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 Officially, there are about 16 million Americans looking for work. According to the government, unemployment is over 10 percent. In reality, the number is actually closer to 20 percent. So President Barack Obama decided the solution may be to waste more taxpayer money (destroying more jobs) on a public relations propaganda stunt he called a “Jobs Summit.” The purpose of the charade was mostly to figure out how to spend even more tax money.
Starting late last week and continuing through the weekend, Obama traveled around promoting his ideas at different events while pretending to seek out solutions from groups and individuals around the country — mostly union bosses, policy wonks, local politicians and a few business leaders. And though Obama started out by asking how to get American businesses hiring again, the dialogue revolved mostly around what costly, intrusive and unconstitutional government meddling would work best to fix the economy.
"The folks who have been looking for work without any luck for months and, in some cases, years, can't wait any longer," Obama said. "For them, I'm determined to do everything I can to accelerate our progress so we're actually adding jobs again." He acknowledged that America could not afford another $787 billion “stimulus” package, saying that instead the government would have to spend taxpayer money in a “surgical,” “creative,” “smart” and “strategic” manner. "We can't make any ill-considered decisions right now, even with the best of intentions," he added.
According to a report by ABC News, Obama “responded warmly” to an idea he supported during his campaign, proposals to form a “national infrastructure bank” that would use private and taxpayer money to support government projects. But he also warned that due to the planning required, infrastructure projects take time to create jobs. Fixing old infrastructure might work better, he concluded. More federal money for state and local governments was also a frequent topic of discussion, as if state and local central planners could ever allocate resources more efficiently and productively than the market.
The President’s cabinet members had all sorts of unconstitutional advice on how to spend Americans’ hard-earned money to “create jobs.” The Labor Secretary proposed more government “training,” since that has apparently gone so "well" in the past. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner suggested more unconstitutional government loans for businesses.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who oversaw the distribution of hundreds of millions in “green energy” grants to foreign businesses, had a novel, if draconian and unconstitutional, idea: Swarms of “energy-efficiency teams” to target American homes with “energy audits” and to reduce consumption. Obama thought that was a swell plan and assured participants that he planned to include just such a program in his next “jobs proposal.”
When National Economic Council (NEC) director Larry Summers asked for advice on increasing exports, which he said would be essential at least in the short term, some of the CEOs present at the summit had some good advice. According to ABC News, they said the best solution would be to end government policies that encourage American companies to invest in other countries, also noting that the tax code discouraged investment in equipment and software essential to boosting exports.
Some of the people who attended Obama’s spectacles suggested the answer to the unemployment would be to allow more skilled foreign workers to come to America and compete with the already unemployed citizens looking for work. When demand for workers is so low that the problem is being considered a “crisis,” increasing the supply of labor seems like a rather strange idea, to say the least.
But nevertheless, former NEC chief Larry Lindsey claimed American businesses were in dire need of more H1-B visas to import more foreign workers. "Intellectual capital is extremely mobile on this planet and we are erecting barriers to it," Lindsey claimed. "It is very hard to bring talented people into this country." He also acknowledged that “what's been tried hasn't worked very well."
Throughout the publicity stunt, Obama faced a barrage of criticism from across the political spectrum. Republicans, conservatives, liberals, Democrats and even establishment politicians and economists all hammered his phony summit. The Congressional Black Caucus, for instance, was complaining about the lack of jobs; claiming that “Obama officials have not done enough to address the severe economic problems in the black community,” according to a Fox News article entitled “As Obama Holds Jobs Summit, Frustrated Left Complains About Slow Growth.” The group also threatened to vote with Republicans to kill certain democratic legislation if concerns were not addressed.
Republicans voiced strong opposition and even held competing gatherings. "President Obama’s ‘jobs summit’ in Washington, D.C. is an acknowledgment that the big government stimulus package failed to create jobs," said big-government advocate and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who hosted his own series of events called "The Real Jobs Summit.” "For an administration that is actively promoting job-killing healthcare, energy and big labor legislation, holding a ‘jobs summit’ is deceiving political theater in the midst of millions of Americans struggling to find work."
Minority Leader Representative John Boehner of Ohio also held a competing summit called “Where are the jobs?” where he too blamed government policies for the elimination of over 4 million jobs this year. He also blasted plans to use repaid TARP funds for more “jobs” spending. "Now that that money is being paid back, it should be used to lower the federal budget deficit and the national debt," he said. "This idea that we're going to take this money that's being paid back to the government and then turn around and spend it on useless government programs is a big mistake."
Less than 10 percent of Obama’s cabinet appointees have actual experience working in the private sector (the "sector" that produces both wealth and productive jobs), according to Glenn Beck, who charted the numbers for previous presidents using a graph during his show on Fox. So talking to people outside of his bubble could have been a good thing. As Boehner pointed out during his jobs meeting, "President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid have never run a business. They've never even had real jobs in the private sector.” But unfortunately, the true intent was never to get sound advice on how to revive the economy.
The jobs summit was timed perfectly to coincide with the Bureau of Labor Statistics fraudulent claim that unemployment had “declined” by 0.2 percent. The only reason this lie could be announced is that the BLS does not count “discouraged” workers — people who have given up looking for a job. About 100,000 have reportedly dropped out since the last reporting period. “When you combine both short and long-term discouraged workers who aren't included in the labor force along with those who are underemployed with part-time jobs, real unemployment in the U.S. today is nearly 22%,” explained the National Inflation Association in a piece entitled "Unemployment Decline An Illusion, Financial System Collapse Ahead."
Of course, many in Congress think the solution is still more “jobs” legislation. But unless that legislation is aimed at lowering taxes, government spending and the regulatory burden, Congress can not and will not “create” any jobs. For the government to create any jobs, it must confiscate wealth from the productive economy, thereby destroying even more useful jobs and untold wealth.
The budget deficit for fiscal year 2009 was almost $1.5 trillion. It is unacceptable that the government should unconstitutionally consume such a huge percentage of the nation’s productive capacity while saddling Americans with the chains of overwhelming debt, especially during these hard times.
The real solution — what could actually be deemed “change” — would be to abolish central planning from top to bottom. End the unconstitutional Federal Reserve and its manipulation of interest rates and credit. No more fiat money and infinite printing of debt-money. Slash taxes and government spending. And finally, get rid of troublesome and unconstitutional regulations that saddle nearly every aspect of the American economy.
Only with freedom will prosperity inevitably return. Propaganda summits will do nothing for jobs. So with the economy still in the dumps, it is past time for some true change.
Alex Newman is an American freelance writer and the president of Liberty Sentinel Media, Inc., a small media consulting firm. He is currently living in Sweden and has spent most of his life in Latin America, Europe and Africa. He has a degree in foreign languages and speaks Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian and a little Swedish and Afrikaans. In addition, he earned a degree in journalism from the University of Florida, with emphasis on economics and international relations.
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