The Speaker of the House John Boehner says, "Government doesn't
create jobs, it's the private sector that creates jobs."
In all fairness, that's only half a lie. The government does, and always has,
created jobs in partnership with the private sector. So does that make Boehner
only half a liar? Hmmm....
The Republicans use the farce that "government doesn't create jobs"
to mislead the voters, trying to convince them that most government spending
is waste, fraud, and abuse...therefore we should cut government spending and
balance the budget.
But the GOP's proposed cuts to any government spending won't be in defense
(or in waste, fraud, and abuse), but to our Medicare and Social Security programs
(which, by the way, also creates jobs).
In 2008 (before Obama) the Federal Government, excluding the Postal Service,
employed about 2.0 million civilian workers (with a population of 312 million).
The Federal Government is the nation's single largest employer.
For national security reasons, this total does not include employees for our intelligence
agencies. But this total does include members of congress, such as Speaker of
the House John Boehner.
Under George H.W. Bush the Federal Government employed 3.06 million (with a
smaller population of 250 million).
Among the largest employers in the private sector are those such as Wal-Mart
and McDonald’s -- those who can't outsource jobs to China because they
need a domestic workforce to operate (and we know how well they pay).
Wal-Mart employs 1.4 million Americans in the United States and 2.1 million
world-wide.
Apple might have been one of America's largest employers, but most of
their work force is at Foxconn, the single largest private employer in
mainland China. Altogether, Foxconn employs about a million people
Besides our government being the largest single employer directly, the
government also creates jobs in the private sector indirectly through defense
and other government spending, which goes to contractors in all 50 states.
Total U.S. defense spending has increased so much over the past decade that
it has reached levels not seen since World War II, when the United States had 12
million people under arms and waged wars on three continents. The taxpayers have
consistently spent half a trillion a dollars every year on defense for decades.
Does the Speaker of the House John Boehner and the Republicans deny that
almost half of what we spend in our annual budget every year on defense spending
doesn't create any jobs? Didn't Obama just recently approve another $650 billion
for defense spending at the request of the Republicans?
Our government spent $1 trillion on George W. Bush's two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan...how
many jobs did that create? How many jobs did Halliburton create?
The government funded World War II. The Manhattan Project alone employed
more than 130,000 people when the U.S. population was only 130 million people.
Now we have a nuclear industry: Nuclear reactors and nuclear bombs. We've built
and now operate over 100 commercial reactors in the U.S.
-- how many jobs is that Mister Boehner?
The government funded NASA. The space program included the lunar landing on
the moon, space shuttle missions, and Mars land rovers. At the height of Apollo
development NASA employed nearly 36,000 people. The workforce leveled off at around 18,000 people
in 1998 and has remained near this level since then. But more than 300,000 jobs
were created through government contracts in our space program.
The Tennessee Valley Authority was established in 1933. Today the TVA
is a federally owned corporation that is now the largest public provider of
electricity in the United States. The TVA operates eleven coal-burning plants
that produces more than half of TVA’s electricity. Republicans LOVE
coal, so government really DOES create jobs!
The Works Progress Administration created numerous roads, buildings, and other projects.
At its peak it provided paid jobs for more than three million unemployed men and
women, as well as youth when at the time the U.S. population was 130 million.
The Public Works Administration also created employment, stabilize purchasing power, and helped revive the
economy during the Great Depression. It funded and administered the construction of more than 34,000 projects including airports, large electricity-generating dams, major warships for the Navy, and bridges, as well as 70% of the new schools and one-third of the hospitals.
The government built Hoover Dam and provides hydroelectric power,
creating thousands of jobs. In the process, the construction of the dam also
created a whole town, which is still here, several miles away. It's called
Boulder City.
A $35 million bond was issued and submitted to the voters in San Francisco to
build the Golden Gate Bridge, and carried overwhelmingly. During the Great
Depression homeless and unemployed men would camp near the construction
site, waiting for workers to fall to their death...it meant another job opening.
