December’s unemployment report shows the jobless rate hovering at 10 percent, which fails to reflect the number of working class citizens who have given up entirely on the job hunt.

Our government has spent only 40 percent of the federal stimulus Christmas gift — a gift from the taxpayers to the taxpayers is nothing but a liberal shell game. The spineless, apologetic Obama administration leaves us asking the ever-burning question: Where are the jobs?

Desperate for some good news on the jobs front, Pres. Obama acquiesced to business-minded scholars and acknowledged that it is the private sector that must take the lead in job creation.

He stopped just short of admitting that government meddling in free markets is what keeps the economy languishing.

At the recent White House Jobs Summit, Pres. Obama said he was “open to every demonstrably good idea.” For him, any old idea will do, except for the tried and true.

The folly of Obama’s approach is that he and the Democrats refuse any plan that does not involve:

• Increasing costly entitlements
• Implementing failed protectionist policies
• Hiking punitive taxes on the job creators

Tax cuts for business is a proven means of creating opportunity, jobs and prosperity for all, for it is the entrepreneurs and corporations who do the vast majority of all hiring. Besides, when has a tax cut ever failed? In contrast, the only thing that Democrat plans do is take away an individual’s incentive to prosper. In their unending quest for political power, Democrats are working at a fevered pitch to keep the unemployed unmotivated. Gotta keep their constituents begging for more! Ditto for those on welfare.

Meanwhile, we can expect the White House to hail as a grand accomplishment the marginal improvement in the unemployment rate — from 10.2 to 10.0 percent. For those folks taking Obamanomics 101, the difference is a mere two-tenths of one percent.

Ever wondered why there are so many TV commercials for buying and selling gold? If you haven’t heard, world governments are ditching the U.S. dollar and buying gold. Entrepreneurs are acting on suckers unwitting consumers willing to part with their gold for last year’s prices.

Let’s look at the precious metals markets — the only enduring source of trading stability because of the scarce nature of the commodity. While this may sound like G. Gordon Liddy in a gold commercial, just look at the facts.

In the past year, gold has climbed 54 percent to record highs exceeding $1,100 an ounce. In the same period, silver has nearly increased 96 percent in value.

The Democrat-led U.S. government has torpedoed the dollar’s value with reckless spending in stimulus packages, bank and auto bailouts, costly social programs, and so forth.

Inspired by the long-debunked Keynesian economic theories of the 1940s, the Obama administration preaches a promiscuous fiscal policy where government spends, spends, spends taxpayer money in an attempt to resuscitate a lifeless economy.

You can’t spend money you don’t have, but if you’re the government, you just crank up the money printing presses! This source of cash is not the mythical “money tree” or even pennies from heaven. It is a stealthy way to strip away buying power from our paychecks or our life savings. We see it when gas prices go up. We see it when a sack of groceries gets more expensive. We see it when gold prices skyrocket.

The word on the street is that another government stimulus plan is coming that will further tranquilize our economy and tank the dollar. With Americans screaming “Where are the jobs?” now the president wants to do something about it. But as you would expect, Obama is going about it all wrong.

You can’t spend your way to prosperity with other people’s money.

The official jobless rate now stands at 10.2 percent as the nation lost 190,000 non-farm jobs last month. Almost 16 million Americans are now jobless. If you count those who dropped from full-time to part-time and those who simply gave up looking for work, the rate escalates to 17.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration signs an extension of jobless benefits that pump more taxpayer money into an economy that instead needs profit-driven incentive to grow. It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a festering wound. And, when those benefits run out, then what?

With a Saturday vote coming on Pelosi Health Care Reform, America demands to know, “Where are the jobs?” And the silence from Washington is deafening.

This month’s chart comes courtesy of InnocentBystanders.net.

Garnering little attention is a meeting of the County Council on Thursday to discuss its own budget shortfall. The County Council will meet Oct. 8 at 5 p.m. in Council Chambers at the Madison County Government Center, Room 110.

An Oct. 6 story in the Herald Bulletin revealed Democrat councilmen reluctant to touch that “third rail” of politics: job cuts — a task they would rather leave for Republicans.

