Rule of the Blob
By U.S. Senator Jim DeMint
What did last Fridayâs jobs numbers mean? The same thing they meant last month, and in the months and months before that: President Obamaâs economic policies are too big to succeed.
Million-, billion- and trillion-dollar plans that were pitched as targeted, thoughtful measures to alleviate unemployment and foreclosure have congealed into an all-encompassing mass of new laws, mandates and regulations that ooze over everything. This might be great fun for the government officials who create the rules, but not for the entrepreneurs trying to create jobs.
The Obama administration has put us under rule of the Blob -- the bureaucracy has become indescribable, indestructible, and it seems like nothing can stop it from engulfing us all. Politicians assure us every expansion of the state will create jobs. Yet three years and several trillion dollars later, the only jobs being created seem to be in Washington, home to four of the nationâs five wealthiest counties despite creating almost nothing of actual economic value.
Instead of jobs, we got the Blob.
The federal government does create jobs, sort of, but not the ones it claims. The only jobs Obamanomics creates are for government employees to administer the rules, trial lawyers to sue perceived violators, compliance lawyers to get companies up to code, environmentalists to conduct impact studies, union bosses, executives of companies favored with grants, subsidies and loan guarantees, and Wall Street bankers to buy and sell all our debt.
There are three big problems with this. First, these jobs donât add value to the economy. They donât manufacture or build or innovate or create their own wealth -- they just siphon wealth from others.
Second, the money Washington uses to create these special interest windfalls kills many more jobs.
And third, these special interest jobs cannot survive without government handouts, so they either become a permanent drag on the economy or, like so many of the presidentâs green-energy gambles, they eventually fail, losing both jobs and taxpayer money in the process.
The unemployment rate has been at 8 percent or higher for the last 41 consecutive months -- almost the entire time Obama has been in office. Thatâs not counting the desperate millions who have part-time jobs but want full-time work, or those who have dropped out of the labor force completely.
The Associated Pressâs economics writer Paul Wiseman has calculated that the economy has lost 5 million jobs since the Great Recession officially ended three years ago.
The 80,000 jobs added last month did not come anywhere close to keeping up with population growth, so even modest gains are actually big losses. Historic proportions of the unemployed have been out of work for at least six months. Indeed, more Americans went on disability in June than obtained new jobs.
Weâre living in an economic horror movie. And, thereâs no telling what the Blob will do next.
No one knows what tax rates will be next year. Nobody knows what the rules governing ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank, carbon emissions or even monetary policy will be. Nobody knows what will happen with Europe, our own debt crisis, or where another round of handouts, carve-outs, or bailouts will take the Blob.
Business have two options: hide from the Blob and hope it passes them by, or become a special interest itself and try to get rich off the Blob. This is no way to run an economy, and no way to create jobs.
In the 1958 movie classic, Steve McQueen saves the day by discovering âThe Blobâ can be only defeated by freezing it. That could be Americaâs last resort against Washington today: if we can somehow freeze the government, we might free the economy.
Less Blob means more jobs.
By U.S. Senator Jim DeMint
What did last Fridayâs jobs numbers mean? The same thing they meant last month, and in the months and months before that: President Obamaâs economic policies are too big to succeed.
Million-, billion- and trillion-dollar plans that were pitched as targeted, thoughtful measures to alleviate unemployment and foreclosure have congealed into an all-encompassing mass of new laws, mandates and regulations that ooze over everything. This might be great fun for the government officials who create the rules, but not for the entrepreneurs trying to create jobs.
The Obama administration has put us under rule of the Blob -- the bureaucracy has become indescribable, indestructible, and it seems like nothing can stop it from engulfing us all. Politicians assure us every expansion of the state will create jobs. Yet three years and several trillion dollars later, the only jobs being created seem to be in Washington, home to four of the nationâs five wealthiest counties despite creating almost nothing of actual economic value.
Instead of jobs, we got the Blob.
The federal government does create jobs, sort of, but not the ones it claims. The only jobs Obamanomics creates are for government employees to administer the rules, trial lawyers to sue perceived violators, compliance lawyers to get companies up to code, environmentalists to conduct impact studies, union bosses, executives of companies favored with grants, subsidies and loan guarantees, and Wall Street bankers to buy and sell all our debt.
There are three big problems with this. First, these jobs donât add value to the economy. They donât manufacture or build or innovate or create their own wealth -- they just siphon wealth from others.
Second, the money Washington uses to create these special interest windfalls kills many more jobs.
And third, these special interest jobs cannot survive without government handouts, so they either become a permanent drag on the economy or, like so many of the presidentâs green-energy gambles, they eventually fail, losing both jobs and taxpayer money in the process.
The unemployment rate has been at 8 percent or higher for the last 41 consecutive months -- almost the entire time Obama has been in office. Thatâs not counting the desperate millions who have part-time jobs but want full-time work, or those who have dropped out of the labor force completely.
The Associated Pressâs economics writer Paul Wiseman has calculated that the economy has lost 5 million jobs since the Great Recession officially ended three years ago.
The 80,000 jobs added last month did not come anywhere close to keeping up with population growth, so even modest gains are actually big losses. Historic proportions of the unemployed have been out of work for at least six months. Indeed, more Americans went on disability in June than obtained new jobs.
Weâre living in an economic horror movie. And, thereâs no telling what the Blob will do next.
No one knows what tax rates will be next year. Nobody knows what the rules governing ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank, carbon emissions or even monetary policy will be. Nobody knows what will happen with Europe, our own debt crisis, or where another round of handouts, carve-outs, or bailouts will take the Blob.
Business have two options: hide from the Blob and hope it passes them by, or become a special interest itself and try to get rich off the Blob. This is no way to run an economy, and no way to create jobs.
In the 1958 movie classic, Steve McQueen saves the day by discovering âThe Blobâ can be only defeated by freezing it. That could be Americaâs last resort against Washington today: if we can somehow freeze the government, we might free the economy.
Less Blob means more jobs.
