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Forum Post: Barack Obama Says, “More jobs in jobless benefits than Keystone XL Pipeline” … HUH?

Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 9, 2011, 5:45 p.m. EST by bemindful (23)
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13 Comments


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[-] 2 points by LSN45 (535) 12 years ago

The Canadian Tar Sands are one of the biggest untapped sources of carbon on the planet and it takes a tremendous amount of energy and water to process it. I'm not saying it should not be exploited, all I'm saying is that American, and the World need to be smart about how we approach it. The decision should not be left to the profit driven corporations. Jobs are great, but not if it means that your grandchildren won't be able to breath.

[-] 1 points by bemindful (23) 12 years ago

The point of this post isn't about debating the potential environmental consequences of the pipeline project. Its about examining Obama's comments apart from the argument for or against the pipeline. Obama didn't say something like, "No amount of jobs would be worth the potential environmental harm posed by the pipeline." If he had, then yes, we could debate the pros and cons. So that's not the point. Look at the quote- He said “However many jobs might be generated by a Keystone pipeline, they’re going to be a lot fewer than the jobs that are created by extending the payroll tax cut and extending unemployment insurance.”

I didn’t realize that collecting unemployment was considered a valid occupation.

Although estimates of the amount of jobs the pipleline would create are all over the place, most reliable (not partisan one way or the other) media outlets are reporting that it would create 200,000. That's a lot of jobs. Many good paying jobs. Its a lot of people off the government dole. And its a lot of people gaining back their self-esteem, adding to their work history and experience and its a lot of people obtaining the sense of accomplishment for an honest day's pay for an honest day's work. That apparently doesn't mean much to Obama. But even more alarming, very alarming is Obama's lack of understanding of economics. How does he figure unemployment benefits will create more jobs than a project that actually creates tens of thousands of jobs? How do payroll tax cuts create them either? I guess the need to hire more claims adjusters to staff the local unemployment offices qualifies as jobs created. Along with the need to bring on more employees to process applications for all the side benefits such as fuel assistance, medical assistance, food stamps, etc. Is that Obama's preference? More government jobs?

What about the fact that the project would help offset the payroll tax cut he’s pushing for, seeing that 20,000 or more people would start paying income taxes, not to mention the other revenue the project would generate for the government.

Last summer Speaker Pelosi said unemployment benefits creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name." I suppose, Obama agrees. To him the greater the unemployment numbers, the greater the amount of government paper pushers need to be hired.Yeah!

That's the point of this post, not the debate over the pipeline.

So where do we stand?

A $787 billion stimulus, cash for clunkers, tax breaks for energy efficiency windows and solar panels, and now Obama is pushing for a second $447 stimulus bill ($240 billion of the $447 billion goes towards his jobs plan) and now with Obama's recent comment, we find another part of his jobs plan....government jobs to process the huge number of unemployment and food stamp claims....

Let's not forgot another little economic number - the US debt- The latest posting by the Treasury Department shows the national debt has now increased $4,374 trillion on President Obama's watch.

The debt was $10.626 trillion on the day Mr. Obama took office. The latest calculation from Treasury shows the debt has now hit $15 trillion.

In total, 8.8 million jobs have been lost since the recession started, and fewer than a third of those have been recovered. 4,303,000 of those jobs have been lost since Obama elected.

More than 13 million people are still unemployed, and 43% of them have been out of work for more than six months.

The current unemployment rate of 8.6% , which came down from 9% isn't even as good as it might seem, because a big part of the rate decrease is due to more than 300,000 discouraged workers giving up entirely on their job searches and simply dropping out of the workforce. It's not due to job creation.

So many jobs have been lost since Mr. Obama was elected that, even if job growth were to match the extraordinary pace of the late 1990s — averaging 300,000 to 350,000 per month — the unemployment rate wouldn’t fall below 6 percent until 2016.

Clearly, there is no one in the White House, least of all Obama, who knows how to get the economy moving again. Unless it involves massive expenditures of public money or little cash for stuff gimmicks, they are out of ideas.

There is no way we can withstand another four years of this man.

[-] 2 points by tomcat68 (298) 12 years ago

Obama is an Idiot.

then again, I haven't ran across too many Liberals who weren't.

.....

Have you heard about the new Obama Happy Meal for kids at McDonalds?

It comes with a promise that they'll get a toy someday.

[-] 1 points by ronimacarroni (1089) 12 years ago

The keystone pipeline would be ecocide.

According to scientists it would raise global warming dramatically due to all the pollution the process for extracting oil from tarsands would produce.

I give props to Obama for standing on his ground on that one and I worry about the complete lack of regard to the long term consequences from people who are blinded with greed.

[-] 0 points by ZenDogTroll (13032) from South Burlington, VT 12 years ago

That article is from the pro-pipeline perspective. I can't speak for the Occupy Movement as a whole, but I know the Burlington group opposes this pipeline, I know because I was there.

I was with them.

The numbers put forth by the sponsors of the pipeline are apt to be over inflated.

Unemployment on the other hand, keeps money in peoples hands that they can use to meet their bills, feed the family, etc. when you are talking 8.6% unemployment, that's real money, which does translate into real jobs in areas where unemployment is higher than average.

[-] 0 points by fandango (241) 12 years ago

The Keystone pipeline would create hundreds of thousand of jobs. AND provide oil. BUT then his "greenies" would be upset and he would their campaign contribution money.