The propaganda machine in Washington DC has created any number of "War on" programs, including Lyndon Johnson's failed "War on Poverty," the "War on Drugs" and "The War on Terror." Now here comes the "War on Jobs," the centerpiece of the current administration and Congress.
Unlike the other programs, The War on Jobs has been a success, running national unemployment up to 14.6 million people, and that doesn't include the 5.9 million who have stopped looking or the 8.5 million who are underemployed.
The administration and Congress have used several techniques to achieve these numbers. One of them is regulation. There are many federal agencies that regulate the businesses that would otherwise be hiring people. These include the EPA, OSHA, SEC, and the FDA. All originally began as benevolent organizations but they have turned into job-killing monsters.
Another technique for successfully killing jobs is our immigration policy. This past year, about 650,000 immigrants were legalized. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security let approximately half a million illegal immigrants slip though the borders, while the TSA was carefully searching nuns in airports.
During other financial crises, America's leaders stopped immigration of every kind because they knew that for each immigrant, an American loses his or her job. In 1954, President Eisenhower deported 13 million foreigners to give jobs to Americans.
Of course our foreign trade policies are responsible for an enormous loss of jobs. Low-wage nations like China, India, Taiwan and Mexico use their own protectionist policies to take our jobs and we let them do it.
That's what has made the War on Jobs such a successful federal program.
Carl Goodwin, Loveland, CO
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