Job Creators Beg Obama: “Get Out of the Way”

September 8, 2011

Despite Deafening Drumbeat of Bad Economic News, Dems Insist on Continuing Their Failed, Job-Destroying Policies

Economic data out in the past week continue to point to a gloomy forecast for job creation and economic growth.
Facing a barrage of job-destroying regulations, many job creators on Wednesday offered a job creation idea of their own: asking President Obama to “get out of the way.”
Instead of heeding the advice of the job creators who must propel America’s economic recovery, Democrats are going all in on their failed policies of borrowing from countries like China to pay for “stimulus” spending at home. How much longer must American families wait for Democrats to realize their economic experiment has failed?

BACKGROUND

Economic data out in the past week continue to point to a gloomy forecast for job creation and economic growth:

CHICAGO FED PRESIDENT: ECONOMY BASICALLY “STILL IN A RECESSION.” (Antonia van de Velde, “US Economy is Basically ‘Still in Recession’,” CNBC, 9/7/2011)

NEW FED BEIGE BOOK “POINTS TO SLUGGISH GROWTH”: “Economic activity was sluggish in most parts of the U.S. and some areas weakened considerably amid a slowdown in manufacturing, continued weakness in real estate and the impact of Hurricane Irene, a Federal Reserve survey showed Wednesday.

“The Fed said in its latest beige book, based on anecdotes collected from business contacts and economists in the second part of July and most of August, that five of its 12 bank regions reported only ‘a modest or slight’ expansion: St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas and San Francisco. The other seven districts showed either sluggish growth, a mixed picture or slower overall activity, the latter case in the Richmond and Philadelphia areas.” (Luca Di Leo and Andrew Ackerman, “Fed’s Beige Book Points to Sluggish Growth,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/7/2011)

SO MUCH FOR “WINNING THE FUTURE”: U.S. “FALLS TO 5^th IN GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS”: “The U.S. has tumbled further down a global ranking of the world’s most competitive economies, landing at fifth place because of its huge deficits and declining public faith in government, a global economic group said Wednesday.

“The announcement by the World Economic Forum was the latest bad news for the Obama administration, which has been struggling to boost the sinking U.S. economy and lower an unemployment rate of more than 9 percent.” (John Heilprin, “Survey: US Falls to 5^th in Global Competitiveness,” Associated Press, 9/7/2011)

1.7 MILLION FEWER JOBS THAN WHEN OBAMA TOOK OFFICE: “The Labor Department says that nonfarm payroll employment totaled 131.1 million in August, compared with 132.8 million in February 2009.” (Robert Pear, “Democrats Press Obama for New Works Programs; Republicans Say They’ve Failed,” The New York Times, 9/7/2011)

AUGUST JOBS REPORT: ZERO NEW JOBS, UNEMPLOYMENT STUCK AT 9.1%, FIRST TIME SINCE FEB. 1945 THAT ECONOMY HAS HAD “MONTHLY NET JOB CHANGE OF ZERO.” (Lyneka Little and Bill McGuire, “U.S. Employers Added No New Jobs in August,” ABC News, 9/2/2011)

WHITE HOUSE FORECAST: UNEMPLOYMENT ABOVE 9% THROUGH 2012. (Erik Wasson, “White House Downgrades Job Growth Forecast for 2012,” The Hill, 9/1/2011)

Facing a barrage of job-destroying regulations, many job creators on Wednesday offered a job creation idea of their own: asking President Obama to “get out of the way”:

JOB CREATORS TO OBAMA: ” ‘GET OUT OF THE WAY’ FOR JOB GROWTH.” (Gennine Kelly, “CEOs to Obama: ‘Get Out of the Way’ for Job Growth,” USA Today, 9/7/2011)

WHITE HOUSE: THE REGULATIONS WILL KEEP ON COMING: “The White House is denying a report that President Obama is considering calling for a moratorium on regulations affecting the economy, save those that deal with health care and financial regulations, in his Thursday jobs speech.” (Sam Stein, “White House Denies Report It’s Considering Regulatory Moratorium,” The Huffington Post, 9/7/2011)

