There was no doubt tonight why Americans had to forgo House. We needed to create or save 4 million jobs.
Or our President did. Over and over again.
There's little difference in Presidential press conferences, regardless of the President. They consist of questions asked (politely of Democrats, abrasively of Republicans, but who cares how those guys act?), then largely ignored by the President, who articulates his predetermined speaking points.
In this case, all 4 million of them.
We think we know how to calculate that 4 million jobs have been "created" (a word rather too much like Genesis 1 for our liking in this context): simply note when the economy registers 4 million more jobs than it had previously, or at least from its low when it is shedding jobs as it is currently.
We're not at all sure how to determine that jobs have been "saved" (and need we discuss the theological tone of that term?). After all, deciding what jobs would have been "lost" (still more God-talk) had the action not been taken is entirely conjectural.
We SWNIDishly suggest the following cynical ploy. Take the largest number of jobs lost in any month of the recession (say 600,000, which a little above last month's loss and could be this month's loss). Project that number out indefinitely, month by month, as a monthly loss. Then compare the actual number of jobs to that ever-declining monthly number. In the month in which the total number of jobs in the US exceeds that monthly, declining number by 4 million, declare the stimulus bill a success for having created or saved 4 million jobs.
That, of course, could be like declaring victory after total nuclear war, but it offers a measure of success that the acolytes of the media can surely celebrate.
If any of them still have jobs.
Side note: Elkhart, Indiana is suffering not just from the financial crisis but from the oil bubble. Who would buy an RV when gas was $4 a gallon? And does our "green" President really want to revive the manufacture of all those gas-guzzlers, even after his stimulus bill paves every green bit of the continent?
On the other hand, Elkhart is also the band instrument capital of the world. So we call for an additional $400 billion to buy band instruments for every citizen and resident of our Republic, to revive Elkhart's economy. Those who don't play instruments can give (not sell) their instrument vouchers to those who do.
SWIND will take a Selmer saxophone, or more than one if we can score extra vouchers. One alto, one tenor, one baritone and one soprano, please! Oh, and a bass clarinet, maybe a clarinet in A, and an E-flat piccolo clarinet too. We like our present Selmer B-flat clarinet, but could someone at the factory maybe recondition it for us?
Actually, our junky old flute could use replacing. We promise to practice if the President buys us a new one!
Will someone please post this idea at www.suggestions4obama.com?
4 comments:
Before the election I heard (often) that Obama's the saviour, but I didn't realize he's also the creator.
I like your way of calculating the number of jobs saved, but wouldn't it be easier for Obama simply to declare that so many millions of jobs had been saved by his policies. The MSM would readily agree, and it would save his administration a lot of unnecessary calculating. But then again, maybe we need all that calculating so someone who gets one of the millions of jobs created by his policies will have something to do.
Of course, JB, "for through him all things were created".
"And on the sixth week he created massive federal debt and widespread government for the middle class. And Obama looked out on what he created and said, 'Word'."
Is that enough theo-political confusion for everyone?
Serious question Doc as I value your perspective. Do you think the GOP is acting in good faith with the whole stimulus process?
The predicate "is acting in good faith" cannot take any noun referring to a political entity as its subject.
We take insincerity as part of the political landscape. We thought of lampooning our President's repeated references last night to the sincerity of his opponents, but we realized that Marc Antony's refrain, "Brutus is an honorable man" already did that.
The issue isn't good faith. It's good sense. On this, members of the GOP are dead right: there's a lot of unstimulating stuff in this bill. It is not targeted, timely and temporary, the criteria that Obama's own $-guru named previously.
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