The list and examples are endless as to how government creates jobs - -
either directly, through the private sector, or in partnership with private contractors.
We have the Center for Disease and Control, the Food and Drug Administration,
and other government services to keep us safe and healthy. The GOP wants to eliminate
most of these programs to save the top 1% in taxes, nothing more.
Government contractors ("the private sector") that benefit
from taxpayer funding, also despises labor unions. They blame them for
attempting to negotiate wages that only keeps pace with rising inflation. The
GOP uses the argument that government workers shouldn't be paid more than those
in the private sector, when it's become common knowledge that wages in the
private sector have remained stagnant (or fell) over the past 40 years -- just
so their CEOs could pay themselves ever rising and excessive salaries.
One example is Boeing, who wanted to move jobs from their home state
of Washington to South Carolina for lower wages (instead of to China). Union
and/or government workers haven't been getting rich on the taxpayer's backs, the
top 1% such as Boeing's CEO have been getting rich on the taxpayer's
backs - - with an unfair tax code that exempts government contractors like Boeing
from paying corporate taxes and allows the CEOs to pay only 15% on their capital
gains from stock-option compensation...even through Boeing gets
government subsidies and defense contracts.
The Republicans and the Speaker of the House John Boehner have been attacking
people on food stamps as the bane of our jobless recovery, rather than attacking
"leveraged buy-outs" by Bain Capital. What the government
spends on food stamps is minuscule compared to what we've paid to government contractors
like Boeing, who've been sucking on the government tit for decades.
Speaker of the House John Boehner has a $225,000-a-year government job, with government
benefits, and a government staff, with a government budget - - and he has
government healthcare insurance and he will also retire very well on a
government-paid pension. John Boehner takes government-paid vacations and takes
3-martini lunches at the government's expense. We pay for his tee-time at the
country club golf courses. So how can John Boehner say with a straight face that
"government doesn't create jobs, it's the private sector that creates jobs."
But because of the "private sector", we now have 30
million under-employed and unemployed Americans, and another 75
million earning near poverty wages. The Republicans have been cutting
government jobs, like employees in the IRS, that are much needed to investigate
government contractors and the top 1% who have been evading income taxes for
years. (Yes Mister Speaker, we don't have a spending problem, we have a revenue
problem....that's why we have a deficit problem, not because of
unemployed people on food stamps.)
And when there was the Republican threat of a government
shut down, Speaker of the House John Boehner's paycheck was exempt. It
was people who needed their unemployment checks that had to worry. If the
radicals in the House had their way, their would be NO government jobs
(except their own), and we'd all be at the mercy of corporations in the private
sector who'd only want to pay us minimum wage.
The Republicans and the Speaker of the House John Boehner keep repeating the
same old tired lie: "Government doesn't create jobs, it's the private sector that creates jobs."
That is total B.S. - - but the Democrats never challenge them on this. Why?
Our veterans (government employees) who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan
need jobs too, but the private sector hasn't hired them either.
The U.S. government has always been the largest and best "job
creator" ever in human history...even much better than Wal-Mart,
McDonalds, and Apple.
But if government doesn't create jobs, then maybe John Boehner can
always go back to bartending.
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Can John Boehner count to 10?
I dare him to take my simple math quiz.
John, did you know that 1 + 1 = 2? If so, then I
have a very simple math quiz for you. Please pay attention and read
this very carefully, OK? Let's see just how smart a bartender
congressman really is..
A little more than 2 years ago (114 weeks ago) the Bureau
of Labor Statistics reported that America had 15.7 million
people unemployed when the unemployment rate was 10.2%. Are you with
me so far?
At this time the economists were saying we had 30
million Americans that were either under-unemployed
(part-time workers earning low-wages) or unemployed. OK so
far?
At that time, 10 million of those (who were without
any work at all) had qualified for, and were at one time, receiving either
state or federal unemployment benefits. Are you still with me John?