4,257 NEW REGULATIONS IN THE WORKS, 219 WILL COST MORE THAN $100 MILLION ANNUALLY—15% MORE REGULATIONS THAN LAST YEAR. “Appropriate and responsible regulations play an important policymaking role. Yet the Obama administration has turned rule-making into an assault on American businesses and the jobs they create. Right now, 4,257 new regulations are in the works, 219 of which will cost over $100 million annually — 15 percent more than last year.”(Editorial, “How Obama’s Rules Hold Back Chicago Business,” The Chicago Sun-Times, 8/30/2011)

In addition to ignoring the advice of the job creators who must propel America’s economic recovery, Democrats are going all in on their failed policies of borrowing from countries like China to pay for “stimulus” spending at home. How much longer must American families wait for Democrats to realize their economic experiment has failed?:

“NEW AND IMPROVED” JOB PLAN “COULD AMOUNT TO A SIGNIFICANT STIMULUS OF BETWEEN $300 BILLION AND $400 BILLION… BUT [OBAMA] WON’T USE THE WORD”: “So the president’s new and improved plan is likely to consist of a set of what he hopes will be seen as moderate, common-sense assists to the economy. These could amount to a significant stimulus of between $300 billion and $400 billion over the coming year, which is more than 2% of gross domestic product. But he won’t use the word.” (David Wessel, “Obama Tries to Rewrite Narrative on Jobs,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/7/2011)

OBAMA IN A STATE OF DENIAL: THINKS HIS POLICIES DIDN’T FAIL, IT’S THE ECONOMY’S FAULT IT FAILED TO RESPOND TO THEM… WE’RE CONFUSED, TOO:“Obama has mused in several private settings that if he loses re-election, it won’t be because a Republican beat him: It will be because the economy was impervious to his attempts to revive it.” (Marc Ambinder, “One Small Step for Jobs, One Big Target for Republicans,” National Journal, 9/7/2011)

MORE STIMULUS, BUT “YOU WON’T HEAR THE S WORD”: “With President Obama set to unveil his plan for job creation at a Joint Session of Congress next week, a former White House economic adviser said today that economic ‘stimulus’ will be part of the package – but won’t be labeled as such.

” ‘You won’t hear the word ‘stimulus’ — the ‘s word’ — because that just is politically unappealing right now,’ Jared Bernstein, who left his post as Vice President Joe Biden’s top economist in June, told us on ABC’s ‘Top Line’ today. ‘But you will hear targeted measures, which I think is actually a more apt description of what I think the president will talk about.'” (Rick Klein, “Obama to Seek Stimulus Funds—But ‘You Won’t Hear the S Word’,” ABC News’ The Note Blog, 8/31/2011)

“PELOSI AND HOUSE DEMOCRATS HAVE DROPPED THE WORD ‘STIMULUS’ FROM THEIR VOCABULARY”: “Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Democrats have dropped the word ‘stimulus’ from their vocabulary.

“Though the House minority leader and her caucus are still pushing an economic stimulus agenda to save the economy, they’ve radically changed their rhetoric with the hope of winning over voters who saw ‘stimulus’ as close to a dirty word.” (Mike Lillis, “Pelosi Drops the Word ‘Stimulus’,” The Hill, 9/6/2011)

“EVEN THOUGH [THE DEMOCRATS’] FAVORED POLICIES… ARE LARGELY THE SAME.” “Democrats are now being careful to frame their job-creation agenda in language excluding references to any stimulus, even though their favored policies for ending the deepest recession since the Great Depression are largely the same. …That’s a sharp shift from last year’s messaging strategy, when Pelosi issued hundreds of press releases touting the benefits of the 2009 stimulus bill in hopes of making believers of skeptical voters.” (Mike Lillis, “Pelosi Drops the Word ‘Stimulus’,” The Hill, 9/6/2011)

BIDEN LAST WEEK: WE NEED MORE STIMULUS, FIRST ONE DIDN’T SPEND ENOUGH MONEY. “Vice President Joe Biden said on Friday the U.S. economy needed more stimulus to get it moving, putting in a plug for government intervention shortly before the White House unveils new proposals to boost job growth. … ‘I think the economy does need more stimulus,’ Biden said… ‘Everybody says we should’ve (had)…a bigger stimulus package. Yeah, we should’ve. I was pushing (for) it,’ he said.” (Jeff Mason, “Biden Says U.S. Needs More Stimulus, Businesses Mad at S&P,” Reuters, 8/26/2011)