Obama and (what?) jobs

Nothing that comes out of the Democratic National Convention this week will be able to surpass, for sheer theatricality if not valor, the improvised rant of screen icon Clint Eastwood at the Republican National Convention.

Except maybe for this: the claim that the United States has added 4.5 million private-sector jobs since the beginning of 2010, and/or the bridge over delusional waters crossed by many in the media that lead to the erroneous assessment that the country is better off now that it was in 2008.

Maybe things have improved in some industries. Maybe Obama’s policies have even saved some industries. Selectively.

I hear that Obama saved the U.S. auto industry from collapse. Good for Michigan. There are 48 other states. Forty-nine if you count New Jersey.

It is easy to claim that things have gone better under your watch when you’re making north of $250,000, get to delegate most of your responsibilities and enjoy federal perks second to none. It is harder to prove it.

So the Dept. of Labor publishes some statistics under a Democratic administration — where is the fact-checking, independent verification? Where is the database that proves 4.5 million jobs were created and filled?

What of the millions of unemployed — and millions more who don’t even bother looking for work because either a) there is none in their area or b) they want more than a mindless McJob?

Feel like dancing? The folks in Charlotte should sit this one out. /AG

There seem to be more homeless people in New York City than in recent memory. The jobs erased in the 2008 downturn have not come back, and by and large they will not, because there has not been any coherent jobs creation policy on a national scale. Lots of hope, maybe, but less and less pocket change.

Didn’t Republican presidents and policymakers past damage the economy in one way or another? Arguably yes. But just because someone is a Democrat does not mean they are inherently less culpable when it comes to action/inaction on job creation.

It’s probably a safe bet that if you asked between 25 and 45 million working-age Americans if they were holding down a job, they would answer no. In the meantime, as our economy self-Japanizes more and more every day, discretionary income continues to drop.

Taking credit for job growth that is essentially non-existent is for the birds.

The bottom line is that statistics were made to be manipulated. The American public is doing itself a disservice if it doesn’t loudly question just what the paper pushers in Washington D.C. have been doing/not  doing these past couple of years. Or at least, when being told from on high how rosy things are, not to buy it wholesale.