This is why Obama is the Deceiver in Chief!
from Investors Business Daily:
President Obama’s statement Friday that the private sector is “doing
fine” drew so much ridicule that he was forced to backtrack hours later.
But it’s clear that Obama and many other Democrats see job problems —
and solutions — starting and stopping with government employment.
A quick look at payroll stats shows that’s not the case.
Private-sector
jobs are still down by 4.6 million, or 4%, from January 2008, when
overall employment peaked. Meanwhile government jobs are down just
407,000, or 1.8%. Federal employment actually is 225,000 jobs above its January 2008 level, an 11.4% increase. That’s right, up 11.4%.
Private
payrolls have been trending higher in the last couple of years while
government has been shedding staff. But that’s because governments did
not cut jobs right away. Overall government employment didn’t peak until
April 2009, 16 months after the recession started. It didn’t fall below
their January 2008 level until September 2010.
The recession was
boomtime for federal employment, especially after Obama took office.
Federal jobs kept rising (excluding a temporary Census surge in early
2010) until March 2011 — more than three years after overall payrolls peaked.
Obama’s 2009 stimulus did little to revive private jobs, but did
funnel massive funding to state and local governments. That, however,
only delayed the day of reckoning for states and cities to curb
spending. They finally did significantly slash jobs in 2010 and 2011.
But those layoffs have slowed to a crawl in recent months — averaging
less than 3,500 job cuts a month since November.
It’s easy to
argue that Obama’s tunnel vision on government employment reflects his
complete lack of experience in the business world. But it’s also
mainstream Democratic thinking.
The Wisconsin recall election was
about liberals’ zeal to maintain government employees’ privileges far
and above those of struggling private sector workers who pay their
salaries.
Payroll change since January 2008
Total: -5.01 million -3.6%
Private: -4.61 million -4%
Government: -407,000 -1.8%
Federal Government: (excluding post office) +225,000 11.4%
Sources: Labor Department, Datastream
Update:
Why does Obama think the private sector is "doing fine"? "We've seen
record profits in the corporate sector." And high corporate profits are
good for tax revenues to pay for government programs and government
jobs. That's the main reason Obama cares about the private sector.