Undeterred by stubbornly high unemployment rates, and a stimulus plan that has fallen flat, talk of a second stimulus package is growing louder. But to shed the unsuccessful “stimulus” moniker, Democrats and government labor unions have adopted a “jobs plan.”
Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist who’s never seen a government expenditure he didn’t like, Sunday pointed to a “study” by the Economic Policy Institute, which alleges spending $40 billion over 3 years could create about a million “public-service” jobs.
In other words, Krugman and EPI would see fit to simply create government jobs, instead of trying to help the private sector. That makes sense, given who supports EPI.
The Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association have kicked in nearly $2 million in their members’ dues dollars over the last couple years to fund EPI’s research, according to financial reports filed with the federal government and found at ACORNcracked.com and AFTexposed.com.
That’s funny, they’re all government employee unions. And they funded a study calling for government jobs to be created.
And Krugman takes EPI at face value.
What is the bigger lesson here, Krugman’s penchant for being a shill for proponents of bigger government or EPI producing “research” that will benefit its funders? Both are an unpleasant reality for them.
If the Obama administration and liberals in general were interested in actually helping the economy, they would promote solutions based on free-market principles. Instead, growing government is their solution to the problem.
Isn’t it telling that both SEIU and AFT attended the Obama jobs summit, according to Fox News.
But back to Krugman. He admits creating a million government jobs would have consequences:
All of this would cost money, probably several hundred billion dollars, and raise the budget deficit in the short run. But this has to be weighed against the high cost of inaction in the face of a social and economic emergency.
But as White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” And sadly, the solution is invariably bigger government.