07 Dec 2012 In Unemployment Figures, Project 21’s Green Thinks Americans Got What They Wanted

Project 21 member Derryck Green, doesn’t think there’s a lot to celebrate regarding today’s minimal reported gains in the national employment numbers.  Derryck says:

Our nation’s economic situation continues to worsen under Barack Obama’s leadership.  Is that his fault, or the fault of the American people?  And, at this point, is it really a bad thing?

Unemployment is reported by the government to have dropped to 7.7 percent in November, but there a lot of people who are still not celebrating like I’m sure they are at the White House.  Hidden by the hype about the drop is that black men have an unemployment rate of 13 percent.  Black women have an 11.4 percent unemployment rate.  The overall unemployment rate for Hispanics is ten percent.

Furthermore, the “U-6” unemployment rate that covers all those who are out of work and those who are underemployed and so disheartened that they left the workforce for lack of hope is still up at 14.4 percent.  This figure is backed up by a similar Gallup tracking poll says that their calculated November underemployment rate — covering those who are unemployed along with those who are working part-time but desiring full time work (and without the aid of seasonal adjustment) — rose to 17 percent.  At 8.3 percent, the Gallup seasonably-adjusted overall unemployment rate is higher than the government’s figure.

And this is all allegedly without any additional fallout from Hurricane Sandy.  Maybe that will change in December or upon adjustment.

The President’s solution to this embarrassment is to call for $250 billion in more stimulus spending along with increased tax hikes on the rich — beginning with individuals who make $200,000 or more per year and families making $250,000 or more.

By continuing to press for increased taxes on “the rich” while making no serious and sincere advances to diminish the size and cost of entitlement spending — which adds to the deficit and leads to more borrowing and debt — the President continues to demonstrate an apparent lack of seriousness about reducing the nation’s debt and seems willing to take the nation off the “fiscal cliff” at the end of the year or sometime in the near future.

Even worse, President Obama actually floated the idea of giving himself almost imperial authority over Congress.  He want to be able to arbitrarily raise the debt limit at his convenience — which is a further indication that he’s unconcerned about restoring America’s economic viability.

The issue that all Americans need to be aware of is that going “off the cliff” means the Clinton-era tax rates would automatically be re-imposed, meaning that more Americans will be required to pay taxes — including many who aren’t currently paying taxes.  The payroll tax cut also ends.  Increased taxes will also be paid to cover Obamacare costs.

All of these things mean that all Americans will really pay even more than the Clinton-era rates the President so desires.

President Obama seems to mistakenly believe that — because 51 percent of American voters selected for him in November  — that he now has 100-percent of America’s support for his economic plan.  But his perspective, rooted in arrogance, can be somewhat understood.

Given how naïve and poorly-mismanaged his economic stewardship was during his first four years — having been wrong on stimulus spending, cash for clunkers, blown billions on failed “green jobs” programs, a focus on Obamacare rather than the economy, not passing a budget and continuing to spend money America doesn’t have, quantitative easing and the expansion of the welfare state — the American people should have voted him out.

After all, he was the one who said back in February of 2009 that being an economic failure would result in a “one-term proposition.”

Instead, Obama was returned to office to, in his mind, continue his plan of deficit-spending and blaming the rich for not wanting to pay their fair share.  In other words, he can justifiably believe he was reelected to finish what he started.

Maybe he should.  Maybe America should have to suffer through this.  Consider it cathartic.  As Marc Thiessen recently wrote in a Washington Post commentary: “Americans had a choice this November, and they voted for bigger government.  Rather than shielding voters from the consequences of their decisions, let them pay for it.”

Since more Americans voted in favor of bigger government, maybe they should pay for it.  As Thiessen points out, allowing Obama to get all his wishes would “reset” the baseline for taxes, making the Bush rates the good-old days and “put more people on the tax rolls, and give more Americans a stake in constraining government spending” in the future.