Weekly Comments Archive
Archived Issue
Sunday, May 11, 2014
ISSUE #798
Global cooling flat-lines our economy

This economic recovery is still dragging along. According to government reports, the economy grew by 0.1 percent during the winter. When the President was asked about the flat-lined growth, he blamed the poor performance on really cold weather. In other words: global cooling.

Spring has arrived, but the economic numbers for April were still puzzling. New jobs created: 300,000. Workers who stopped working, or stopped looking for work: 800,000. Unemployment: 6.3%, down by 0.4.

Even with half a million fewer people working, the President seemed excited because the unemployment percentage went down. How can that be good news?  Has anyone calculated how many unemployed workers he has convince to stop looking for work in order for unemployment to drop to 0.0%? We already have too many folks who feel better off financially sitting on the couch.

We have all heard Congressmen and Senators, Democrats and Republicans, say the most important thing to work on is job growth. Not healthcare. Not Benghazi. Not foreign affairs. Not even Lewinski-Clinton affairs. Jobs!

Speaking of jobs, do you remember “Sequestration?”  The reduction in federal spending last year was predicted to cut government services drastically and eliminate jobs for hundreds of thousands of federal employees. Well, the government has spent less, but the leaders of the various agencies sharpened their pencils and figured new (old) ways to save a few dollars. How many thousands of employees did they cut? One. Not one thousand, ONE.

How would you like to be that one? You have to go home and admit to the wife, “With over 2 million employees, I’m the only one they could do without.”

Only one? Maybe a few IRS folks should have gotten pink slips instead of bonuses. And I think we could all identify a few pencil-pushers at certain VA Hospitals that ought to be shoved out the door.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“There is a bare possibility that we might want to use these (veterans) again. Anyway, it looks like mighty good insurance to keep them in a good humor.”
 WA #239, July 24, 1927
  “Each party has a plan for relieving the unemployed. They have been unemployed for three years, and nobody paid any attention to ‘em, but now both parties have discovered that while they are not working, there is nothing in the Constitution to prevent them from voting.” DT #1831, June 6, 1932

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