In the 20 years of this column, the Kozmos Committee has never seen such a target rich environment as was provided this year. This corner traditionally rings in the New Year by reviewing the old and recognizing the most derision worthy comments by our self-anointed ruling class. Normally, we break down the Kozmos into the news media category and the political category. But this year, because so many Democrats removed their masks and told us what they really think, we need an economic category.
Should we call it the Obamanomics Kozmo? Or the Pelosinomics Kozmo? No, I think that the economic theory advocated this past year is too widespread for any single person to be so honored. And so, we’ll call it the Demonomics Kozmo and award it to the entire Democratic Party.
While the Democrats frequently boasted of all the jobs they created or saved, what Americans have actually experienced is a protracted period of sustained high unemployment that has lasted long enough now to qualify as an era, if not an epoch.
After Newt Gingrich charged in a speech that the Republicans were the party of paychecks and the Democrats were the party of food stamps, the recently demoted Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, fired back claiming that she knew of no better economic stimulus than food stamps. Food stamps give the economy the “biggest bang for the buck.”
I believe her. She doesn’t know any better.
At the height of last summer’s oil spill saga, Barack Obama dipped into the bag of tricks he knows best and exacerbated matters by announcing an indefinite moratorium on Gulf oil exploration. To justify the moratorium, his administration falsified a study by engineers and scientists.
Should we call it the Obamanomics Kozmo? Or the Pelosinomics Kozmo? No, I think that the economic theory advocated this past year is too widespread for any single person to be so honored. And so, we’ll call it the Demonomics Kozmo and award it to the entire Democratic Party.
While the Democrats frequently boasted of all the jobs they created or saved, what Americans have actually experienced is a protracted period of sustained high unemployment that has lasted long enough now to qualify as an era, if not an epoch.
After Newt Gingrich charged in a speech that the Republicans were the party of paychecks and the Democrats were the party of food stamps, the recently demoted Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, fired back claiming that she knew of no better economic stimulus than food stamps. Food stamps give the economy the “biggest bang for the buck.”
I believe her. She doesn’t know any better.
At the height of last summer’s oil spill saga, Barack Obama dipped into the bag of tricks he knows best and exacerbated matters by announcing an indefinite moratorium on Gulf oil exploration. To justify the moratorium, his administration falsified a study by engineers and scientists.
Privately, Obama admitted that the moratorium was motivated by political considerations.
Obama’s moratorium immediately destroyed tens of thousands of jobs directly and many times that many indirectly. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal pleaded with Obama to lift the moratorium, but was told that “anyone who lost their job would get a check from BP.”
When Jindal pointed out that BP was not financially responsible for jobs destroyed by federal government actions, Obama airily responded that out of work oil workers could simply apply for unemployment checks.
It’s hardly surprising that Obama would be so sanguine about destroying jobs and forcing people onto the unemployment rolls. Not only does his party’s electoral prospects rely upon a permanent dependency class, but there is a perverse belief within the Democratic Party’s intelligentsia that unemployment checks create prosperity.
As Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) explained, it is, “extending unemployment benefits that creates economic activity that creates jobs.”
Where would one get the idea that wealth can be created by paying people not to work? Well, one place that one would learn that would be Obama’s own team of economic advisors. As MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann explained, Team Obama concluded that, "The easiest way to create jobs and keep jobs is to make sure that the unemployed continue to have money to spend. The unemployed, unlike the rich, who this president just bowed to, are in fact the real job creators."
The Left’s favorite economist, Paul Krugman, attacked Senator John Kyl (D-Arizona) for claiming that unemployment insurance "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work."
"To me,” Krugman said, “that's a bizarre point of view--but then, I don't live in Mr. Kyl's universe.” Krugman then noted the “incredible gap that has opened up between the parties: Today, Democrats and Republicans live in different universes, both intellectually and morally.”
“What Democrats believe,” he says “is what textbook economics says.”
What textbook could he be referring to? Certainly not his own textbook – “Macroeconomics.” In Macroeconomics, Krugman argues that, “Public policy designed to help workers who lose their jobs can lead to structural unemployment as an unintended side effect. . . . In other countries, particularly in Europe, benefits are more generous and last longer. The drawback to this generosity is that it reduces a worker's incentive to quickly find a new job. Generous unemployment benefits in some European countries are widely believed to be one of the main causes of "Eurosclerosis," the persistent high unemployment that affects a number of European countries.”
Whatever textbook the Democrats read, it’s certainly not Krugman’s.
According to Demonomics, wealth is created by paying people not to create wealth. John Maynard Keynes looks like a right-winger these days.
Obama’s moratorium immediately destroyed tens of thousands of jobs directly and many times that many indirectly. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal pleaded with Obama to lift the moratorium, but was told that “anyone who lost their job would get a check from BP.”
When Jindal pointed out that BP was not financially responsible for jobs destroyed by federal government actions, Obama airily responded that out of work oil workers could simply apply for unemployment checks.
It’s hardly surprising that Obama would be so sanguine about destroying jobs and forcing people onto the unemployment rolls. Not only does his party’s electoral prospects rely upon a permanent dependency class, but there is a perverse belief within the Democratic Party’s intelligentsia that unemployment checks create prosperity.
As Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) explained, it is, “extending unemployment benefits that creates economic activity that creates jobs.”
Where would one get the idea that wealth can be created by paying people not to work? Well, one place that one would learn that would be Obama’s own team of economic advisors. As MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann explained, Team Obama concluded that, "The easiest way to create jobs and keep jobs is to make sure that the unemployed continue to have money to spend. The unemployed, unlike the rich, who this president just bowed to, are in fact the real job creators."
The Left’s favorite economist, Paul Krugman, attacked Senator John Kyl (D-Arizona) for claiming that unemployment insurance "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work."
"To me,” Krugman said, “that's a bizarre point of view--but then, I don't live in Mr. Kyl's universe.” Krugman then noted the “incredible gap that has opened up between the parties: Today, Democrats and Republicans live in different universes, both intellectually and morally.”
“What Democrats believe,” he says “is what textbook economics says.”
What textbook could he be referring to? Certainly not his own textbook – “Macroeconomics.” In Macroeconomics, Krugman argues that, “Public policy designed to help workers who lose their jobs can lead to structural unemployment as an unintended side effect. . . . In other countries, particularly in Europe, benefits are more generous and last longer. The drawback to this generosity is that it reduces a worker's incentive to quickly find a new job. Generous unemployment benefits in some European countries are widely believed to be one of the main causes of "Eurosclerosis," the persistent high unemployment that affects a number of European countries.”
Whatever textbook the Democrats read, it’s certainly not Krugman’s.
According to Demonomics, wealth is created by paying people not to create wealth. John Maynard Keynes looks like a right-winger these days.
No comments:
Post a Comment