Nov 05 2009
It’s Still The Unemployment Driving The Electorate
What was driving the wave of elections in VA and NJ this week? The deteriorating jobs market was and is the driver, which is where the average American voter connects to the ‘economy’ in a visceral way. The crux of the Democrats’ problem with the voters is they have failed miserably on this matter.
I predicted all through the spring that the liberal belief in the fiction that government can spend and stimulate our economy would be their undoing. I noted people would see all this spending and no jobs for over A YEAR after Obama and Pelosi and Ried rushed out that faux stimulus bill claiming it would turn things around. I knew that if we went through Tax Day and Memorial Day and things were not getting better people would start to get agitated. I knew if the situation prevailed through July 4th the mood would begin to get ugly.
It would be obvious that if the situation persisted through Labor Day and Holloween that anger would start to turn to anger – and it did in most races (the one exception was NY-23 where conservative purity was being trumpeted as the higher priority). Â Exit polls show that those concerned with the economy (and the impact a government take over of health care and energy taxes would have on it) pushed Independents 2 to 1 against Democrats.
This is just the beginning of the wave. The new weekly unemployment numbers came out today, and there is a reason Congress is rushing to extend emergency unemployment support – we are in a job emergency situation. We are not creating new jobs in sufficient numbers to offset the lost jobs. Every week for the last few months 500,000 people have submitted FIRST TIME unemployment claims. This week is no different. But what is really worrying is the growing masses of people who have been out of work so long they have gone through the normal unemployment benefits and now are clinging to the last edge of the safety net.
The program is called the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) and its roles have been growing at a shocking rate ever since the liberal fictional stimulus bill was passed (click to enlarge):
Since the Democrats passed their naive stimulus bill over 2,000,000 people have been added to the EUC rolls! THAT is the undeniable result of the stimulus bill. Not the crap the PR propagandists in the White House try to push on us. America is fed up with their BS.
What did two generations of debt buy us this year? Fake job ‘created/saved’ numbers – see here and here for my discoveries. And check out this list of whacky and crazy jobs we went into massive debt to create:
– $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.
– $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.
– $430,000 to repair a bridge in Iowa County, Wis., that carries 10 or fewer cars per day.
– $800,000 for the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., serving about 20 passengers per day, to build a backup runway.
– $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women.
Some Head Start preschool programs reported that stimulus money saved the job of every staff member who received a cost-of-living pay raise, according to their filings. Some colleges and universities counted every part-time student work-study position as a full-time job, according to their reports, which are published online at recovery.gov.
And some low-income housing landlords whose decades-old contracts with the federal government were funded by the stimulus this year reported a total of 6,463 employees as having jobs linked to the stimulus package.
It all stinks of an expensive con game (while Nancy “I’m Still Sane” Pelosi claims Tuesday was a big win for Democrats). Crooks and nuts in charge of the DC insane asylum.
The wave that began this spring and began to be noticed this summer in the Tea Parties across this country is only beginning to build. It was seen in the votes Tuesday, and even Gallup provides its usual understatement on the Democrats’ peril:
Gallup’s generic congressional ballot provides a summary measure of current voting intentions for Congress. This currently suggests the 2010 midterm elections could be highly competitive, and possibly a strong Republican year if usual turnout patterns prevail.
What if turn out patterns not only prevail from Tuesday, but expand? What then? Then 1993 will look mild in comparison. 2,000,000 Americans are trying to survive Obamanomics. Tens of millions are out of work or underemployed. And the Democrats deny there is a rising tide of rejection heading their way?
My take on the election (New York-23) is that it had nothing to do with “purity wars” as you AJ describe. Hoffman, a late comer to the process, was not well tied into local concerns, but was well versed on National politics, even so he did really well. It is known that people vote local concerns.
DeDe was hired by the Obama administration the day after the election.
An employer needs to know how much it will cost to hire an individual. Until the health care debate and cap and trade are defeated or passed, how much it will cost to hire is unknowable.
Obama is working at cross purposes with himself. He throws away a trillion dollars propping up state governments and government jobs, which tax payers fund, but without jobs there are no taxes to either state or federal coffers. He puts a potential crushing burden on private business so they don’t hire and the trillion is going to run out. Yes Rev. Wright, the chickens have come home to roost.
I agree with Kathie. The lovely and talented DeDe is not a moderate Republican. She was a far left Democrat running as a Republican. She supported the stimulus, card, check, national health care, and cap and trade. Hoffman can hardly be any worse and if he is as bad, he is unlikely to win next year.
Selecting DeDe was the equivalent of the Democrats running a supply side tax cutter who wants to outlaw abortion and send all illegal immigrants home. He would not fit the party and DeDe did not fit the Republicans.
Rick
Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell’s victory in the Virginia governor’s race over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/194/story/1035388.html
CONSERVATIVE? He was a CONSERVATIVE?
HOW COULD HE WIN???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
“Purity” not again….
Looks like he’s lost his own regulars that post here everyday.
In Va. The Governor was conservative it does seem from several press reports, and his own wickapedia entry, the people under him: Lt. Governor, etc. were the moderates.
Take Care folks, your becoming independent thinks, a great sign.
This whole “Purity” thing is silly.You get 10 people who consider themselves Conservatives together, and as each one individually what is conservative, do you think you’d get 10 answers the same? I don’t.
