to pay the taxes because their income is plowed back into their businesses. So until they know how big the tax bill will be, they cannot afford to commit any cash to increased payroll. They are more likely to use overtime rather than hiring to tide them over because they can just as quickly turn off that spigot. While that might mean more economic activity, it doesn’t translate into new jobs.
Health Care is another looming question mark. Since no one in the administration nor Congress seems to care about reading the bills they are voting on, it carries enormous risks to small businesses when the bureaucrats start crafting regulations based on any approved regulations. If a small businesswoman doesn’t know what the impact will be on the cost of her existing workforce, she is certainly not going to hire new workers until she knows if the impact on her bottom line will be positive or negative.
Cap and trade is another potential whack to the small business bottom line. Either through new taxes or carbon credits, who can tell a small businessman what this is going to cost? When in doubt, stand pat.
Righting the Ship
Until this administration jettison’s the useless cargo that is sinking this administration, their new top priority should be ”man the lifeboats!” If this administration hopes to avoid being a lame duck for two years, they need to come forward and say health care is dead, cap and trade is dead, bailouts are over. Don’t even say that they will take them up again when the economy recovers. Throw them over the side and start the pumps to empty the Treasury of IOUs. If they don’t do this, any recovery in the jobs area will be slow indeed.
It’s the Uncertainty, Stupid
Until the uncertainty is lifted, unemployment will remain stubbornly high. When Reagan came into office and boldly stated his goal to shrink government and cut taxes, small businesses could see immediately that the effect on them would only be positive. Less government and lower taxes meant more money on the bottom line and with more money on the bottom line they could start hiring and they did. The result? Twenty-five years of economic growth. Obama is following the Franklin Roosevelt model of spend, spend, spend. It didn’t work then. It’s not working now.
