According to an April 5 Reuters article, the Department of Labor reported the nation created 88,000 jobs in March, far short of the market’s prediction of 200,000 jobs. Another Reuters article from the same day said the economy has barely been able to keep up in creating jobs. The article said the unemployment rate would have gone up if so many people hadn’t dropped out of the labor force. This month may be a blessing in disguise, because it adds an exclamation point to the economic complaints present in the media for a while now.
All of the social issues, such as the health care bill, effectively cloud what amounts to economic stagnation. Raising taxes and regulations on businesses does not create more jobs.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the labor participation rate, which tracks the number of working-age people who have a job or are looking for one, has fallen 2.4 percent since the beginning of Obama’s presidency. The current rate of 63.3 percent is the lowest rate since the Jimmy Carter economy of 1979.
This economy needs a great improvement, and I don’t see President Barack Obama doing much to help it grow any faster. I don’t believe his plan of raising taxes, increasing regulations and closing loopholes will help people spend more money and create more jobs. Businesses need to be given a chance to expand and create jobs, and the government only makes it harder when it puts so much weight on expansion.
It has been widely reported that since Obamacare has a 50-employee threshold before employers must abide by it, you can be sure there will be hesitation before businesses go near that threshold. Other businesses have even been talking about raising their prices to account for the cost of the new regulations, which won’t help customers trying to afford the things they need.
Most of what the government does makes it harder for the average business and the average person to do what they want and need to do. Consider the actual physical size of the Obamacare law itself, which could easily be used as a small ottoman or footrest. The tax code is so complicated you need to hire a specialist just to file a return, and no person could completely understand the tax code without devoting his or her career to it. A small business should not need to have an entire legal department to weave it through a complicated legal code.
The president needs to turn his focus back to the economy. This time, however, he needs to do things that will allow the economy to grow, rather than trying to expand the power and influence of the federal government.
