The September jobs report was released today adding a modest 96,000 jobs to the economy. 96,000 jobs is less then what was expected to be added for this month. The MSNBC article goes on to state, "Though 1.8 million jobs have been added to the payrolls of U.S. businesses since August 2003, there are about 800,000 fewer jobs — overall — than when Bush took office in January 2001."
O.k., those were the facts. Now comes the Op Ed piece from one of the unemployed himself. (Grab a cup o' tea...this is going to be a long one...)
How many jobs were created the last time a democrat was in the White House? "22.1 million new jobs have been created since 1993, the most jobs ever created under a single Administration. The economy has added an average of 248,000 jobs per month, the highest under any President." That was in the glory days of President Clinton. In electing John Kerry we can return to those glory days of jobs for every American willing to work. This economy can not take another four years of George W. Bush and company.
Some say to me, "But James, the President does not really have much to do with adding or subtracting jobs to the economy." Oh yes he does. He may not directly hire and fire people but a sitting U.S. President indirectly affects the job market and overall economy to a great degree. Under W. Bush we have given large tax cuts to the corperations and the wealthy. Bush claimed that these tax cuts would stimulate "big business" to create more jobs. Well, all it has done is to encourage less employees because a company can get the same (or better) productivity from a smaller number of employees. This is for a couple of reasons: 1). The employee will do the extra work because the threat of loosing that job and falling into the huge, black hole of unemployment in America is motivation to do anything. 2). Companies can afford to work with less employees because of the increased labor of their current employees and the money they saved (or gained depending on how you look at it) through these monsterous tax cuts. Here is some info about these tax cuts:
-Over the ten-year period, the richest Americans—the best-off one percent—are slated to receive tax cuts totaling almost half a trillion dollars. The $477 billion in tax breaks the Bush administration has targeted to this elite group will average $342,000 each over the decade.
-By 2010, when (and if) the Bush tax reductions are fully in place, an astonishing 52 percent of the total tax cuts will go to the richest one percent—whose average 2010 income will be $1.5 million. Their tax-cut windfall in that year alone will average $85,000 each. Put another way, of the estimated $234 billion in tax cuts scheduled for the year 2010, $121 billion will go just 1.4 million taxpayers.
Outsourcing of jobs to foreign countries is another thing that a president can end to help increase jobs. John Kerry plans on ending the tax loop holes that allow companies to do business off-shore. This allows companies to pay little or no tax at all. Outsourcing of jobs is something that the Bush administration activily encourages companies to do. Here is what Bush has said on the matter. "But Bush still doesn’t believe outsourcing is a problem; rather it’s the nature of the cutthroat world of capitalism, and it’s good for the economy. He has rewarded corporations that move jobs overseas with some $60 billion in tax credits. In the 2004 Economic Report of the President, Bush said, “When a good or service is produced more cheaply abroad, it makes more sense to import it than to provide it domestically.”
John Kerry has stated that he will provide tax incentives for companies to stay on American soil rather then move overseas. George W. Bush is wrong on foreign policy and he is even more wrong on domestic issues. "Last month, 10 Nobel laureates in economics — including 1970 laureate Paul Samuelson from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and 2001 laureate Joseph Stiglitz from Columbia University, a former chief economist at the World Bank — wrote in a public letter that the Bush administration has “embarked on a reckless and extreme course that endangers the long-term economic health of our nation.”
(sigh) Only 24 days, 15 hours and 37 minutes left of W and America can begin to recover its economy and once again be respected abroad.
---End Transmission---
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