Dear Jamie,
Thank you for running the guest editorial last week (Feb. 1, 2012) affirming that private sector employment has increased for 22 consecutive months under the Obama administration.
It is true that employment by the private sector, the primary strength of the American economy, fell sharply in the last 12 months of the Bush administration as the nation plunged into a Great Recession. The first month of the Obama administration matched the worst of the Bush years, but the nation began a slow but steady upward climb from that moment on. By the Spring of 2010, a year after President Obama took office private sector employment turned positive.
“I’d prefer growth”
I was struck, though, that your guest writer, the head of a group called Americans for Limited Government, was critical that the size of government payrolls has decreased under the Obama administration. The writer protested that overall employment had grown “only” 2.13 million while private employment grew by 3 million. The difference is due to the reduction in government jobs. You’d think the head of Americans for Limited Government would be cheering an increase in private employment coupled with a reduction in government payrolls.
Clearly, we have a ways to go. Unemployment claims continue to drop and employment continues to rise.
But we have some folks who want to go back to the failed policies that got us into this mess – “go-go banking” they called it back in the 1970’s. You may remember that sad chapter when the steady Savings and Loans, which safely built America’s suburbs and helped lift millions into a comfortable middle-class life, were destroyed by unregulated fast-money swindlers.
In the first eight years of this century, we let the national Republican Party talk us into the same trap. We unleashed the Wall Street titans to lead small local banks, like our own Park Avenue Bank, down a graden path and directly over a cliff. Your mortgage papers went along for the ride. Millions of dollars in weath left Baxley and surrounding communities during that debacle. The money didn’t disappear. It was sucked out to pay extravagant bonuses to Wall Street barons.
Jamie, sometimes the so-called “limited government” crowd demand austerity. That’s what they tried in Europe while our Federal Reserve and the Obama Administration (and Bush before him) urged government action to save jobs and keep our financial system intact. Now we can see the results of the two paths. America is rising, unemployment is decreasing, private employment is increasing, and the American stock market is thriving.
In Europe, where the austerity crowd won the argument, collapse looms.
I’d prefer growth.
Again, thanks for pointing out that private employment is on the rise in America.
Jimmy Johnson
Vice-chair, Appling County Democratic Committee
Clearly, we have a ways to go. Unemployment claims continue to drop and employment continues to rise.
But we have some folks who want to go back to the failed policies that got us into this mess – “go-go banking” they called it back in the 1970’s. You may remember that sad chapter when the steady Savings and Loans, which safely built America’s suburbs and helped lift millions into a comfortable middle-class life, were destroyed by unregulated fast-money swindlers.
In the first eight years of this century, we let the national Republican Party talk us into the same trap. We unleashed the Wall Street titans to lead small local banks, like our own Park Avenue Bank, down a graden path and directly over a cliff. Your mortgage papers went along for the ride. Millions of dollars in weath left Baxley and surrounding communities during that debacle. The money didn’t disappear. It was sucked out to pay extravagant bonuses to Wall Street barons.
Jamie, sometimes the so-called “limited government” crowd demand austerity. That’s what they tried in Europe while our Federal Reserve and the Obama Administration (and Bush before him) urged government action to save jobs and keep our financial system intact. Now we can see the results of the two paths. America is rising, unemployment is decreasing, private employment is increasing, and the American stock market is thriving.
In Europe, where the austerity crowd won the argument, collapse looms.
I’d prefer growth.
Again, thanks for pointing out that private employment is on the rise in America.
Jimmy Johnson
Vice-chair, Appling County Democratic Committee
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LASST13000003
Waylon S. Wilson
232 Second St.
Baxley, GA 31513
End the Fed, elect Ron Paul!
Jimmy should go find another hold to stick his head in...