As if we don't already have enough people extending their quarter-life crisis getting various and sundry Master's degrees in social sciences, Victorian poetry, and running non-profits, so that they can then enter the workforce in debt up to their ears and destined never to make enough money to escape it. Today, Obama went forth to call for all of us to attend more school, and for those of us who already went to school and paid for it ourselves to subsidize it for others. Fun!
He employed his most powerful tools. Note the soaring rhetoric, absence of details, and the patented Obama Couplet of Lovely Vapidity:
They're letters of struggle but also of service to others.
They're stories of heartbreak, but also of hope...
Cops are still on the beat and teachers are still in the classroom;
Shovels are breaking ground and cranes dot the sky
Mmmm, yes. If only crane-dotted skylines were a real measure of the economic success of his stimulus plan instead of—oh, I don't know—say, the unemployment rate, which today hit its highest level in 25 years. Obama acknowledged this point, but promptly blamed the new depths the economy is plumbing in his tenure on...Bush:
The unemployment rate is at its highest point in twenty-five years. It underscores the point that we're still in the midst of a recession that was years in the making and will be months or even years in the unmaking; and we should expect further job losses in the months to come.
Lucky for Obama, bad news only underscores Bush's failures; it doesn't illuminate his. One wonders when exactly the Obama economy, for which we've forked over $700 billion, will belong to him.
And, what have we gotten for the $700 billion we've spent on this grand recovery thus far? Obama touts the fact that the 539,000 jobs lost in April were fewer than the economy lost in previous months, which is something, but that statistic has been revised downward each month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics by between 60,000 - 100,000 over the last couple of months, so it's likely to get worse. It's also worth noting that 60,000 jobs were added by government, so much of the minimal success he's claiming will come at the cost of taxpayers, not redound to their benefit.
For a more optimistic read, see Bob Stein's assessment of the household survey numbers as a more accurate reflection of the actual workforce, as those numbers react more quickly than payroll numbers:
In the three months ended in January, both payrolls and civilian employment were down 675,000 per month, reflecting intense economic weakness. In the last three months, payrolls are down 640,000 per month (a mild improvement) but civilian employment is down 363,000 per month (a substantial improvement).
But it seems to me the number that will stick with people is the 8.9 percent unemployment. There are a couple ways, pointed out by fellow bloggers today, to think about that number.
Jim Geraghty brings out the ol' Misery Index, which he finds has risen half a point since Obama took office, and is likely to rise again in April, when inflation is calculated.
Phil Klein notices that Obama's budget projections depended on an 8.1-percent average unemployment for the year to even get his deficit down to $1.75 trillion.
The figure of 8.9 percent is also the worst-case scenario number Geithner used for 2009 in subjecting banks to stress tests, which bodes badly for the reliability of the stress-test results, or the road we're headed down, or both.
And, finally, 8.9 percent is also the dire prediction Obama's White House gave us for what would happen if his stimulus were not passed.
Money for nuthin', I believe that's called.
So, on the day that the unemployment number seems to put the lie to Obama's promises of successful stimulation, he's out on the stump calling for another giant government-spending program for which he offers no details, no price-tag, and no metric for determining success. Pardon me if I'm not jumping to sign onto another boondoggle Obama "investment."
Today's "investment" in the "New Foundation," which has now been elevated to proper-noun status by either the New York Times' sycophancy or the administration's hubris, is to send everyone on unemployment to college on taxpayer-subsidized scholarships.
The idea here is to fundamentally change our approach to unemployment in this country, so that it's no longer just a time to look for a new job, but to prepare yourself for a better job. That's what our unemployment system should be – not a safety net, but a stepping stone to a new future. It should offer folks educational opportunities they wouldn't otherwise have, giving them the measurable and differentiated skills they need to not just get through these hard times – but to get ahead when the economy comes back.
I'm all for education, but 500,000 people didn't lose their jobs this month because they became suddenly unqualified for them, and a computer science class at the community college ain't gonna change much. They lost their jobs because the economy is shrinking and demand for products is down. The solution to that problem is not to burden businesses and taxpayers with yet another huge program, just because it sounds nice to liberals.
Obama claims such self-improvement has been denied for far too many Americans:
In many states, that worker might lose temporary financial support if he enrolls in a training program. To make matters worse, unemployment might mean he can't afford higher education, and he likely won't qualify for federal help simply because he may have made a decent salary a year ago.
Well, that doesn't make much sense for our economy or our country. So we're going to change it.
First, we'll open new doors to higher education and job training programs to recently laid-off workers who are receiving unemployment benefits. And if those displaced workers need help paying for their education, they should get it – that's why the next step is to make it easier for them to receive Pell Grants.
So, federal help will now be available to roughly...everyone. Imagine how much that will cost. And, that's before we've even gotten to Obama's almost-mandate. I can't wait to see how this is written into law:
To that end, I've also asked every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. It can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship; but whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma. And we will back you up with the support necessary to do that and to meet the new goal that I've set: by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.
And, in case you worried he wasn't going to spend enough on this project of questionable value and indeterminate efficacy, he assures us:
So this is a good start. But it is only a start. These steps are just a short-term down payment on our larger goal of ensuring that all Americans get the skills and education they need to succeed in today's economy.
Normally, when one makes a down payment, one knows both the cost of the down payment and the total cost of the product. Oddly, neither number is mentioned in Obama's speech. Like most Obama "New Foundation" products, he doesn't know what it will do or how much it will cost; only that you should trust him, and buy it.
There's my two cents.
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