Voodoo Economics Sure to Dominate Jobs Summit
AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka has begun campaigning for a $400 billion handout to his union; but he’s calling it stimulus. Only in today’s political climate could an interest group asking Congress to flood its industry with money be considered “stimulus.” I thought that was lobbying? AFL-CIO’s website cites the success of the first stimulus to justify a second wave of spending:
“America’s jobs situation would be even more dire without the economic stimulus program President Obama and Congress enacted, which has saved or created 1 million jobs. But the depth of this crisis demands that we do more—and that we do it now, before more people lose their jobs, their homes, their health care and their hope."
Even ignoring the problems inherent in a “saved or created” metric, no one knows what it means; AFL-CIO’s estimate of 1 million jobs created or saved surpasses the most optimistic economists, the Obama administration. Recover.gov most recently estimates the stimulus saved or created 640,329 jobs, a number with less-and-less credibility. I guess Trumka and AFL-CIO just rounded up?
After touting the success of the first stimulus, AFL-CIO directs us to a graph which illustrates the necessity for additional spending by highlighting rising unemployment.
VIEW GRAPH HERE
Seeing as AFL-CIO’s job creation plan is to spend $400 billion, we can infer that it is a third stimulus, additional government spending, which AFL-CIO believes will reverse the falling employment rate between 2008-2009. But then why stop at maintaining 2004 unemployment levels? While the government is giving people jobs shouldn’t they wipe out unemployment for ever? The government could pay people to “dig holes and fill them up,” as John Maynard Keynes famously suggested. This makes no sense, obviously.
While most people agree that transferring money from productive sectors of the economy to AFL-CIO’s workers is counterproductive, the Obama administration and a Democratic Congress still flirt with another stimulus or “jobs bill.” Today Mr. Trumka attended Obama’s job summit with fellow union officials, Anna Burger for example, and a slew of other progressives trying to peddle their voodoo economics. After looking at the job’s summit’s guest list, it is unlikely that any resolutions will emerge that doesn’t involve spending money, thus is the nature of groupthink.
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