Blaming Workers

If you're going to be chairman of the Party of No, inevitably you're going to contradict himself.

Rush Limbaugh tried hard on Tuesday to pretend that he wants Americans to be employed, remarking

The truth is you can't have a recovery if there aren't any jobs being created. You can say you have a recovery, but try telling that to people who aren't working, who want to work. You try telling them that the economy is coming back. And then at 10%unemployment, America still doesn't have enough workers.

But his apparent* concern was short-lived, as you can see if you wade throught this nonsense:

There was a story in the Wall Street Journal, I think it was in yesterday's stack, I didn't have a chance to get to it, but I remember enough of it. The Wall Street Journal was very happy that the Obama administration's finally figuring out here that the job situation is serious. And the Obama administration has floated something that they were talking about during the campaign and then shortly after President Obama was inaugurated, and it's this. A $3,000 tax credit or cut for every employee hired. Now, it's good that the administration is starting to float around the idea of tax cuts, and, you know, I don't want to sit here and besmirch tax cuts, but this is not why people hire people. They hire people 'cause they have work that needs to be done.

To say that somebody's going to go out and spend whatever it's going to cost to hire somebody, plus the benefit package, health care, and all that, for $3,000 tax break? When sales are down? It just isn't going to happen. If you're gonna cut taxes, cut their income tax! Don't gove tax credit stuff. Cut their income, corporate tax, small business tax, whatever it is, reduce the cost of doing business that is slapped on them by the government. Now, the Obama administration is not going to do this because they don't want that kind of independence and freedom and liberty. What they want, at the end of the day, is if enough businesses take this deal, to be able to say, Obama created jobs, Obama created jobs, came up with this big deal, give every business three grand essentially for every new hire.

Short Rush: Obama wants to give businessess a tax cut for hiring people, but that won't be effective because businesses hire individuals only when "they have work that needs to be done." Better to cut the corporate tax or small business tax, which Obama won't do because he wants to take credit for creating jobs.

Ignore for a moment that Limbaugh says the President's plan won't create jobs and that he's pushing it so that he can get credit for creating jobs. (Honestly- that's what he said.) More significant is the avoidance of fact:

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that retail sales in August bounded higher by a seasonally adjusted 2.7 percent over the previous month, surpassing economists’ expectations of 1.9 percent. It was the largest monthly increase since January 2006....

Excluding sales of vehicles and auto parts, retail sales rose 1.1 percent in August.

A reasonable observation: the private sector is benefiting as the demand for its goods and services is increasing, however modestly. But employment has not responded, whether because of the typical lag between an increase in consumer demand and employment or, more ominously, businesses have decided that their profits will increase if more workers are not hired.

In either case, the answer to joblessness is not giving employers the "independence and freedom and liberty" they already enjoy as American citizens. The answer, obvious to the vast majority of the American people, is to match potential employee with employer. Obama's concept of a tax break for every new job created is, at least on its face, sensible.

*But wait! Rush really wasn't trying hard to feign interest in job creation. After citing the unemployment rate of 10% (actually, 9.8%- accuracy is immaterial in the world of right-wing radio), he claimed

What is amazing here, when I dig deep is, even with the economy in the straits it's in, there are still businesses that need work to be done. They are still in business, and they're trying to stay in business, and they're even trying to grow in this cesspool of an environment. And even with all the millions of people looking for work, businesses say they can't find enough highly qualified. Now, that, folks, is a slap upside the head.

The problem, folks, isn't that Americans can't find jobs. It's that, well, they're not capable. With nearly 10% unemployment, gosh darn it, those executives just can't find Americans who can do the job. Somehow, the economic climate under President Obama is sufficiently improved that businesses have "work to be done" (with no thanks to Obama- it's a "cesspool of an environment, doncha know) but our fellow citizens are inadequate.

Rush is carrying water for the business owners who "say they can't find enough highly qualifed." We've heard this slander of the American worker before (video below). It's the nonsense that helps lay the groundwork for the job-killing practices of outsourcing, offshoring, privatization, and a guest worker program (a slightly different concept, but reprehensible in its own way).

The question that needs to be asked: why do conservatives always blame Americans first?




next up: Rush confused about the NFL.