EDMOND —
After three raucous nights of soaring oratory, blazing idealism and boundless hope at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, the campaign to re-elect President Barack Obama returned to reality on Friday with the release of government’s latest employment situation report. That report shows that the U.S. economy is clearly better than four years ago, but remains very weak.
The BLS reported that the U.S economy added 103,000 private-sector jobs in August. While this is much better than the 294,000 private-sector jobs lost four years ago in August 2008 and marks the 30th consecutive month of private-sector job growth, it remains far below what a strong economy would produce and what many economists had predicted. More troublesome, is that the pace of job growth is far below what we typically see during strong economic expansions. For example, since 1980 employment has averaged increasing by 2.2 percent annually during expansions. In the last six months though, employment has increased by a meager 1.1 percent — even below what we saw in 2010 as the economy was struggling to emerge from the Great Recession.
Clearly, the U.S. economy remains too weak.
Not surprisingly, Republicans are blaming President Obama for the current state of the economy — an argument that may well help them win back the White House in November. After all, with more than 12 million Americans still unemployed, voters might well wonder why the president hasn’t done more.
He did try though.
“To create jobs, I am submitting the American Jobs Act of 2011 — nearly all of which is made up of the kinds of proposals supported by both Republicans and Democrats, and that the Congress should pass right away to get the economy moving now. The purpose of the American Jobs Act of 2011 is simple: Put more people back to work and put more money in the pockets of working Americans. And it will do so without adding a dime to the deficit,” President Barack Obama said on Sept. 12, 2011.
This jobs bill included $250 million of tax cuts and $200 million of additional spending all designed to boost overall economic activity and increase employment. In fact, independent economic forecasting firms estimated that the measure would create an additional 2 million jobs this year. So why didn’t it work? Because we never tried it. Congressional Republicans said “no.”
Ironically, this week marks the one-year anniversary of the day President Obama submitted his jobs bill to Congress. One year later the U.S. economy continues to struggle. Unemployment continues to remain too high. And Republicans continue to blame it all on President Obama.
But wouldn’t an additional 2 million jobs look pretty good right now? Wouldn’t America’s families be better off with a stronger economy?
It is quite possible that Republicans will make history by defeating President Obama this November. But history also will remember how their own intransigence on economic policy helped make it happen.
MICKEY HEPNER is the dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Central Oklahoma. Hepner serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for The Oklahoma Academy.
Opinion
Jobs act could have made picture rosier by now
- Opinion
-
-
Seeing yourself as the world sees you
Ever try seeing yourself as others see you, or your piece of the world as others see your piece of the world?
You know, if you could get others to see you, or if you could get other parts of the world to see your part of it?
Narcissism and inferiority, both, can trap us in front of a mirror, admiring or lamenting, pleased or not pleased by the vision we presumably offer others.
Yet, what’s happened over the last three days, since yet another deadly tornado rolled through Moore, offers an entirely different perspective.
Through strength or weakness, we may take an interest in how we project. But when the “Today Show” is broadcast from the rubble and the network evening news has placed its anchor amidst the carnage; and when the news channels descend upon the destruction and every newspaper in the country is playing your and your neighbors’ plight bigger than its own hometown news, it turns surreal. -
ROCK DOC: Japanese find a new source of natural gas
The name “natural gas” might be a puzzle. After all, how could there be such a thing as unnatural gas? The reason we call natural gas what we do has to do with history. There was a day that people made burnable gas by heating coal. The gases that came off the coal were piped around cities where they did things like light street lamps and even power cook stoves in homes.
Coal gas had its down side. For one thing, it often contained carbon monoxide. And it took energy to make the gas, so it never could be truly cheap. -
Witnesses missing; Behenna case could be heard at Supreme Court
The film “Breaker Morant” was nominated for an Oscar for the best screenplay in 1980. It told the story of Harry “Breaker” Morant, an Australian who served in the British Army and was court-martialed for alleged war crimes during the Boer War in Southern Africa in the early years of the last century.
That conflict pitted the British Army against the descendants of the Dutch settlers who had migrated to what is now South Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries. The majority of them were farmers and in their language of Afrikaans were known as “Boers.” -
Don’t leave Oklahoma!
May is graduation season. As I have done every year as lieutenant governor, I have given multiple commencement speeches. Advice flows freely during this time and it usually runs the gamut. What to do, what not to do, how to do ‘x’, be sure not to do ‘y.’ Too often commencement speakers speak in big generalities. So general, the message is frequently lost or forgotten.
-
Last-minute funding proposals not in state’s best interest
All indications point to this being the last week of this year’s legislative session. The Legislature will go home a week early. This is good news for Oklahomans as not only will there be cost savings but all Oklahomans should breathe a sigh of relief when the Legislature stops making new laws a week ahead of schedule.
As usual, the Legislature will take a number of important votes during the last week. Some will be forced due to attempts to introduce and pass far-reaching, new policies that should have been introduced much earlier in the year. -
BY THE NUMBERS: Oklahoma still needs to invest in its economy
After six months of stagnation, the Oklahoma economy finally appears to be expanding again albeit still weakly. Unfortunately, our leaders aren’t making the investments we need to give our economic prospects a boost.
Last week the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services reported that in April state General Revenue fund collections were 5.2 percent above the estimate and 14.7 percent higher than last year’s collections. Under normal circumstances, such a report would indicate that the Oklahoma economy was very strong. But this isn’t a normal circumstance, and April isn’t a normal month. -
Americans deserve the truth on Benghazi
Lately, the media has been consumed by the controversies surrounding the White House. Among these controversies is the horrific terrorist attack on the United States’ diplomatic compound in Benghazi that took place Sept. 11, 2012. As more people come forward with additional information regarding the attack on the consulate, many Americans, including myself, are still asking for the truth.
The Obama Administration and the State Department have been less than forthcoming with key information on Benghazi and recent information points toward a major cover-up. -
Seizure of AP phone records insult to independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
-
HEY HINK: Some people just are not cut out for command
Recent headlines cause me to remember an incident that occurred on an army base some years ago. Warning here: I’m taking some liberties with names and details, but the basic outline of events is accurate.
A certain company commander, let’s call him Captain Duntz, had command of a motor pool on a large army base in the continental U.S. -
We’ve become our own worst enemies
The past couple months have been marked by a seeming unprecedented number of man-made tragedies, as distinct from those caused by violent outbursts of the natural world, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis.
You don’t want to dwell too long on the negative, but we do have to take notice of horrific human events and we owe it to ourselves to respond to them in some way. We don’t always agree on those responses, however, and that usually exacerbates the problem. - More Opinion Headlines
-
Seeing yourself as the world sees you
