Obama’s phony spending freeze–a drop in the bucket of cynicism and incompetence that has so far defined this administration–provides the perfect backdrop for the lip service our President will pay to job creation tonight. How do we know it’s all hot air? Because unemployment is over 10 percent, and the President’s team of propagandists continue to claim the stimulus package worked beautifully. They make up so many different numbers they can’t keep them straight. This past Sunday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was on Fox News Sunday claiming the spending boondoggle saved or created 1.5 million jobs at the same time David Axelrod was touting “more than 2 million” on CNN. Valerie Jarrett was on NBC hopelessly behind the curve, only claiming “thousands and thousands” of jobs saved by the Recovery Act they all said would cap unemployment at 8 percent. (The Heritage Foundation has kept track of Obama’s “jobs deficit“–check out their great graphic.) What numbers will Obama pull out of his hat tonight?
Americans need jobs. Democrats are running scared after voters in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts rejected their wild spending and ill-timed health care reform detour. So, look for Obama to play the populist tonight, shifting blame to Wall Street and the Bush administration for our economic woes. But the President should suck it up. He’s been in office for a year and his party has controlled all of Congress since 2007.
If Obama is serious about fostering job growth he will abandon his party’s plans for passing amnesty and cap and trade. Amnesty for illegal immigrants would ensure that those who shouldn’t even be in our country are drawing paychecks that could be going to actual citizens. Cap and trade–a nanny state scheme if there ever was one–would raise energy costs for households by thousands and dollars and kill even more jobs. These two initiatives combined would serve as a lethal cocktail to the American economy, so they are probably exactly what the power-drunk politicians of the Democratic Party will prescribe.
