Partisanship Has Its Place
The job numbers and the election cycle meet monthly when the Department of Labor announces if there has been job growth or decline and the unemployment rate as a percentage of the people participating in the labor market.
This is also a place where one needs to decide if those who govern are doing their job. Does the policy implemented by Congress or the President do what it should be doing.
There are an almost infinite variety of paths that can be taken related to jobs policy. The public sector can add jobs directly through public service employment or it can support activities that will indirectly increase employment where the private sector hires people to do things the government wants done.
The growth in the economy has not included public sector employment. State and local governments are laying people off to balance their budgets.
Twenty three months of recovery after the worst of the worst of the recession/depression we are stuck with the parties in a place where little can get done with the republicans saying our policies would have made the recovery quicker and the democrats saying the problems were so bad they should not be blamed for the weaker than anticipated recovery.
Long term policies to rebuild the economy continue to need the government to focus resources or attention to areas where problems continue to exist. Targeted infrastructure projects can help with employment and improve efficiency. Employment programs in high unemployment groups may not lift every inner city kid out of poverty but to think the private sector will is wishful thinking at this time.
The refrain is give me four more years or give me a chance. The devilish details leave many of these problems in Congress which needs a good house cleaning where again the response is we need to maintain our majorities to checkmate the other party.
The American public deserves better and more partisanship is not better.
This is also a place where one needs to decide if those who govern are doing their job. Does the policy implemented by Congress or the President do what it should be doing.
There are an almost infinite variety of paths that can be taken related to jobs policy. The public sector can add jobs directly through public service employment or it can support activities that will indirectly increase employment where the private sector hires people to do things the government wants done.
The growth in the economy has not included public sector employment. State and local governments are laying people off to balance their budgets.
Twenty three months of recovery after the worst of the worst of the recession/depression we are stuck with the parties in a place where little can get done with the republicans saying our policies would have made the recovery quicker and the democrats saying the problems were so bad they should not be blamed for the weaker than anticipated recovery.
Long term policies to rebuild the economy continue to need the government to focus resources or attention to areas where problems continue to exist. Targeted infrastructure projects can help with employment and improve efficiency. Employment programs in high unemployment groups may not lift every inner city kid out of poverty but to think the private sector will is wishful thinking at this time.
The refrain is give me four more years or give me a chance. The devilish details leave many of these problems in Congress which needs a good house cleaning where again the response is we need to maintain our majorities to checkmate the other party.
The American public deserves better and more partisanship is not better.
"...The growth in the economy has not included public sector employment..."
ReplyDeleteGrowth, you gotta be kidding, what "growth in the economy" are you talking about? I see that political jobs are up, what else? McDonalds? Shrinking public sector employment is exactly what we should be doing.
recently government employment has contracted. If you include government contractors the number may be different, like prisons that hold criminals but are managed by the private sector. Locally there have been many governmental employees laid off to balance the budgets of state, county, and local governments. And I agree we have gotten no where close to recovering the millions of jobs previously lost be they public or private jobs.
DeleteCould it be possible to turn off the human captcha check on the comments. It makes it a pain to publish a comment. If you are being spammed I understand.
ReplyDeletesend me an email at jjasgeirson@aol.com and I'll try to fix the problem. Otherwise send directly to my email.
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