Jousting Over Jobs

The highlight of last night’s GOP debate was the duel between primary hopefuls Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and Mitt Romney, of Massachusetts, over who created the most private sector jobs.   Meanwhile, Obama is making last-minute preparations over tonight’s Jobs Speech, where he will reportedly unveil a $400 billion plan involving infrastructure spending and tax relief, in an effort to take the Republican House’s lead as Tea Partier in Chief. 

Even right there in the Reagan Library, Perry and Romney didn’t seem to understand Reagan’s basic economic mantra:  big government is the problem, not the solution.  Obama’s problem is that he puts dollar signs in front of his solutions.  He’s rather like the scarecrow in the Wizard Oz, in that he points the way in both directions:  he’s going to spend and he’s going to cut.

Let’s say that that $400 billion is going to be divided in half; one-half for spending, the other half, for saving.  The sum of his quirky, economic math is:  zero.  The two halves cancel each other out.  That means he’s really going to do zero – nothing.  He’s still going to spend $200 billion.

Meanwhile, we-who-are-about-to-be-unemployed suffered through yet another Torture Chamber meeting, where we were shown, in vivid graphics, just how hopeless the situation is going to be for most of us.  Big Government and Big Business don’t understand and probably don’t care what a mess they make when they uproot families.  They might think of that as they look at the numerous uprooted trees and uprooted families, flooded out of their homes in our rain-train-drained state.

Just move to another state.  That’s easy for Big Government and Big Business to say, from their marbled towers and paneled conference rooms.  Their living room furniture isn’t sitting out on the front lawn along with the moldied, muddied electronics and kitchen appliances.  They’re not worried about working spouses whose jobs aren’t or can’t simply relocate, or divorced couples with custody disputes over how far away the custodial parent can move (about 20 miles, in one case).

Probably, a company’s relocation offer would be welcome at this point, if you live in rain-soaked northern New Jersey.  That is, if the company will cover your flood plain home.  The rain didn’t drive the companies away, though.  But the excessive taxes, their employees’ cost-of-living, and over-regulation, did. 

Is God warning New Jersey Noahs to get out of the state?  The flood is here.  Judging by last night’s debate and last night’s rainfall, the politicians, for all their money, are pretty useless.  The Passaic River is going to overflow its banks again; some say it’s going to be higher than during Hurricane Irene.  The Noahs of New Jersey (like this company) built their arks long ago and have already abandoned ship.  When you see our tough, Republican governor buddying up to Obama, you know it’s a pretty lost cause.  A governor’s got to do what a governor’s got to do.

No companies, no working residents, no jobs, no taxes.  Paterson was once a mill town, where silk was manufactured.  They can reconvert the mills to churn out flood money, instead.  The water goes over the mill wheel, and out comes the money, like magic.  At the moment, that’s about all New Jersey is producing – water.