Obama Administration and Jobs: Liars, Inc.

You shoulkd know the news by now. The economy "created" NO net jobs in August. It is actually worse than that. The number of jobs "created" for June and Julyu was REVISED downward. As this blog has correctly told you, even as the media lies to you, these monthly numbers are NOT exact numbres (merely counting on your fingers and toes, to explain it in terms you leftists out there can understand). There are large SUBJECTIVE factors in the reported numbers, which are really just ESTIMATES with a large marginof error. The seasonal adjustment alone can easily be distorted by a 100,0000 (as seasonal patterns change, or turn out to have been misconstrued). Thus, the headlines are--as usual--a LIE. The headline is that there were ZERO jobs created, and Obama is still saying lthat the private economy has "created" net jobs for 18 straight months. That is essentially a LIE, because the private economy did NOT create jobs this month. Oh, the "report" was of a 17,000 "gain" in private jobs, but that is well within the margin of error, and subject to REVISION. Thus, the private economy may well have LOST jobs in August. It is absurd to suggest that the report shows a private job "gain". Statisttically, there was no change. There is NO statistical difference between the "loss" of 17,000 government jobs and the "gain" of 17,0000 private jobs. Statisticaly, both of these numbers merely represent NO CHANGE (zero job growth). As stated, these numbers are written in sand (or water). But yhou may think I am too harsh to call President Obama our Liar-in-Chief, and to refer to the Obama Administration as Liars, Inc. However, it is not these statistical lies to which I refer (statistical lies in which our entrie media engage every time employment numbers are reported: see yesteray morning's article in this blog). I am referring to OBVIOUS lies.


I heard an Obama Administration official on a cable TV network this morning (CNBC, if I remember correctly). That official ws asked , bascially, why the Obama Administration has not done better, and what they intend to do about these disastrous numbers. Trust me. I could never make this stuff up. The Obama Administration official answered as follows (you judge whether this is Liars, Inc. or not): "We know what works. We just neeed cooperatioin."


Yes. I know. For two lyears, Democrats had complete control of both houses of Congress, as well as the Presidency. They even had 60 votes in the Senate for most of that time. "We know what workss?" I dare you to explain to me how that is not an OBVIOUS lie. But it goes beyond that. Wht is the obvious question? Well, for once it ws asked. TV host: "Okay. What works?" I could not make up this answer either--a lie so obvious that my agnostic skepticism may have been proven by the lack of a thunderbolt coming down and blasting the Obama Administratin woman where she stood:


"What works is a payroll tax cut and extending unemployment insurance. We know what works, and those things work, along with infrastructure spending. We just need cooperation."


The above quote is not only a LIE, but an Orewellian Big Lie. No, it is NOT a matter of opinion. How do I know hat? Easy. Republicans--to their everlasting SHAME--did "dooperate" in the lame duck sessioin of Congress in December of 2010. Congress PASSED the fraudulent "payroll tax cut" that Obama requested. Congress PAAED the furtther extensoin of unemployment benefits. We are LIVING undre those conditions right now. "We know what works?" IT DID NOT WORK. We had ZERO job growth with those very provisions in effet. They are GIMMICKS, that do nothing but add to the deficit and debt. Yes, REPBLICANS have "cooperated" to ADD more to the debt, deficit and required rise in the debt ceiling than ALL of the suppposed Republican "cuts" (not counting "cuts" to take place in the far future, but including "cuts" through all of next year, and even the year after--there being no reason to believe that "cuts" scheduled for ten years from now will ever take place). Republicans have trumpeted that they have forced fsical "discipline" as a price of raising the debt ceiling, when REPUBLICANS have ADDED (not decreased) to the total the debt ceiling willl have to be raised in the nexte two years. And now Obama is saying that Republicans have to BETRAY us again, and AGAIN add more to the reuired raise in the debt ceiling than the ENTIRE "cuts" they are making. Taht is what the Obama Administration is asking them to do by asking them to "cooperate" in the payroll tax "cut" and unemployment benefit extensiion that have already FAILED to do anything to help employment. "We know what works?" Hogwash. WE KNOW WHAT DOES NOT WORK.. The "temporary" payroll tax "cut"--representing an attack on the very concept of Social Security set up by FDR--and "temporary" extension of unemployment benefits, have been in effect all this year. They have accomplished nothing on employment. The employment picture is WORSE now than it was in December, when Obama talked about how those very same things would make sure our economy "grew" and employment improved. All these things have "accomplished" is INCREASE uor debt and WORSEN our employment situation--as you would expect from short-term GIMMICKS that do nothing but DISTORT ur economy by simply throwing Big Government (money and otherwise) at the problem. The Obama Administration actaully does not "know what works", and has alrealdy proven that. "Infrastructure spending" (PORK). The Obama Administration tried that, or SAID they did, in teh first two years. Filuare again.


