Recently an ad has been playing which discusses President Obama’s “Job Creation” record. At one point in the commercial the President says that, “In the last 27 months we have created 4.3 Million jobs. But more needs to be done.”
Two points of importance. A few years’ ago, the administration came up with monthly figures on the number of jobs that had been created or “saved”. I guess it would be fair to say that any American who still had a job had a job that was “saved”. Talk about voodoo economic triple talk. I am glad that the President has dropped that tag line.
And the President is right. More needs to be done. Economists whether they subscribe to the thought of John Maynard Keynes or the Austrian school of economics, whether right or left, Republican or Democrat agree that we need to create 200,000 jobs per month.
In other words, we have been running about 40,700 jobs short monthly during the period that the President cites in his commercial. That is just to stay even with the net number of people entering and retiring from the workforce. Still more jobs are needed if we are to reduce the rate of unemployment.
The President’s spokesperson goes on to say that the way to get more people working is to pass “the President’s Jobs Plan – but Congress is holding it up.” Again, I give some credit to the message. Congress is apparently holding up everything so they can get themselves re-elected. There’s a lot of that going around – in fact, far too much.
The Republican-controlled House has taken up portions of the President’s Jobs Bill and passed them but much of the bill goes unheard and would never gain enough votes to pass if it were considered. For the Senate’s part, that Democrat-controlled body refuses to take up a budget and has not done so for three years. Any realistic budget would be “politically embarrassing” this close to a General Election.
I do want to offer a positive comment on this particular commercial. While I believe that it fails in the category of complete truthfulness, it is a relatively middle-of-the-road production. If we could continue political commercials and conversations on this level instead of slinging mud, it would do much to promote an improved level of civility which mars most campaigns. Here’s hoping.
When I say that the commercial is less than completely honest it is because “The President’s Jobs Plan” could have been proposed during President Obama’s first two years in office when the Democrats had an iron-clad majority in both houses. Had the President advanced his ideas then, this whole issue might be moot. Instead he turned his attention to other matters which have probably aggravated the slowness of job creation.
It appears that President Obama is making a bet on selling his job’s record as a positive in his efforts for re-election. Apparently he understands that it really is all about the economy for most of us. I think it’s a gutsy call on his part – probably the gutsiest thing he has done during his term in office.
We’ll see how that works for him.
juwannadoright 
Comments on: "TRUTH IN ADVERTISING" (6)
Hi! I’m a Dem and proud to be pro-Obama! I would agree with you regard to what you said about it might have been better if the president had chose to advance his job creation ideas during his first two years, but as I remember it that was the timeframe that the solid Democratic majority was—very embarrassingly—playing “bumper cars” with each other (think healthcare reform). I don’t know if any more would have gotten done if that would have been his priority then. . . .
Thank you for your comment and for stating your position straightforwardly. I appreciate both.
Of course, we will never know if we would have been in a better place if the President had set employment as his first priority.
What we do know for a fact is that the first two years of his administration produced “Healthcare and Dod/Frank”. No one, to this day understands the implications or costs associated with either of these bills and that has prevented many employers, particularly smaller employers from hiring.
Again, thank you for taking the time to share your viewpoint.
Good points in here. I personally am sick to death of the entire state of partisan politics we are living under. Can no one up on that hill see what it’s doing to this country? How it bleeds into individual lives on a daily basis? Really, the stagnation interspersed by chest-thumping one ups-manship is maddening!
I guess it’s always easy to say “back in the good old days” – but I know this is not a new phenomenon. I do believe, however that it’s gotten worse because our politicians have realized that We The People really don’t care all that much. That is the sole reason they can pull this off. So who’s fault is it really?
You’re right. We the People are culpable. And our politicians are playing on that. It’s a downward spiral. But how do we reverse it? And who is it up to, to begin the reversal? OWS (for We the People) is trying, but it’s not working. Both politicians & We the People, for the most part, are basically ignoring or criticizing them…
The answer is that it is up to each thoughtful person to try her or his best to make a difference. That is my motivation in writing the 300 or so posts of this blog during the last eight months. Will I change the world? I don’t know. But I’ll be damned if I don’t try.