Council President Bill Savage (D-Dist. 1) sees shorter work hours as a solution, and Councilman John Bostic (D-Dist. 3) is calling for a shorter work week in what amounts to a 20 percent pay cut for all. In fact, Bostic would rather hurt taxpayers with higher taxes than to “hurt personnel.” He added, “Somewhere down the line, that tax has got to come.”

Despite meeting four times in a week, County Councilman Buddy Patterson (D-Dist.2) said the Democrat-led council has yet to find a solution that trims 10 percent of the budget. Accustomed to year after year of increasing budgets, Patterson claims most county departments are unable to find savings. For Democrat councilmen, cutting back is an absurd notion.

“We’re really going to try and prevent layoffs,” Patterson said. But at the expense of taxpayers? Why are higher taxes acceptable — and reducing the workforce is not? It boils down to reasons of political expediency.

Gentlemen, government is not in the business of saving or creating jobs. That’s a task best left to local entrepreneurs, who by the way, can only thrive in this dire economic climate with lower taxes. Unfortunately, as long as Democratic councilmen continue pandering to the people who elected, the local economy will suffer as a result.

These dodgy wimps will do anything to latch onto power and forever avoid carrying the albatross of job cuts. What heroes they could be if they only had the courage to do their jobs and represent us taxpayers! Is this too much to ask?

Links

• County Wrestles with $3.8 Million in Budget Cuts
• Madison County Council Home Page

On Thursday, an impassioned group of citizens will face Anderson City Council to express outrage towards the proposed new tax for Anderson and Madison County. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in City Hall.

Whether you call it COIT or LOIT, it all adds up to a new tax that will make our county a less attractive place to live. It’s another case of inept city leaders, drunk on taxpayer money, who don’t know when to say when.

This week, the City Council released an amended agenda for the Oct. 8 meeting that will include an executive order for implementation of a “voluntary furlough,” that is, the City Council’s strategy to dodge the politically squeamish task of cutting jobs.

Basic human nature dictates that a city employee will no more choose to take a layoff than take a hole in the head. Likewise, to think such a compromise would appease taxpayers is foolish.

Links

• LOIT Alert flyer – Please distribute to friends and co-workers
• City Council’s Amended Agenda for Oct. 8
• Anderson City Council Home Page
• Rebuild Anderson Web Site

U.S. payrolls plummeted by 260,000 in September as the unemployment rate inched upward to 9.8 percent, the highest level since 1983. State and local governments are reeling, and businesses small and large are posting losses.

“Where are the jobs?” is a rightful refrain Republicans like Rep. Mike Pence have been repeating for months now, and the Obama administration continues to lose focus.

In a statement, Pence said:

The American people know that true economic recovery starts with fiscal discipline in Washington, D.C., and tax relief for working families, small businesses and family farms.

The Democrat-led Congress is letting those wise words fall on deaf ears.

Adding insult to idiocy, Vice Pres. Joe Biden gave the not-so-brilliant assessment that “We don’t think that ‘less bad’ is good.”

Entrepreneurialism Not a 4-Letter Word

The problem at hand is a lack of jobs, caused by government meddling in what should be left to individuals acting in their own self-interests. This is free-market capitalism, where the unintended consequence is that everyone benefits.

It’s amazing what happens when liberals tax and spend other people’s money. Just look at how our government has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on an inefficient pet projects like John Murtha’s airport. The bottom line is that individual “greed” motivates an entrepreneur to allocate his own resources efficiently, where his past profits become his future investments.

It takes money to make money, and coincidentally, it takes workers to make the widgets in the capitalist’s factory. As my economic professor used to say, “What greedy little capitalist piggy wants to stop at making $50,000? $100k? $500k? $1 million?”

Competition is a capitalist’s constant threat. It keeps him in line; it keeps him honest and on his toes. Liberals seem to ignore that fact and are eager to portray entrepreneurs as evil-doers. However, it is their complete and utter ignorance of how the world works that poses threats to our liberty and prosperity.

The Equality of Opportunity

The real evil is the United States’ fiscal irresponsibility that has empowered indirectly other countries, including our enemies, at the expense of blacks and minorities in this, a U.S. welfare state. Instead of economic equality and racial reparations, we need the equality of opportunity, where everyone starts the race from the same starting line.

