Unemployment Payments Create Jobs And Other Nonsense

Unemployment Payments Create Jobs And Other Nonsense

Colonel Donald J. Myers USMC(Ret)

On Monday our president announced that unemployment payments create jobs. His staff at the White House echoed that statement. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the same quite some time ago and on Tuesday she repeated it. Senate Majority Leader Reid also repeated that unemployment payments created jobs. Of course, all of this is to garner support for extending unemployment payments. Think about it. If this were true, unemployment should be at zero since we have been paying it for so long. Again, if this were true, why not double the payments and unemployment could be reduced twice as fast.

The president spoke about the tough economic times as if he had nothing to do with it. He has been in charge for five years and once again he is going to focus on the economy like a laser beam. I think that he better check the sights on that laser gun because it sure is not hitting the target. Perhaps it would help if he had staff members who actually had experience beside government or academia. Theory is great and one should be familiar with it, but theory and the real world have a tendency to differ if everything is not perfect. Our strength as a nation comes from freedom and the ability of our people to adjust to changing situations as they occur. The best leaders are able to anticipate potential changes and plan accordingly. We have seen this in business, the military and rarely government.

The thinking inside the Washington beltway is totally out of touch with the country. We are being led against our will and we do not like it. The regular American knows that we are in trouble financially and spending must be reduced, but our political leaders fail to appreciate this fact. They look at the national debt as merely a glitch that can be handled with more taxes, printing more money, and borrowing more money. In the past, we were always able to solve our difficulties because of our industrial superiority, technology, and typical American attitude of getting the job done. Much of that industrial superiority has gone and our technological advantage is also evaporating. The dramatic increase in food stamps, disability applications, and people just stopping their search for jobs has taken a toll on that get the job done attitude Americans are known for. Policies in Washington can change much of that, but I see no indication where that is being done. In fact the opposite is occurring. Our military is being cut to dangerous levels even as additional requirements are levied. More and more rules and regulations are issued by the government that cause our businesses to be less competitive.

I have lived long enough and done enough reading and studying to appreciate the fact that tough times require tough people. Our history is full of such examples such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, General U. S. Grant, President Franklin Roosevelt, Dr. Martin Luther King, and President Ronald Reagan just to name few. I remain optimistic about the country, but time is running out. The window of opportunity is slowly closing and we must take advantage of opportunities such as the Canadian pipe line, fracking, reduced spending, and reducing regulations.