So not only do we have a lack of basic economic fluency by Republicans, their New Day leadership hasn’t a clue about job creation — Michael Steele yesterday AM on ABC:
STEELE: You’ve got to look at what’s going to create sustainable jobs. What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But that’s a job.
STEELE: No, it’s not a job. A job is something that — that a business owner creates. It’s going to be long term. What he’s creating…
STEPHANOPOULOS: So a job doesn’t count if it’s a government job?
(CROSSTALK)
STEELE: Hold on. No, let me — let me — let me finish. That is a contract. It ends at a certain point, George. You know that. These road projects that we’re talking about have an end point.
As a small-business owner, I’m looking to grow my business, expand my business. I want to reach further. I want to be international. I want to be national. It’s a whole different perspective on how you create a job versus how you create work. And I’m — either way, the bottom line is…
STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess I don’t really understand that distinction.
STEELE: Well, the difference — the distinction is this. If a government — if you’ve got a government contract that is a fixed period of time, it goes away. The work may go away. That’s — there’s no guarantee that that — that there’s going to be more work when you’re done in that job.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, but we’ve seen millions and millions of jobs going away in the private sector just in the last year.
STEELE: But they come — yes, they — and they come back, though, George. That’s the point. When they go — they’ve gone away before, and they come back.
Yep, you read it. The problem with the package is that it creates work — not jobs. The government doesn’t create any jobs. Which is probably news to the entire Armed Forces, but since we barely pay them minimum wage, perhaps they’ll agree that they aren’t really employed by the government. And the mail guys are going to be really surprised to find that they don’t have government jobs.
WTF?
I also think that this means that workers who have been laid off or who are in danger of being laid off should go right back to their private sector employers and tell them the Michael Steele says that private sector jobs are supposed to be forever.
EDIT: Crooks and Liars have dedicated a completely brilliant video to Mr. Steele’s dystopian vision of work.