If you are willing to LIE this obviously ("we know what works"--then listing the things that have already FAILED), then you have no credibiity. "But, Skip, what would YOU do?" Wll, fiirst, I know what DOES NOT WORK. A "payroll tax cut" is a fraud that does not work, and extension of unemployment benefits does not work. We have already TRIED--mistakenly--those things. You have to at least LEARN from FAILURE. Have even REPUBLICANS "learned"? I doubt it. We shall see. As I predicted, there is already talk of a BRIBE to Repubicans--another FRAUD--wherein teh funding mechanism for Social Security will be GIMMICKED some more (toward the ultiate destruction of Social Security) by "extending" the "pyaroll tax holiday" to the EMPLOYER part of the Social Security tax. Yep. I tell you the truth. That is a BIRBVE to try to get Repubicans (and even deluded conservatives) on board with a WELFARE PAYMENT to employers. This is the kind of gimmick that adds MASSIVE numbers to the defcit/debt, while acommplishing nothing. It is a path to destruction.


"Skip, you still have not said whoat you would do." Again, the FIRST thing you have to do is not repeat the same old failures (Einstein's definition of insanity: "Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result"). Repbuclians actually SAY some of the right things. They just--the politician kind--do not MEAN them. WE need to stop the gimmicks, and actually DO fiscal discipline (instead of talking about it, and doing the opposite, in a BETRAYAL of your supposed principles). Cut general TAX RATES (as part of overall tax reform, where we eliminate "tax expenditures" on things limke Obama's "alternative energy" "investments" in all of these solar comanies which are going BANKRUPT). Stop the GIMMICKS, where Washington tries to CONTROL winners and losers. Lower general TAX RATES (including on the "wealthy" and corporations). Make the tax code simple. Really ctu Federal SPENDING NOW (not ten years from now--meaning spendin gLESS money this next year than the year before). CUT regulation. Repeal ObamaCare (the biggest job killer in the history of the country). Remove restrictons on drilling and energy (fossil fuel and nuclear) energy development in the Untide States. Dis caed the "Magic Wand Theory of Government" (the thoery that all government has to do is wave a magic wand and "create" jobs), and concentrate (in words and action) on encouraging a FREE MAKRET rebound. In orther words, embark on an EXPANSION of the PRIVATE economy, as yoiu contract the government domination of the economy . That means that you do NOT (Republicans, you really need to learn this) talk about what WASHINGTON can "do" to "create" jobs. This is the CENTRAL PLANNING, Soviet 4 year plan, approach to an unstable system of MEN rather than sound economic principles. No MAN knows enough, or is smart enough, to CONTROL the econmy and MAKE it do what we desire.


What we need to do is estalbish a STABLE government policy, without gimmicks, that provideds an nvironment for PRIVATE growth going forward. It DEFEATS this purpose for the Federal Government to say that IT must "solve" the job problem by having the GOVERNMENT create jobs.


"But, Skip, you have proposed a different way forward that will NOT "solve" the jobs problem in the next 6 months. ". Right. If we had adopted MY "solution" when Obama became President, we would be on a SUSTAINABLE path to a booming economy by now. The whole point is that it is DESTRUCTIVE to look to an immediate, "magic wand", Washingon "solution" to "creating jobs". A simple, "fair" tax system, where no one pays more than 25% of their income in income taxess. A stable, DECREASING amount of regulatoin. Fiscal discipline. But, above all, an ATTITUDE that we BELIEVE in a free makret economy, and in a SYSTEM of free people acting under their own control--not government control--to create welath for everyone. Of these, the ATTITUDE is most important. And it is the exact OPPOSITE of the attitude of our "elites"--especially our MEDIA elites (self-appointed, as these people are not "elite" in any other way). The MEDIA approach is the idea that Washington must DO SOMETHING --wave that magic wand. That guarantees faiure, and yet the media is DOUBLING DOWN on that idea.


As usual, I have gone beyond the intended scoope of the article. But I have done so to address the "charge" that I have no "solutoin" to the failure I perceive from the Obama Administration. The pint is that I reject the idea that ANYONE should claim to have a "central planning" "solution" to immediately "create" jobs. Central planning, by mere men and women, does not work in practice, and cannot work in theory. Therefore, the quest for a "magic" government "solution" to "creating jobs" is as futile as my Sodom and Gomorrah search for a competent, honest AP reporter. No such thing exists. To assume otherwise leads to, and has led to, total disaster. That is what Repubicans need to do: rejet the very idea that it is up to WASHIGNTON to provide a "magic wand" "solution" to jobs. What Washington needs to do is provide a ound, stable economic environment to allow the free market economy to create jobs ina a SUSTAINBALBE manner. That cannot be done with central planning gimmicks. It definitely cannot be done with SPENNDING (government style).


Read the headline again Is it really too harsh to say that the Obama Administration is "Liars, Inc.", when they are saying that they "know what works", and it turns out they mean the same things that have already FAILED? The very idea of a "jobs program" has FAILED. What else was that Obama "stimulus". "We know what works?" So oyu come out with yet another "jobs program" repeating the same things that have FAILED? Whether you agree with my approach to this or not--the free market approach with a simple government providing simple rules, you cannot possibliy believe that the Obama Administratin is telling the truth when it says that: "We know what works.". That statment is an insult to your intelligence, and to mine.


P.S. No proofreading or spell checking (bad eyesightg).