Government Jobs gasp

By ticorules on October 17, 2012 • ( 0 )

I don’t mean to Wednesday morning quarterback the President’s performance last night…well actually I do. He was great. He did exactly what he needed to do including waiting for the most opportune time to bring up the whole 47% thing. But if there’s one thing blogs and non blogs are good at, it’s nitpicking. So here’s my nit to pick.

Barry, I think a lot of this campaign, maybe over the last four years, has been devoted to this notion that I think government creates jobs, that that somehow is the answer. That’s not what I believe. I believe that the free enterprise system is the greatest engine of prosperity the world’s ever known…

That was the president summation just before he laid the smackdown on Romney regarding the 47% comments. It was awesome. I can only liken it to the end of a Mortal Kombat game when the crowd yells: FINISH HIM!!

But this whole talking point about government jobs not being real jobs is so pervasive in our culture that even Democrats give it credence. And like many forms of conventional wisdom, it’s utterly nonsensical.

I can’t believe that I actually have to say this but government, does in fact, create jobs. Let’s see, our police force, firefighters, and military personnel are all government jobs. If you work for the National Institutes for Health, the Food and Drug Administration or the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, those my friends, are also government jobs. To say nothing of entire industries that are subsidized by the government like health care and defense.

A job is a job is a job. We shouldn’t be parsing out bureau of labor statistic numbers to shine a spotlight on private sector job creation. And no Democrat, let alone the President, should be buying into it either. Government jobs are also jobs. You can tell because it uses the word job in the title.

According to most estimates, we’ve shed about half a million government jobs in the last fours years. The nation’s unemployment rate (which includes a tally of government jobs) would be a full point lower if we just kept those people working. I don’t know about you but a 6.8% unemployment rate sounds much better than 7.8%. Government has always created jobs.

Take note Democrats, denigrating government service and government programs is the Republican modus operandi. Stop helping them make their arguments. Your argument should be how can we make government smarter not smaller. You should be standing up for government and the jobs that it creates.

Take note Republicans, you have absolutely no credibility here. Its bad enough that you’ve never shrunk the size of government. But you’re also constantly running for government jobs while simultaneously campaigning that the government doesn’t create the jobs…like the one you’re trying to get. You’re almost beyond parody at this point.

What will the Onion do if this keeps up?