Thought Puh-leeze

OK, I watched the President (Mr. Obama) on the tele today, promoting his "Jobs Summit" complete with call outs and who-dats and other useless nonsense. The idea of getting a whole bunch of diverse people together to work on how to get more jobs for more Americans is just such a total canard.

If the feds were really serious about creating jobs, they'd do what they do best: hand out money to employers and let them hire people. Of course, that would be too simple and probably unproductive, but the benefits in graft and corruption to the cronies on the inside would be enormous. Considering that, it's a wonder that they haven't done it already. Billions for jobs; millions for US!

Anyhow, while the "best and brightest" are schmoozing on and about Capitol Hill, there's a nagging image which keeps reappearing on CNBC (I know, I know, but I really do need the steady dose of humorous interludes only mindless economic reporting can provide). It's one of Valerie Jarrett, the wunderkind of the White House, the jazzy superstar of the formerly underprivileged, the she-bop superstar who fell neatly into the job of Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison, which is a really fancy way of saying, "I do nothing constructive."

This image of Ms. Jarrett (BTW: she was married, now divorced and apparently available, though you'd have to be pretty rich and pretty self-important to land a date with her, I believe) comes around just about every hour or so, and it's making me crazy. In the short clip, Jarrett is on some podium, where, presumably, she had just spouted some drivel, and says, "If you have an idea about how to create jobs, I want to hear it."

Well, if that don't beat all. Here she is with her degrees and her too-long title, asking for ideas about how to create jobs. It's annoying on a couple of levels. First, what she has to do with creating jobs in the USA would probably fill a corner of one tiny room in the basement of the Executive Office Building, but I guess she's there representing for the Prez, as intergovernmental explorer extraordinaire or some such nonsense.

Second, if one were to offer her some truly constructive idea that would lead to the creation of a job in America, I doubt that Ms. Jarrett could possibly conceive of how it might work. After all, she's spent almost all of her life behind the shield of public employment, that safe place in America where 40% of the population actually makes a living doing things that aren't necessary to anyone.

I just can't look up to her as an authority on anything, much less job creation. Maybe "saving jobs" which the government has subtly substituted for actual job creation, because they can't do the real thing, would be more in line with Ms. Jarrett's qualifications, as in move this line item to another part of the budget and save this or that job. That's how they do it at city hall, the county office, the state level and yes, all the way up to the White House (I still like Paris Hilton's idea to paint it pink).

Ms. Jarrett really bugs me, not because she's cute and successful (though those would be two good reasons), but because she's such an obvious fraud in a town full of them. Not just Democrats or Republicans, but all of the people in DC are frauds, taking public money and wasting it, mostly to pad their own already well-fattened wallets.

If Valerie Jarrett would like some ideas on how to create new jobs, let's start with the obvious. Cut payroll taxes. Reduce the cost of unemployment insurance. Pay half of newly hired employees' pay right out of the government's own coffers for the first six months. Make it easier for employers to hire people, like reducing the interminable amount of paperwork, costs, fees, taxes and all the other mind-blowing additions that turn a $9/hour job into $15.

How about this one, and the liberals will love it: Roll back the minimum wage laws to $5.25 per hour for new hires. Believe me, you'd have employers falling over themselves to hire people. Or, better yet, keep the minimum wage laws in place, but stop taking social security and medicare from both the employer and the employee.

Small business in America needs a break from taxes and costs. We are non-competitive because of all the taxes and regulations that have turned our free markets into a socialist Turkish bath. Are you listening, Valerie Jarrett? Or will you continue to bother me?

Labels: President Obama, Valerie Jarrett