In the most recently reported month, America created zero jobs. Back in January 2009, when President Obama and his economic team took over, non-farm payrolls stood at 133,563,000 jobs. Presidential candidate Obama promised Americans “change you can count on.“ At most recent month end, non-farm payrolls in America stood at 131,132,000 jobs. Lets see, a net loss of 2,431,000 American jobs in two and a half years. How’s the job change we can count on working out?
The recent Gallup poll showed that approval for the federal government under President Obama dropped to 17%, the lowest approval rating ever. My business, for nearly five decades, has been advising conservative small business owners and investors saving for a secure retirement, whether today or tomorrow. The U.S. Small Business Administration will tell you that 99.7% of all employer firms are small businesses. Half of all private sector employees work for risk-taking, small business owners. Over the last 15 years, America’s small business owners have created nearly 70% of all net new jobs in America. Today, over 50% of small businesses are home based. Small business employees produce over five times as many patents per employee as large firms produce. For the risks these business owners take, President Obama has consistently called for higher income taxes. The president refers to risk takers making over $200,000/year as millionaires and billionaires. And President Obama wants no part of lowering the corporate tax rate for America’s job providers.
Calvin Coolidge, one of the few American presidents I respect, said, “I want the people of America to be able to work less for the Government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. That is the chief meaning of freedom.” By contrast, Democratic advisor Paul Krugman counsels, “What we should be doing to create new jobs is to have a lot of job-creating spending on the part of the federal government.” Mr. Krugman and President Obama no doubt are familiar with the history of FDR’s New Deal jobs programs. President Obama, like FDR before him, knows that grandiose programs of federal spending do not create jobs, but rather are a shield for massive income redistribution. At the end of 1932, American unemployment was 23.6%. Six years later, well into The New Deal tidal wave of spending and indebtedness, unemployment was still at 19.0%.
Now then, on to President Obama’s initial 2012 campaign speech, masquerading as a jobs speech. President Obama is a whale of a teleprompter speaker, is he not? Grading the president’s speech is easy. In terms of a school-day speech class, the President deserves an A. In terms of small business 101, (you know, all the folk I refer to above—America’s job creators), it rates an F. Paul Krugman, who I am sure is a real nice guy in person, writes this morning that the Obama jobs plan was significantly bolder and better than he expected and that he was favorably surprised. Mr. Krugman clearly is not writing to the 99.7% of America’s small businesses that generate the majority of new jobs in America. Here is what a Jeffersonian/Coolidge-like president would have presented, in under five minutes, to the American people.
I want Congress to immediately pass a national right to work law. We will junk the tax code and move to a two-stage, no deductions, flat personal income tax, with the cutoff at $100,000. In the future, there will be no tax on corporate profits, dividends or interest. We will initiate a national retail sales tax to account for the remaining revenues needed to run what will be a much smaller federal government. Congress is advised to repeal both Obamacare and Dodd/Frank. The Fed is to come under review with the possibility of realignment.
My Jeffersonian/Coolidge plan would immediately make America’s business sector the most competitive in the world. The stock market would soar. And America’s small business/job generators would be in the catbird’s seat. Phones at employment agencies across America would ring off the wall. I doubt my Jeffersonian/Coolidge plan would hold much interest for President Obama and his income redistribution cadre of academic advisors from Harvard. Human Events recently wrote, “William F. Buckley famously said, ‘I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the 2,000 members of Harvard University’.” Pretty well sums it up.
I hope I do not sound unpleasant here, but no member of Congress should even consider passing President Obama’s campaign, sorry jobs bill. America today is led by an excellent tele-communicator, but a fellow without a thread of understanding of what makes an American small business entrepreneur successful and able to create jobs. It’s a pity for us all. Americans fortunately have an opportunity to hire a real jobs creator and a sympathetic House and Senate in 2012. We shall see.
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