Mitt Romney and all his surrogates and media lapdogs are out in full force, talking up a storm about today's disappointing jobs report. The numbers are indeed depressing, and looking forward, it's hard to say what's going to make the difference - especially since we are at such a stalemate politically that we are unlikely to be able to implement any remedies between now and November, whether they are more stimulus-oriented or free-market oriented. But the Republican officials and media conservatives I have heard addressing the issue so far today sound like they are talking to a class of 4th-grade Social Studies students. And if this were a class they were teaching, they would not be doing it with any integrity or effectiveness. Their commentary is wholly theoretical, and is not based on a logical progression of ideas. Let me see if I can walk through their message, and someone please tell me what I'm missing.
- Obama's policies are at fault for slow job expansion.
- Government investment is counter-productive to growth.
- CEO's and big investors are the people in our country who create jobs, expand companies, put people to work, and get consumer activity going again.
- These job creators are the ones we need to protect, encourage, support, and free-up so that they can do what they do best in a free market.
- The policies that hamper investment are things like increased taxes and regulation.
- Obama has not actually been able to increase taxes, but he has proposed some increases. Concern about tax status makes investment less appealing now.
- Obama has not actually led the country's regulatory entities to expand regulation, and has even conceded we should do away with some of what we have now. But just knowing he's the type of person who probably likes the idea of regulation in general makes investment less appealing now.
- What also hampers investment is an uncertain economy. It is not appealing to invest when the numbers are this bad.
- The investors are the ones who can make these numbers improve, by expanding their companies, hiring more people, bringing back overseas jobs, etc.
- They certainly can't be expected to do that in this climate.
- Government is not the right sector to improve this climate. The private sector needs to do it.
- The private sector can't improve during a bad economy.
- The economy is the province of private sector.
