Obama: The Great Jobs Killer

Read this commentary and weep. Two years ago I wrote a column in The Las Vegas Review Journal called Obama "The Great Jobs Killer." When looking back, it could have been written today--after 4 consecutive months of disastrous jobs reports. Nothing has changed. President Obama was a highly effective jobs killer back in 2010…just as he still is in 2012. Nothing is happening to the economy today that should come as a surprise. It was all clear on inauguration day 2009, as we installed a radical progressive in the White House who would spend, tax, and overwhelm the system with debt, stimulus, bailouts, and entitlements, bringing our economy to it's knees. Perhaps someone should have listened. 

None of this is a surprise to fiscal conservatives. We predicted it. We called it like Babe Ruth pointing to right field before hitting a home run to that exact spot. Maybe it's time American voters listened to the people who got it all right.

Here's what I had to say in my column on July 4, 2010:

As former President Ronald Reagan might have said, “Obama, there you go again.” The current occupant of the White House claims to know how to create jobs. He claims jobs have been created. But so far the score is Great Obama Depression 2.2 million lost jobs, Obama 0 – a blowout. Obama is as hopeless, helpless, clueless and bankrupt of good ideas as the manager of the Chicago Cubs in late September. This “community organizer” knows as much about private sector jobs as Pamela Anderson knows about nuclear physics.

It’s time to call Obama what he is -- “The Great Jobs Killer.” With his massive spending and tax hikes- rewarding big government and big unions, while punishing taxpayers and business owners- Obama has killed jobs; he has killed motivation to create new jobs; he has killed the motivation to invest in new businesses; or expand old ones. With all this killing, Obama should be given the top spot on the FBI’s Most Wanted List.

Meanwhile, he has kept the union workers of GM and Chrysler employed (with taxpayer money). He has made sure that most government employee union members got their annual raises for sleeping on the job (with taxpayer money). He made sure that his voters got handouts mislabeled as “tax cuts” even though they never paid taxes (with taxpayer money). And he made sure that major campaign contributors collected billions off government stimulus (with taxpayer money). As far as the taxpayers- the people that actually take risks with our own money, to create small businesses, and jobs, and pay most of the taxes- we require protection under the Endangered Species Act.

You won’t find proof of the damage Obama is doing on Wall Street, but rather on Main Street. My friends are all part of the economic engine of America: SMALL Business. Small business creates 75% of new jobs (and a majority of all jobs). I called one friend who was a wealthy restaurant owner. He says business is off by 60%. He’s drowning in debt. He won’t last much longer. His wealth is gone.

I called another friend in the business of home improvement. He says business is off 90% from 2 years ago. NINETY PERCENT. My contractor just filed personal bankruptcy. She won’t be building anymore homes. The hair salon where I’ve had my hair cut for years closed earlier this year. Bankrupt. But here’s the clincher -- ESPN ZONE just closed all their restaurants across the country. ESPN ZONE! If they can’t make it selling cheap food and overpriced beer with 100 big screens blaring every sporting event on the planet, to a sports-crazed society, we are all in deep, deep trouble.

I’ve polled all my friends who own small businesses -- many of them in the Internet and high tech fields. They all agree that in this new Obama world of high business taxes, income taxes, payroll taxes, capital gains taxes, and workers compensation taxes, the key to success is to AVOID employees. The only way to survive as a business owner today is by keeping the payroll very low and by hiring only independent contractors, or part-time employees provided by temp agencies. The days of jobs in the private sector with big salaries, full benefits, and pensions are over. We’ve all seen where those kinds of jobs get you as a business owner—in bankruptcy court, or surviving on government welfare like GM and Chrysler.

Or in the case of government itself -- completely insolvent, but surviving by ripping off taxpayers and fraudulently running printing presses at the Fed all day and night to print money by the trillions. Unfortunately, small businesses don’t have the power to impose taxes or print money. So unlike government, we’ll just have to cut employees and run lean and mean.

It has now become clear that, outside of the burgeoning field of Census Takers, there will be no major increase in new jobs for years to come. Outside government, Obama has created a wasteland of economic ruin and depression that looks much like the landscape of Mel Gibson’s first movie “Mad Max.” Without a printing press in Obama’s world, you’re just plain out of luck.

The days of believing the Obama propaganda about a jobs recovery are over. The trillion dollar corporate handouts (neatly named “stimulus”) may have kept big business in the money for the last 18 months, and artificially propped up the stock market, but small business is the real “canary in the coal mine.” My small business-owning friends aren’t creating one job. Not one. They are shedding jobs. They are learning to do more with fewer employees. They are creating high tech businesses that don't need employees. And many business owners are making plans to leave the country.

In a high tech world where businesses can be run from anywhere in the world, Obama has a problem. His one trick pony- raise taxes, raise taxes, raise taxes- is chasing away the business owners he desperately needs to pay his bills.

So who is going to pay Obama’s taxes? Not his voters. They want government to pay them. Who is going to create Obama’s jobs? Not his voters- they've never created a job in their lives.

Think of the pain and misery that could have been saved, if only someone would have listened. Obama's Keynesian economic plans do not work. Let's compare Reagan's economic plan to Obama's. After being elected in 1980, President Reagan immediately got to work doing the exact opposite of Obama. He instituted Supply Side Economics. Reagan dramatically cut income taxes, cut capital gains taxes, cut domestic spending, cut entitlements, cut rules and regulations, and praised business. He was a cheerleader for business. Reagan understood the words of President Calvin Coolidge: "The business of America is business." Instead of demonizing, denigrating and punishing business owners, he praised, motivated and rewarded them.

Now let's look at the results under Reagan. Twelve consecutive years of massive economic growth- the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. Massive GDP growth. Massive job growth- over 20 million new jobs in a short period of time. Massive tax revenue increases. Prosperity. Happy days were here again. It became exactly what Reagan predicted- "Morning in America." Isn't that an amazing magic trick? You treat business owners, job creators, financial risk-takers, and investors nicely...and they respond by enthusiastically producing success. What a miracle. Voila! You get jobs, growth, increased tax revenue, economic expansion. It's not a guess...it's not a miracle...it's a fact.

Yet under Obama we have far different results. Devastation of the private sector. Disaster. No jobs. More Americans joining the disability and food stamp rolls than the job rolls.

Anemic GDP. Real estate collapse. Manufacturing collapse. The lowest business startup rate in 30 years. 40% of our assets have disappeared in only 4 years. We have our country's credit rating downgraded for the first time in history. Under Obama it's "Mourning in America." Coincidence?

Wayne Allyn Root is a Capitalist Evangelist and serial entrepreneur. He is a former Libertarian vice presidential nominee. He now serves as Chairman of the Libertarian National Campaign Committee. He is the best-selling author of "The Conscience of a Libertarian: Empowering the Citizen Revolution with God, Guns, Gold & Tax Cuts." His web site: www.ROOTforAmerica.com