HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

It’s Still The Economy: Americans Reject Democrats’ Tax and Spend Agenda

Yesterday the American people delivered the Democrats a message: stop all taxing us to death, spending us into oblivion, and mortgaging our kids and grandkids futures.  And start answering this question: “where are the jobs?”

In Virginia, “Fully 85 percent said they are worried about the direction of the nation’s economy,” according to a Fox News exit poll.  And in New Jersey, the number one issue for voters was “economy/jobs.”   CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger said last night that the voters sent a message to Democrats: “This is a signal to this White House they have some problems right now - particularly on the economy and on the deficit,” she said.

Despite spending $1 trillion on a “stimulus” program, promising that it would “create or save 4 million jobs” and keep unemployment below eight percent, unemployment continues to creep up - it’s now at nearly 10 percent nationally - and may rise yet again when the October unemployment numbers are released on Friday.

The “stimulus” is emblematic of out-of-touch Washington Democrats’ belief that a lot of government spending can cure any ill.  

But over at Reason Magazine, economist Veronique de Rugy stated that: “funds are being distributed randomly, as quickly as possible, among the states.  That in turn suggests something else: Even the federal government doesn’t believe the myth that government spending can actually create jobs.” 

The Associated Press delivered the proof this morning, when they reported that a salary raises have counted towards “jobs saved”:

About two-thirds of the 14,506 jobs claimed to be saved under one federal office, the Administration for Children and Families at Health and Human Services, actually weren’t saved at all, according to a review of the latest data by The Associated Press. Instead, that figure includes more than 9,300 existing employees in hundreds of local agencies who received pay raises and benefits and whose jobs weren’t saved.

It’s not just the “stimulus” that’s turning the American people off.  It’s the dramatic takeoff in total government spending since the Democrats took over Washington.  The Buckeye Institute notes that:

Between 1983 and 1988, growth in the private sector accelerated to 5.1% per year as the government expenditure wedge fell 3.3 points back down to 45.7%…The [”stimulus”] will increase the government expenditure wedge from 49.16% to 52.41% for an overall 3.25% increase.  This increase will reduce the growth in real net business output by 2.5%, which translates to a reduction of 1.7 million jobs nationally.

 

The Buckeye Institute defines the “government expenditure wedge” as “total government expenditures relative to the private economy.”  It’s determined by “dividing government expenditures by net domestic business output.”

So what does all this mean for the small businessmen - the folks responsible for 60-80 percent of new jobs in America?  All year, Democrats have done nothing but saddle them with more debt, more taxes, and more incentives not to hire.  

The only thing Democrats are planning on doing to small businesses is tax them more - between the Democrats’ $3.6 trillion budget passed earlier this year and Speaker Pelosi’s 2,000 plus page, $1.3 trillion government takeover of health care - small businesses will face an average combined federal-state top tax rate above 50 percent for the first time since 1986. 

None of this answers the question the American people care about most: “where are the jobs?“  Jobs aren’t created by a government bureaucrat in Washington, D.C. and they aren’t “saved” by throwing billions of dollars into a $14 trillion economy.  

Republicans understand jobs are created by risk takers - by small businessmen and women that put their own money into an idea, which, if it succeeds, creates a business that can expand and hire.  Democrats are only adding to the massive regulatory and tax burdens small businesses already face. 

Read More:

• Speaker Pelosi’s Government Takeover of Health Care Will Destroy Small Business Jobs
• Why the Obama Administration’s Phony ‘Stimulus’ Statistics Matter
• Republicans’ Common-Sense Reforms Will Lower Health Care Costs

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 7:57 pm and is filed under Economy, Fiscal Responsibility, Jobs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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