In November, shortly before his trip to China, President Obama announced a “jobs summit” to come up with ideas of what the government should do to create jobs to help the economy recover. Click on the link below to watch his announcement.
Approximately 130 leaders will gather in Washington tomorrow (Thursday) and Friday to do just that. The national unemployment rate, the % of people receiving unemployment, is just over 10% (10.2%). The DOL releases updated data Friday afternoon. The “real” unemployment rate, the national rate plus those who’ve exhausted unemployment benefits and those who aren’t even trying to look for jobs, is estimated at 17-19%. Before anyone questions this number, look it up. Plus, don’t talk to me about phantom numbers. Until this year, no one had ever heard of “saved jobs".
All of us know plenty of people who’ve lost their jobs and are struggling to find employment. You won’t get an argument from me that we need more jobs in our great country and that our President should use his power to help spur that growth. But, let’s take a look at some of the people who will be attending the summit. The partial list of attendees was released Monday by the White House. Included in the list are CEOs of large companies like Boeing, Comcast, Google, FedEx, and Disney. Great! These are large companies that employ numerous hundreds of thousands of people. They will bring a wealth of talent and knowledge to the table.
Also included in the list are some that would be considered “friendly” to the President; representatives from big labor (American Federation of Teachers, SEIU, AFL-CIO, United Steel Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers), economists like Paul Krugman (NY Times columnist and Nobel Laureate who has called for a second stimulus package because the first $787B was not large enough), “green” experts (Green for All, Coalition for the Green Bank, Earth Institute), and liberal leaning think tanks (Economic Policy Institute, Center on Budget Policy and Priorities) who’ve called for additional government spending above and beyond the stimulus package, the $3.5T 2009 budget, and the (fill in the dollar from $900M to $1.75T) healthcare bill.
Missing from the list of invitees are the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), both have been critical of Obama’s policies. In case you didn’t know, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is “the world’s largest federation of businesses” (U.S. Chamber website). 96% of its members are small businesses with fewer than 100 employees. The NFIB is the “leading small business association representing small and independent businesses”. They have published their recommendation on how to create jobs (http://www.nfib.com/nfib-on-the-move/nfib-on-the-move-item/cmsid/50277/).
So, if small businesses create 75-80% of all new jobs created (look it up on your own if you don’t believe me), why else would the President not invite the two largest organizations responsible to three-quarters of all new jobs? Probably because he can’t take criticism and surrounds himself with “yes men”.
With the number of unions and economists attending the session, when should we expect Stimulus II?
Let me know.
