By John W. Lillpop
President Obama is obviously eager to show that he is a "hands on" president, doing all he possibly can to create new jobs for working class Americans during the dreadful economy that was inherited from George W. Bush.
That explains why the president went out of his way to visit Columbus, Ohio last week just to celebrate the creation of 25 new police recruit positions, made possible by the trillion dollar stimulus package that Obama signed on February 17.
While trumpeting the success of stimulus pork in creating new jobs, Obama challenged doubters with these words, among others (Reference 1):
"For those who still doubt the wisdom of our recovery plan . . . I ask them to come to Ohio and meet the 25 men and women who will soon be protecting the streets of Columbus because we passed this plan,' President Obama says at the swearing-in ceremony."
Meanwhile, as Obama was slapping himself and fellow liberals on the back for creating those 25 new jobs, figures released by the Department of Labor on the same day show that 651,000 jobs were lost in February.
When asked, administration sources said they were unsure about whether that 651,000 included the employment windfall brought about by Obama's stimulus.
If not, then, just for the record, there were only 650, 975 positions wiped out in Obama's first full month in office.
As reported in Reference (2), in part:
"Largely in line with expectations, the economy shed 651,000 jobs last month according to figures released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Declines in employment were widespread. All the major sectors of the economy, with the exception of government and healthcare, shed jobs in February."
When challenged to justify the big hoopla raised over 25 new jobs when 650, 975 others were lost, Team Obama provided the following explanation:
All of the jobs lost in February were inherited from the Bush administration, whereas, all of the jobs gained were due to the Obama stimulus.
Again, Obama saves the day by blaming his predecessor for all bad news, while taking credit for all good tidings!
(1)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-stimulus7-2009mar07,1,5452257.story
(2)
http://www.shopfloor.org/2009/03/06/february-job-losses-top-600000-for-third-consecutive-month/
