Job Killing

What is the American public worried about most?  Jobs, of course.  So now the mantra “job killing” is being used by the Republican propaganda machine to describe almost everything that they oppose.  It’s a clear-cut case of emotional manipulation. 

From Michelle Malkin, January 10, 2011 “There’s “job-killing legislation,” in particular the health-care reform law. And “job-killing regulations,” especially anything coming out of the EPA and the IRS. Big deficits are always “job-killing,” which might come as something of a surprise to all you Keynesians out there, along with the “job-killing spending binge” and even “job-killing stimulus projects.”  President Obama, we are told repeatedly, runs a “job-killing administration” with a “job-killing agenda” carried out by, you guessed it, a “job-killing bureaucracy.”  In the fevered Republican imagination, the entire federal government is a “job-killing machine” or – my personal favorite – a “job-killing beast.”

Here’s the facts, (1) Jobs are gone because of technology driven productivity improvements and newfound efficiencies that reduce employment levels.  (2) High corporate cash balances provide opportunities to buy other companies.  That always results in reductions in employment.  (3) Off-shore investment trends of American corporations continue unabated.  And rightfully so.  Off shore markets are growing.  Foreign governments incentivize these investments to attract the corporations.  Sorry folks, but that’s how capitalism works.

So I’m not criticizing corporations.  I’m criticizing the propaganda machines that grind out half truths and depend on an misinformed electorate to be, …well, even more misinformed.

One simple truth remains after all the dust has settled:  We’ve lost jobs and they will eventually be replaced with jobs that require more knowledge.  Here’s another non-partisan fact:  Almost half (48%) of the new jobs will require a college education and we have lots of unemployed people without college degrees.

But somehow these facts are ignored by the Republicans.  Why?  Because they are not interested in jobs or “job killing” as they refer to it.  As Mitch McConnell said, their singular goal is to “make Obama a one term president” when they should be working to reduce the economic uncertainty that stop corporations from expanding and hiring in the U.S.

Unfortunately, voters have short memories.  The slide to our current economic level has taken decades of both Republican and Democratic policies.  And the current rhetoric about “job killing” is shameful pandering to voter’s fears on the part of the Republican party.  Make no mistake here.  If the Dems were to use this same rhetoric, I would be just as critical.  My criticism is directed at the purposeful use of misleading information.  And on this point, it’s the Republican party who’s doing it today.

As John Adams said, “facts are stubborn things”.  And they are also inconvenient when they work against your political ambitions.  We need less propaganda and more of those stubborn facts if we are going to make the right choices to work our way out of the situation that we find ourselves in.  Here’s a set of those stubborn facts from the NY Times, “American businesses reported that third-quarter profits in 2010 rose at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion, the steepest annual surge since officials began tracking such matters 60 years ago. It was the seventh consecutive quarter in which corporate profits climbed.”

The “job killing” that the Republican’s refer to is happening because no well-run businesses are going to hire more people when their profits are at historic levels. 

And it simply makes no sense whatsoever that any administration would work toward killing jobs knowingly.  I don’t believe either party has the right answers consistently.  I  believe that the American voter would be better served with more truth and less emotional manipulation.  It seems to me that the if the Republicans really wanted to help corporations create new jobs they would work with the Democrats to reduce the economic uncertainty.  And depend on the voters to decide if they want President Obama for a second term.

Robert DeFilippis