Obama Jobs Deficit Forcing Obama to Scramble

J.D. Foster / September 03, 2010

The August jobs report shows the Obama jobs deficit at 7.5 million workers. The Obama jobs deficit is the difference between the current level of employment and the level he promised his stimulus policies would achieve at the end of 2010. The President boasted that his policies would create 3.5 million jobs, pushing total employment by December 2010 to 137.8 million. As of this report, he is 7.5 million jobs short. By his own metric, the President’s policies have failed.

According to today’s jobs report, the economy lost 54,000 jobs in August and the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.6 percent. In short, the economy is in trouble. His policies having failed as expected, Obama is now flailing about looking for yet another ineffectual and costly “stimulus” program, continuing the President’s penchant for gimmickry.

Policies such as a temporary payroll tax holiday (reported to be under consideration) are worse than doing nothing. First, they do next to nothing to increase hiring. Second, such gimmicks reinforce the confidence-sapping realization that the President either completely fails to comprehend the nature of the economy or he is willing to put ideology above prosperity.

Gimmicks rarely work. The “cash for clunkers” program accelerated car purchases for a while, pulling purchases from the future into the present. The future is now, however, and car sales remain weak. (more…)