WHAT CAN BE DONE TO CREATE JOBS?

For the last 2 ½ years since President Obama has occupied the White House the most talked about topic and least acted upon subject has been jobs, jobs, jobs. President Obama was elected in 2008 on a platform of job creation and the Democrats in the House lost their majority in 2010 because the unemployment rate was still above 9%. The looming question among the ranks of the unemployed is “Why hasn’t the President done more to create jobs?”

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a “job” as a specific duty, role, or function; or a regular remunerative position. To “employ” is to use or engage the services of; or to provide with a job that pays wages or a salary. And, to “hire” is to engage the personal services of, for a set sum. This is what the discussion is all about: the ability to create jobs with the intent to employ and hire people to fulfill those jobs. So why has President Obama failed to meet this objective?

First of all, neither President Obama nor the federal government creates jobs; the free-enterprise capital system creates jobs. The question then becomes, “Why has the private sector failed to create jobs?”

I would like to answer this question using a simple analogy. Let’s assume that an electric power plant is putting out “X” amount of BTU’s of electricity. In this example the power plant represents the free-market system and the electricity it produces represents jobs. The jobs were created by the free-market system and sent out to the various homes and businesses to fulfill their “specific function or role.” As it pertains to my home, the electricity (job) is enabling my appliances to function; my heat and air conditioning to work; my lights to go on; and everything else in the house that requires electricity to perform normally. At this point, my house is at full employment.

So, what does that have to do with the President and job creation? Like I said, neither the President nor the federal government can create jobs but their actions can thwart or eliminate jobs and job creation. Going back to my analogy, we saw President tell the Boeing Corporation they cannot expand the production of 787 Dreamliner aircraft into South Carolina. This is like going into the garage of my home, opening the fuse box, and turning off the breaker that supplies electricity to my kitchen. All of a sudden, nothing in my kitchen works; those jobs supplying electricity to my kitchen were lost because the President tripped the breaker. By saying no to Boeing, he tripped the breaker in South Carolina and cost that State thousands of new jobs.

By not allowing this country to explore, drill and produce its own energy, whether it’s off-shore, in Anwar, Alaska, or elsewhere, the federal government under the direction of Barack Obama just tripped another breaker in my fuse box; effectively cutting off power to my family room and all of the jobs the electricity was producing there. By not allowing the country to develop its own sources of energy, Mr. Obama has eliminated the potential for millions of jobs. I hope you are seeing a pattern. Although Mr. Obama cannot effectively create jobs, he can very easily pass rules and regulations that cost jobs.

The Dodd-Frank financial bill has placed so many rules and regulations on the financial and banking sector in this country that recently it was reported that thousands of jobs on Wall Street will be lost. That action cut off all of my power to my master bedroom and bathroom. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will have the same jobs reducing effect on the economy as will the numerous Executive Orders signed by Obama and the directives being put out by Obama’s EPA Czars concerning carbon emissions. At this point, most of the fuses breakers in my house have been tripped and I’m sitting hungry and cold in the dark because the President stepped in and created a massive electrical unemployment crisis in my home. To make matters worse, since no one is using electricity the power company was forced to scale back production. In my example, the job killing interference of the federal government has eliminated both jobs (electricity) and the creator of the jobs (power company output).

Don’t get me wrong, the government could create some jobs. Obviously, there are government jobs but not enough to drive our economy. Those jobs can only be created and maintained by the private sector. The government jobs, following my analogy, would be like buying a small generator for my home. Sure, I can start it up and it would provide some electricity into my home; enough maybe to keep the refrigerator going and my heat pump but the generator could never provide enough long term power to keep my home fully functional.

What really needs to happen is to have my electric circuit breakers turned back on so that my home can be fully functional, once again; and that will tell the utility company to ramp up production to meet my needs. In other words, cut out all of the federal rules, regulations and red tape which are the true job killers in the country. High taxes on individuals, small businesses and corporations; an inconsistent trade policy; and an overt effort to subrogate unions over right-to-work are also destroying jobs.

Mr. Obama’s solution that he claims will accelerate jobs growth is to educate 10,000 new engineers who are sorely needed in the jobs market. Great plan, Mr. President! Educate your engineers and create 10,000 jobs and I will cut taxes, remove burdensome federal rules and regulations, overturn Obamacare, formulate an effective trade and energy policy, and ratify state’s right-to-work laws and I will put millions of our unemployed back to work. Do we want government and stagnation or free-markets and prosperity? Stop asking Obama to do something about creating jobs and start putting pressure on him to reverse his job killing policies.

Better yet, vote Obama and his job killing accomplices in Congress out of office and restore this country, its markets and its economy to its former greatness.