Since that time, after the maximum allowable weeks
of 99, they have all exhausted all their unemployment insurance
benefits. Got that?
Now, let's assume that your private sector pals really
did create 3 million jobs paying a "living wage" since
that time back in October of 2009. Are you still with me John? Here's
where your advanced skills in simple arithmetic come into play.
According to your "job creators", we have
about 3 million unfulfilled job openings. Now pay attention John,
this is really tricky.
Let's assume that 3 million unemployed Americans
could afford to suddenly pull up stakes, leave their underwater mortgages
behind, and move themselves and their families to apply for these 3
million jobs tomorrow. I'll give you and your pals the benefit of
the doubt and agree that this is very possible.
Pay attention John, this is almost as difficult as calculating
1+1.
Regarding unemployment benefits, you and your
Republican thugs have been spouting things such as, "it is
profoundly wrong to pay people to do nothing." Many want to
impose mandatory volunteer work programs and drug tests. (Bear with
me John.)
Many of your pals in the GOP are referencing Barry
Goldwater: "It is not my goal to promote welfare, but to
protect freedom. When we protect freedom, the quality of life always
improves. When we try to distribute wealth, we only bring everybody
down." (As if freedom in the private sector would
magically take people off of welfare, and somehow enable them
to become wealthy with hard work. But I digress.)
Hear me out John, I'm almost finished.
Your pals say, "It's too easy for workers who don't
really want to work to get unemployment benefits. We're subsidizing
poor behavior. When you do that, you get more poor behavior. If we
pay people for unemployment, they won't find work."
Stay with me John, we're almost there.
Ok, now...10
million people have already exhausted their unemployment
benefits over a year ago and still haven't found work...any
work at all. Millions more are no longer even being counted anymore
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Get out your pencil now John, it's time to add.
Since that time in October of 2009, we've also had
another 6 million Americans who either graduated or dropped out of
high school and college. And since then, we've also had more
layoffs, both from the private sector and the government sector.
So now tell me John. If we had 15.7
million unemployed 2 years ago, and we created 3 million jobs,
and we have 6
million new people looking for work, how many jobs do we need so
far? Write your answer here John __________ .
Now, add to that 7.8
million Americans who are CURRENTLY receiving
either state of federal unemployment benefits (and have not yet
exhausted them) according the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Write
your answer here John __________ .
Here's your final math quiz John (it's a four-part answer).
Good luck!!!
-
How many net private sector jobs would we need
to be created to have our country fully employed (before the
crash of 2008 , and before Obama became president) and just
counting those who are NOT receiving any unemployment
benefits. Write your answer here John __________ .
-
Now, how many more net private sector jobs would
be needed if we cut off all unemployment benefits immediately
(starting tomorrow) so that all those lazy people won't
be causing unemployment)? Write your answer here John
__________ .
-
Now, please give me a total of all the people
who are unemployed, including all those who are currently receiving
UI benefits, those whose have already exhausted all their
benefits, and those who are new to the work force and never
qualified for any benefits. Write your answer here John
__________ .
-
Now here's the hard part John, pay close
attention: Subtract 3 million Americans (from line #3) who have
already found jobs since October 2009, and then subtract another
3 million jobs that are currently open, and give me a grand
total of private sector jobs that are needed for full employment.
Write your answer here John __________ .
BONUS QUESTION: Now please explain to me and
the American people how by cutting food stamps, unemployment
benefits, and TANF for all those "lazy drug addicts" will
allow your "job creators" to create that many jobs (please
refer to your answer on line #4). Write your answer here John:
__________ .
The Triple Whammy Bonus Question off all time!
Now John, here's your chance to save America, create
thousands of jobs, create energy independence, and become a national
hero...all in one fell swoop.
How many jobs could the government sector
create if we invested in an oil pipeline and built our own oil refineries?
I proposed my own idea about the Canadian
Keystone Pipeline, funding a massive non-profit public works
program to build an oil company that's operated and owned solely
by our government (the people). |
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T
and a despicable liar.