Add to our nation’s woes a looming crisis in the Middle East, a belligerent, tyrannical dictator in North Korea, and not to mention an ongoing war in Afghanistan. All the while, Democrats keep conjuring up new ways to legislate the way to prosperity. It will never work. I can’t think of a better way to drive investors and jobs out of this country.

Will liberals ever admit that government is the problem?

Instead, these events have captured our imagination in recent months, overshadowing the urgent need for jobs:

Top 10 Reasons the U.S. is Losing Focus on Jobs

10. Cash for Clunkers
9. Health Care Reform
8. Cop, Educated Idiot Meet for Beers
7. Chicago-style Olympics Pitch
6. National Energy Tax
5. Soft Drink, Fatty Food Sin Tax
4. Where to House Guantanamo Bay Prisoners?
3. United Nations Apology Tour
2. A Hate Crimes Bill for Gays and the Transgendered
1. Presidents Clinton and Carter Form Racial Tag-Team

Watch for Pres. Obama to host another prime time news conference soon. Or maybe this time, we’ll be treated to a long-winded speech live from the Oval Office?

Links

• September Unemployment Data
• Pence Statement on Latest Unemployment Figures
• Biden on Unemployment: “Less Bad” Isn’t Good
• Republicans Seize on Jobs as Proof Obama’s Policies Have Failed

On Thursday, Oct. 8, the Anderson City Council convenes for a public hearing to:

1. Repeal CEDIT
2. Increase COIT to increase the Homestead Credit percentage
3. Impose an extra COIT for public safety

Your city council, dominated by Democrats, is poised to pass this ordinance.

The word around town is that a lone Republican may actually favor the ordinance. And even if a couple of Democrat dissenters vote it down, the nine-member council still has enough votes to pass it.

Herald Bulletin Editorial

The Herald Bulletin hit the nail on the head in its July 10 editorial:

When the economy is sour, unemployment up, wages down, charitable giving stagnant and government assistance limited, it’s not the right time to raise taxes.

It’s the right time for government to become leaner and more efficient, to re-evaluate the services it offers and the way they’re offered.

Action Items

• Post a link to your Facebook page.
• Tweet it to your Twitter account.
• Email or text it to your friends and family.
• Phone a friend.
• Meet us all at City Hall on Oct. 8 at 7 p.m.

Many in our community don’t even know about the proposed ordinance. We must hold local leaders’ feet to the fire, and send them the message that raising taxes is unacceptable, especially with our slumping economy.

Why aren’t we exploring more traditional options like salary cuts? If the ordinance passes, God forbid, we can repeal it with new council seats in 2010. Correction: City elections are in 2011. (Thanks, Russ!)

What, When & Where

Anderson City Council Public Meeting

Thursday, Oct. 8 at 7 p.m.
City Hall Council Chambers

120 East 8th Street

Anderson City Council

• Rick Muir, (D), President, At-Large
• Donna Davis (D), Dist. 2
• Pamela Jones (D), Dist. 3
• Ollie Dixon (D), Dist. 4
• Joe Newman (D), Dist. 6
• David Eicks (D), At-Large
• Rodney Chamberlain (D), At-Large
• Mike Welch (R), Dist. 1
• Art Pepelea, Jr. (R), Dist. 5

Council members are not without controversy. In June, Councilman Dixon pleaded guilty to a charge of driving while intoxicated and was the focus of a grand jury indictment on a charge of criminal recklessness in connection with his toting a loaded .45-caliber handgun into the county jail. Dixon called the gun charge “ridiculous,” and “political-, racial- and class-motivated.”

The charge was eventually dismissed by a tearful Madison Circuit Court Judge Fredrick Spencer — who is also a Democrat — on his last day on the bench following a state investigation of alleged misconduct.

Links

• Anderson City Council Home Page
• Anderson City Council Agenda
• Herald Bulletin: Just Say No to COIT Increase
• Judge Spencer Dismisses Gun Charge Against Councilman Dixon
• Herald Bulletin: Spencer’s judgment questionable
• Dixon pleads guilty to DWI