Monday, February 10, 2014

January's Jobs Report And Unemployment

The economy created 113,000 net jobs in January according to the U.S. Labor Department.  Not a great number but once again in positive territory.  There were 115,000 formerly unemployed who found jobs.  The unemployment rate fell to 6.6%, the lowest since October 2008.  I can remember when republicans in congress said it would be good if the unemployment rate would fall below 8%.

Once again it is a democratic administration that has brought the economy and job creation back to positive territory with out any help from the republicans in congress who still would like to see the country and its people fail.  The republican party under President G.W. Bush had the worst job creation record since the great depression and they want it bad to be able to say that President Obama, a democrat, had the worst job creation record but they will never see that day.  There has been no republican administration in the past 50 years that created more job than the democratic administration they followed.  Nada.  Not even President Reagan who's administration created a little over 5 million jobs in his first term in office while President Carter's administration created over 10 million jobs in its first and only term in office.

For those who are interested in the economy, job creation and etc., see my previous commentary's named below. 


Four Part Series dated 1/27/08 (start) titled:  The U.S. Economy:  Which Party Performs Best?

Job Creation For Presidential Terms:  1929-2008  dated 11/5/10



This commentary written by John Lucia.

Louisiana Purchased and Americans For Prosperity's

Lee Zurik and Manuel Torres continuing story in the Times Picayune concerning elected officials and campaign contributions given them from business tells a story we are all familar with.  That is special interest groups have the money that influences special favors from elected officials at the detriment of the average citizen. 

Americans for Prosperity's is a PAC that is mainly funded by the billionaire Koch brothers(out of towners) who are spending millions of dollars in ads in Louisiana to defeat Senator Mary Landrieu in the coming November elections.  The conservative Koch brothers have the financial resources to have it both ways, they can give direct to a politician via campaign contributions or form a PAC and run ads to try and defeat a certain candidate. 

Both are two sides of the same coin called influence buying.  Why do business spend their money that way?  Because it works for them.  Why does it work for them?  Because the average voter has yet to demand and hold our elected officials or business groups or individuals responsible for their actions.  That is why elected officials and the money people are so outwardly brazen in their actions.  They know the average voters knows what is going on and that they can still get reelected and still spend millions of dollars in ads and manipulate the voter.

Just think how many employees could be insured or be paid a decent wage if all that campaign money was re directed instead of being spent on elected officials and ads from wealthy PAC donors.  One can easily make the statement that too many elected officials and too many business people believe in corrupting government and corrupting the vote.  It is a sad story of the inability to compete by the wealthy people and business just because they have the ability to influence.

Nothing will change for the people as long as they tolerate a corruptive system and ads that they allow to influence their vote. 


This commentary written by John Lucia