Can anyone figure out President Obama’s job creation strategy??
It’s difficult to understand President Obama’s job creation strategy. He claims he wants to see more Americans working, but then he rejects private sector projects that would create tens of thousands of American jobs. It appears that the President prefers pandering to special interest above job creation and a sustained economic recovery.
Consider what the President said during his trip to Brazil earlier this year. He told the Brazilians, “We want to work with you. We want to help with technology and support to develop these oil reserves safely, and when you’re ready to start selling, we want to be one of your best customers.”
There’s no problem with buying oil from the Brazilians. But why does the President have a problem with building the Keystone XL pipeline to allow Americans to buy more oil from the Canadians? U.S. companies work with the Canadians to produce oil in Canada, and American workers would build the majority of the Keystone XL. Also, getting more oil from Canada would mean fewer imports from less friendly countries.
It’s hard to believe, but maybe the President doesn’t believe that building a 1,700 mile pipeline will create jobs. Consider his statement yesterday:
I know the suggestion right now is, is that somehow, well, this Keystone issue will create jobs. That’s being determined by the State Department right now, and there is a process. But here’s what I know: However many jobs might be generated by a Keystone pipeline, they’re going to be a lot fewer than the jobs that are created by extending the payroll tax cut and extending unemployment insurance.
I can’t speak to the number of jobs created by a payroll tax cut, but what does the President mean, “I know the suggestion right now is, is that somehow, well, this Keystone issue will create jobs.” The Keystone XL would be a $7 billion project. It would be a 1,700 mile pipeline. This is a large infrastructure project. A couple years ago the he was touting infrastructure projects as economic stimulus. What’s different this time?
Of course, President Obama’s whole system for determining the number of jobs created by any infrastructure project is now completely discredited. Most Americans remember well the administration’s stimulus-era promise of unemployment topping out at 8 percent if the stimulus were passed. The stimulus was passed and unemployment then spiked above 10 percent. So the President is going to have to forgive us if we doubt his ability—and that of his advisers—to predict what policies will create jobs.
The facts, though, about job creation in the energy sector are undeniable. And we’re not talking about the green energy experiments like Solyndra that went bankrupt and laid off its workers. We’re talking about affordable energy development in places like North Dakota, where production in the Bakken Shale has resulted in the lowest unemployment in the country (3.5 percent).
So the bottom line seems to be this: The president wants to buy Brazilian oil, but not Canadian oil. He wants to create infrastructure jobs, but not private-sector jobs on projects that promise greater energy independence. He wants to speed the approval process and government backing for unproven green energy companies like Solyndra, but he indefinitely stalls on affordable energy transported by TransCanada.
I can’t follow the President’s logic on jobs, but if you can, please leave a comment below.
