Thread: Finley: Jobs a low priority for Democrats

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Finley: Jobs a low priority for Democrats

Americans are angry with Washington as much for what it isn't doing as what it is.

What it isn't doing the most is paying attention to the still-raging economic disaster.

Last week's job numbers show unemployment nationally bumping past 10 percent and surpassing 15 percent in Michigan. Unemployment keeps climbing, even though President Barack Obama and Congress nine months ago committed $787 billion to creating jobs.

Since then, neither the White House nor Congress has spent a minute honestly analyzing whether the stimulus program is accomplishing its goal, and if not, what other approaches might work.

Instead, the administration is spinning dismal economic reports into positive news, allowing both it and Congress to ignore the economy while they pursue their ideological ends.

It ought to infuriate anyone who's lost a job, can't find a job, is worried about his job or lives in a community ravaged by a lack of jobs that Congress devotes nearly all of its energy to arguing about health care.

The promise of health care reform was not what got Democrats elected. Voters tossed Republicans on their fannies for ruining the economy, not because they didn't enact wildly expensive social programs.

But while the economy tops every list of public concerns, job creation is not the hot topic in Washington.

In fact, Democratic leaders, obsessed with reworking America, have proved more than willing to sacrifice precious jobs during the worst economic climate in a half-century.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., rammed an energy-rationing bill through her Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last week without a single Republican member in the room.

The bill would greatly limit America's ability to produce the energy it needs to fuel an economic rebound. In other words, it's a job killer.

Democrats are revealing that putting the country back to work is a lesser priority than passing their social agenda.

If that weren't true, they wouldn't even consider any measure that would raise taxes on job creators.

Higher taxes, particularly on business, always result in fewer jobs. Both the health care and climate change bills will trigger huge tax hikes for every taxpayer.

Democrats have learned nothing from history. During the Great Depression, each time the economy showed a spark, President Franklin Roosevelt snuffed it out with another tax increase or regulatory burden.

Obama is making the same mistake and justifying it by claiming health care and climate change are so urgent they can't be delayed until the economy recovers, and perhaps we can afford the costs.

But one in 10 American workers are unemployed -- one in seven in Michigan. Surely, that's the most urgent priority.

If it doesn't become so soon in Washington, the tea bags being hurled at the Capitol will turn into pitchforks.

Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The Detroit News. Reach him at nfinley@detnews.com or (313) 222-2064. Watch him at 8:30 p.m. Fridays on "Am I Right?" on Detroit Public TV, Channel 56.

This is the kind of situation which made an opening for Hitler most of his followers were principally behind him because of their desire for jobs not any desire to anihilate Jews. The major parties of the time were not as concerned and had lost touch with the discontent of the average person in the street. The largest complaint of rank and file members with the party platform was the party's anti Semitism but the policy on Jews was set by those who were drawn to the party by it.

It is similar today I guess, our movemet is in danger if we allow it to be taken over by anti Mexicans. I want Mexicans to obey our immigration law but some of my relatives are Mexicans. I would like to visit there more often. I want to see more trade with and investment in Mexico.

It isn't anti-Mexicanism, Richard, although they are the majority here illegally, and their support groups like LaRaza and MALDEF scream the loudest and get a lot of face-time on TV.
There are people here illegally from all over the world, especially those that are here to visit on a visa and just disappear into the population. They know we have no clue if the person that entered ever left with our current system.
I always sweetly ask where a person is from when I hear an accent, and ask how to say please and thank you in their language. At this point I have run across 47 nationalities. Everything from Chinese to Uzbekis, but what always has puzzled me is why there was a family of Uzbeks manning the register at a gas station on the beach in FL, a gas station owned by Pakistanis. To be able to fall out the back door onto the beach would be a job a lot of young Americans would love, and with the economy these days, a lot of older Americans as well.