The same would go for 10 moderates, or 10 liberals. Or a million.
Same for “Far Right” or “Far Left” each individual would define them differently based on many factors, most inportantly, their eductional back ground on the questions.
Ok, back to washing dishes. Take Care, keep them brain cells active! Enjoy your day folks, your a good group of people, I applaud you!
(the one exception was NY-23 where conservative purity was being trumpeted as the higher priority
I’m happy that there is at least one congressional district in the USA that unemployment is not as important as ultra liberalism.
so rather than have that ‘pure’ Sarah Palin tell them who to vote for they’d rather have an ultra lib elected and no job. makes sense…
hope it keeps their belly full when they’re not drawing that pay check. but hey, at least we got ‘our’ lib elected, we’ll teach those purists…
AJ you raise an interesting point in pointing out the insanity in Congress and Polousy especially—-Is it possible for concerned citizens to initiate actions to have these lunatics committed to appropriate psychiatric facilities as they clearly pose a threat to themselves and ourselves? Absolutely nothing they have done makes sense economically, morally or legally and no reasonably thinking humanoid can justify their actions as for the greater good of anything. I honestly think she is crazy if not clinically retarded and a bigger threat to our nation than Hitler, Stalin, Chavez and Obama combined.
I agree KauaiBoy, I don’t know if I would put her into the same category as Hitler or Stalin, but totally nuts for sure and probably worse.
I you believe that all politics devolves to local candidates you come to the conclusion fairly quickly that you must have a candidate that can WIN locally. When I see those folks present themselves as the opposition to the incumbents, I’ll feel better about a few demos going home….
Here is a tough one. How would we catagorize these people?
Thomas Jefferson [R]
James Madison [R]
James Monroe [R]
Andrew Jackson [D]
John Tyler [R]
James K. Polk [D]
Franklin Pierce [D]
James Buchanan [D]
What Do They All Have In Common?
They all Vetoed “Interior Improvement” projects passed by Congress. Such as Roads, Canals, etc. WHY?
Well you see, if something isn’t listed in the Constitution under Article 1 Section 8, then Congress has no authority to do it, without ammending the Constitution.
My, how times have changed. Now, we do anything we want without the slightest thought as to the Constitutionality of what is proposed.
So, what are they, Far Right, Far Left, Conservative Moderates, or just people who respect the Constitutional Limits placed upon them? Tough one isn’t it!
I read this today in my newest book.
I guess I’m a goner. AJ is not happy with my Knowledge based posts. I never wanted to upset him, just inform him. He doesn’t have the time I have to study. He has a wife and kids, where I am single, broke, and enjoy learning.
So folk, I suspect I’ll be block from this point forward. I hope you all keep your minds open. Take Care, see you on the flip side.
Top-line, U-3 unemployment rate, is now reported at 10.2%.
The U-6 unemployment rate measure is 17.5%, climbing dramatically from 17.0% last month.
Both numbers were “seasonally adjusted” via the Birth/Death Model, which added 86,000 jobs?!!?
The Birth/Death Model is what the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses to esitimate small business employment and it is adusted every six months or a year (I can’t remember which).
The one thing that we do know is that small business is not hiring due to fears over tax liabilities due to health care, cap & trade, and the expiration of the Bush tax cuts on 1 Jan 2010.
When this shows up in the Birth/Death Model, political blood will be on the floor.
[…] As I noted yesterday the topic driving the electorate is the unemployment, which shot up dramatically again in October: The United States economy shed 190,000 jobs in October, and the unemployment rate reached a 26-year high of 10.2 percent, up from 9.8 percent in September, the Department of Labor said Friday in its monthly economic appraisal. […]
Stevevvs,
You’re such a drama queen.
Hi everyone – I am just a former Democrat. Frankly I do not understand your fights. Reps? Conservatives? I cannot keep your issues and your angers straight. I think it is all simple. It is all about abortion and THAT is the problem: not abortion but, rather, the notion that abortion is a political issue.
I believe that abortion must be kept out of politics on the simple principle of separation of church and state. Period. If abortion stays on the front burner, Republicans lose. I believe that people on the public stage should cease talking about it. If you open your mouth about it – either side! – you get cornered. It is an IMPOSSIBLE issue. Leave it ALONE.
What is important for the country is that conservative principles of economics return and conservative principles of small government return and that small business gets strong and that frontier principles of “leave me alone” come back.
Leave abortion out of the public discourse – if you do not, more and more abortion will take place.
Kathie, I think I needed some extreme examples of totalitarian thinking and the outcomes from being unable to see any other points of view, even when your own have been proven wrong. While I don’t think her capable of mass murder on the scale of some of those noted, she is certainly crazy enough to get a Charles Manson size family together and she certainly has the constituents. Nor will she go into the history books as anything more than the white woman version of Cynthia McKinley.
I just think there has to be some check on the unbridled use of government especially in situations that have such widespread impact as conducting war or security operations, spending money above and beyond some rational amount or percentage of GNP, and any other matters that affect people throughout the entire USA. We have entered an age when the interests of the majority of the people have been coopted by a small minority of people with the aid and abetment of the media and probably foreign (and hostile) handlers. Congress should be required to get at least a 75% vote to pass any legislation that will impact the country long after they are dead.
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