By: John Hayward
1/22/2013 10:22 AM
Byron York at the Washington Examiner noticed something that Obama voters would find a bit odd, if they had either long-term memory or critical thinking skills:
Why did President Obama barely mention unemployment in his inaugural address? After all, today’s jobless rate, 7.8 percent, is precisely what it was when Obama first took the oath of office in January 2009. It’s even worse; if you combine the unemployed with those who are working part-time but want a full-time job, and those who have been too discouraged to look recently, the figure is 14.4 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That is a desperately bad situation. People know it. In poll after poll, Americans list jobs and the economy as the issue most important to the country. They’ve been saying the same thing every day Barack Obama has been in office.
And yet, in his inaugural address the president said essentially nothing about the nation’s most pressing problem. Why?
Because he didn’t have to. His base supporters — loyalists and activists who would declare war on a Republican president with a similar unemployment rate — continue to give Obama a pass on joblessness. There are other issues, like immigration reform, climate change and raising taxes, that excite them more than economic recovery.
So Obama racked up $6 trillion in debt to get employment back down to exactly the rate he “inherited”… with a smaller workforce. FORWARD!
Really, Obama voters, I know you don’t like to think about your man’s inoperable statements from yesterday, and 2012 was such a long time ago… but you do remember all those “pivots to job creation,” don’t you? You remember how the President kept declaring that job creation was his “number one priority?” He sent forth his surrogates to bellow this promise from the rooftops every time unemployment ticked up or stagnated. One of 2011′s great political battles was over a pork-stuffed “jobs bill,” filled with demands for vast new infrastructure spending.(The other great political battle of 2011 was about paying for vast pork-fried spending bills. It was decided that we don’t really have to, and the ruling class is tired of being insulted with such demands.)
But now that Obama has been safely re-elected, his “top priority” has utterly vanished from his agenda. He only mentioned “jobs” a couple of times during his speech, and they were always portrayed as a happy side effect of magnificent socialist programs, not an end unto themselves. Evidently we will be spared any further pretense of a “pivot to job creation,” and the last one is officially over.
How are Obama voters taking this? York asked a few of them during the inauguration ceremony, and encountered the expected levels of idiocy:
“It has nothing to do with the president,” said Germaine Hodge, of Austin, Texas. “I blame the Republicans and the Tea Party.”
“If the Republican Party would pass Obama’s jobs bill, the unemployment rate would not be where it is,” said Renee Ford-Elosiebo, of Memphis, Tenn. “They are deliberately holding the country hostage by not passing the jobs bill. Their intention was to make sure that he was a one-term president, with the economy not growing and unemployment high.”
“I blame that on Republicans,” said Frances Lippette, of Raleigh, N.C. “I blame that on business people.”
“I feel like it was going to take longer than the four years,” said Octavia Taylor, of Queens, N.Y. “I never thought the economy was going to turn around in just one term.”
What ruler doesn’t dream of having such easily-led followers? York tactfully avoided reminding them that Obama made very explicit promises of job growth before he blew a trillion dollars on “stimulus.” I imagine that would have made most of these people blink in numb confusion, rubbing their temples as they tried to remember all the way back to 2009. Note that none of their crackpot beliefs does one single thing to explain why Obama has suddenly stopped talking about job creation.
Oh well, as long as President T. Party has been voted out of office, everything should get better now. Maybe Obama can pass a law to force those evil “business people” to create some jobs, instead of spending all day frolicking in their treasure vaults. Raising their taxes a bit more should motivate them! And I’ll bet a donut that the likes of Octavia Taylor will be ready to allow twelve years for economic turnaround by the end of 2015.
Socialism has difficulty taking root until a critical mass of voters are willing to be… shall we say… satisfied with less. That’s an important first step in persuading free people to surrender the judgment of ambition to their betters. It also short-circuits any unhealthy speculation that free people might be able to pursue opportunity more effectively than central planners. Private sector job creation is an expression of economic freedom, and the State can only grow so much while its subjects still regard such things as the highest priority.
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To read another article by John Hayward, click here.
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