“We Can’t Afford” 10 Million New Jobs?

After presiding over the loss of 4 million jobs since his “stimulus” was enacted Obama made an astounding assertion in the State of the Union:

We can’t afford another so-called economic “expansion” like the one from the last decade –- what some call the “lost decade” -– where jobs grew more slowly than during any prior expansion…

Considering the catastrophic decline in employment during the first year of Obama’s own administration one would think he should be a bit more humble, and refrain from criticizing a previous period of job growth.

The two charts below compare the current recession with the recession that began 2001.  Each chart shows the total number of Americans who were employed each month.

• In March of 2001, 137.8 million Americans had jobs, the highest number in history.  The 2001 recession, plus the September 11 terrorist attacks caused employment to decline for ten months, to a low of 136.1 million jobs.
• Long term growth in employment resumed in February, 2002.  By June of 2003, the last month in chart 2, total employment had been restored to the previous record high of 137.8 million.
• Employment continued to grow for another 60 months setting a new all time record high of 146.5 million in November, 2007.
• Total growth in employment from the low of January, 2002 to the peak in November of 2007 was 10.4 million jobs.

During the entire six years of employment growth Democrats used the term “jobless recovery” to describe the economy.   They don’t use that term today, even as they claim “the worst is behind us” and “the economy has turned a corner.”

• The current downturn in employment has now continued for 26 months, vs 10 months in 2001-02, and economists predict it will continue for several more months.
• In the current downturn employment has fallen by 8.7 million jobs.
  

Rather than insist “we can’t afford” to increase employment by ten million jobs over the next six years, President Obama should consider changing his strategy from massive increases in government size, power, and debt, to a reduction in government intervention and a round of tax cuts, similar to those enacted by Congress in 2003.  Not only did employment continue to increase until the the end of 2007, tax revenue to the government also increased, to an all time high of $2.6 Trillion in 2008.

Recently, Revenue has fallen, not because of the tax cuts of 2003, but because the recession has driven down taxable incomes and business profits.

At the very minimum, Obama should call upon Congress to cancel the economy-crippling tax increases that are now scheduled to take effect in eleven months.