Progressive Agenda: High Unemployment Is Worth It

Jim Powell

Why is it that one government report after another "unexpectedly" bears more bad news about jobs? Last week, according to Bloomberg, "The number of unemployment claims unexpectedly shot up." Before that, Reuters reported, "Employers unexpectedly cut jobs." This "unexpectedly" bit has been going on for quite a while, suggesting that journalists continue to be surprised that President Obama's progressive agenda has failed to revive private-sector job creation. One might as well say, "Monday unexpectedly will come next week." There's no secret about how to create private-sector jobs. Plenty of experience has shown how to do it, and a great deal has been written about it. The literature on the subject goes back a couple of hundred years, so Mr. Obama can't say he just missed a tweet. The first step is to make private-sector job creation a top priority. That's vital, because the private sector pays all the bills. Government doesn't have any money other than what it extracts from the private sector. Well, Mr. Obama never made the recovery of private-sector job creation a top priority because he was busy pushing his progressive agenda, including a big "stimulus" bill for government employees, government-run health care, more compulsory unionism, carbon taxes and other policies that have a negative impact on private-sector employment. Read more here:

Progressive Agenda: High Unemployment Is Worth It