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 the 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
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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.
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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
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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. -
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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. -
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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.
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Let’s reimburse higher ed for remediation costs
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Students at Tulsa Community College, for example, can take a college English course called “Spelling and Phonics,” which “helps students master basic spelling literacy, principles of phonics and decoding skills.”
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OUR VIEW: Be Edmond needs your help
BMX star and local legend Mat Hoffman knows what’s it like to fall from great heights and find yourself at one of the worst low points in life. He also knows how to climb back up and tackle life’s problems head on.
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Don’t leave Oklahoma!
