There's an Update on Security for Biden's Gaza Port and a New 'Peacekeeping...
Biden Blows Off Respects for Murdered New York City Police Officer
New York City Councilwoman Gets Ratioed Into Oblivion Over One Question
CNBC: Voters Want Trump to Combat Runaway Inflation
Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced in Massive Crypto Fraud Case
‘No Tampons, No Peace!’: Panic at Vanderbilt University Sit-In As Protestors Realize It...
Charlotte Radio Host Speaks Out About His Interview With KJP That Made Headlines
Americans React to Biden Skipping Out on Slain NYPD Officer's Wake and Instead...
How Does RFK Jr. Affect This Presidential Race?
Judge In Hunter Biden's Tax Fraud Case Doesn't Buy Attorney's Claims
New Poll Shows How Hispanic Voters Feel About Biden Describing Laken Riley's Alleged...
Who Will Replace Mike Gallagher? Poll Shows It's Pro-Trump Alex Bruesewitz’s 'Race to...
Flashback: Two Cycles After Running on Gore's Ticket, Lieberman Endorses McCain at GOP...
Here's When Impeachment Articles Against Mayorkas Will Be Presented to the Senate
Tennessee Music Venue to Host ‘Trans Day Of Vengeance’ Event One Year After...
OPINION

Jobs and Obama’s Political Woes

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Despite another seemingly good jobs report, President Obama’s approval rating is lower than a snake’s belly, and Republicans could retake the Senate in November.

Advertisement

Missteps in the Ukraine, Iraq and elsewhere weigh on voters’ minds but the economy—especially the jobs picture—is not what Obama cracks them up to be.

Obama has managed to increase employment only 5.5 million or about 4 percent but measured against other presidents facing similar challenges, his performance is hardly stellar.

Ronald Reagan was dealt a tough hand by history too. He weathered a deep recession early in his first term and unemployment peaked at 10.8 percent. He cut spending and taxes, eliminated much unnecessary government meddling in business and boosted employment 8.4 million, or more than 9 percent, his first five and a half years.

The 5.9 percent unemployment rate is a fraud. The percentage of adults working or seeking employment is the lowest since women began entering the labor force in larger numbers in the 1970s.

Were the labor force participation rate the same today as when Obama took office, unemployment would be about 10 percent. Wages remain stagnant and household incomes are well below pre-crisis levels.

The earnings of women, especially young women, have fared somewhat better than men, but increasingly women have to support their husbands, sons and boyfriends. One in six men between the ages of 25 and 54—too old for college and too young to retire—are without jobs. Many have quit looking altogether and sit around the house all day watching ESPN.

Perhaps that’s Hillary Clinton’s vision of a better America, but it doesn’t sit well where most people live.

Advertisement

The economy is creating too many low paying jobs in industries like retailing and hospitality, but industries where men find good paying jobs are languishing. Since Obama took office, manufacturing has shed 400,000 jobs and construction nearly 500,000.

New labor saving technologies are a problem but so are lousy liberal policies.

American manufacturers continue to cede markets to Chinese imports but Obama’s policy of appeasement toward Beijing precludes taking any meaningful actions against its unfairly subsidized products—actions advocated by Democratic economists like Peterson Institute founder Fred Bergsten and Noble Laureate Paul Krugman.

The housing industry has not recovered to pre-recession levels, because Millennials want to live closer to their jobs—not in distant suburbs—but cities with excessively burdensome building regulations and bureaucracies, unrealistic minimum wage laws, heavy taxes, and underperforming public schools make building housing affordable for young families awfully difficult.

The president likes to blame Republicans in congress for slow economic progress, but the congress gave him much of what he wanted during his first five years—Obamacare, Dodd-Frank financial reforms, more generous Pell grants and student loans, solar energy and high speed rail projects, and higher taxes on upper income Americans.

Most of that has not worked out very well—too many American employers are eager to take even more jobs to Asia or relocate their corporate headquarters outside the United States. Now House Republicans can’t really be blamed for wanting different approaches, and in November they will be validated when voters return a GOP majority to the lower house.

Advertisement

Republicans are ahead in most key Senate races but whether they pick up the six seats needed to win a majority will likely be known early on election night when results come in for North Carolina. If Democrat Kay Hagan holds on, the math gets tough for the GOP.

Senator Hagan, like several other moderate Democrats, has supported the president on the Affordable Care Act and key budgets and taxes votes but has managed to maintain a business-friendly record on regulatory issues.

Still like other moderate Democrats, the very first vote Hagan would cast in the 114th Congress would be to re-elect Harry Reid majority leader. How that could ever help create jobs or reverse the failing fortunes of working families is beyond this economist’s ability to comprehend.

Peter Morici is an economist and professor at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, and a national columnist.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos