Destroying the Economy

By Douglas V. Gibbs

We are told the unemployment rate is working its way down to 8%. The real unemployment rate is well over 10%, and the U-6 is pushing 20%. In April the number of people not in the labor force rose by 522,000 from 87,897,000 to 88,419,000. This is the highest on record. Yet, despite that number, the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1% because the labor force participation rate dipped to a new 30 year low of 64.3%.

The less positions available in the universe of jobs, compared to the number of participants, has actually dropped the rate. When people go beyond their eligibility for unemployment insurance, and drop off the rolls, they are no longer counted as unemployed, even though they have not found a job yet. Their job they lost, however, is also no longer counted as existing, thus, decreasing the universe of jobs.

In other words, the Obama administration is cooking the books. The democrats understand that they have to get the unemployment rate under 8% to have a fighting chance for Barack Obama to win reelection. N. President in the modern era has been reelected with an unemployment rate over 7.1%. The goal is not to keep the rate where it is at. Obama will not win in November with an unemployment rate of 8.1%. They need the rate under 7.5% by November, and they have the manipulation of the unemployment rate in high gear.

If we used the same method to calculate the unemployment rate as we did during the Great Depression, the current rate would be 17%. Labor force participation, the percentage of Americans who are actually working, has dropped to 64.3%. Thanks to the liberal policies of the democrats, from the Community Reinvestment Act to the fiscal madness of the democrat controlled Congress from 2007, and the socialist policies of the Obama administration, 30 years of economic growth has been wiped out.

In January 2007, when the Democrats took control of Congress, the unemployment rate was 4.6%. In 2007, the number of people not in the workforce was only 79 million. In short, under Obama almost 9 million Americans have fled the workforce, and our economy has plunged into an abyss.

Obama's job-killing policies have been so damaging that the democrats are even trying to cover up what they've done. Internal e-mails disclosed by the House Natural Resources Committee show that a report on the administration's doctored drilling moratorium analysis, issued by the Department of Interior's Inspector General's office, was itself incomplete, misleading and unsubstantiated. Even worse for Obama and gang is that the documents reveal the White House actively blocked investigators and Obama's administration has continually refused to comply with subpoenas.

After the BP oil spill in 2010, the White House's six-month moratorium on America's entire deepwater drilling industry sent us into an energy tailspin. The ban, inserted into a technical safety document in the middle of the night by Obama's green extremists, destroyed an estimated 19,000 jobs and $1.1 billion in lost wages. The expert panel that recommended those actions, and the federal judiciary, called out then-eco czar Carol Browner for misleading the public about the scientific evidence and "contributing to the perception that the government's findings were more exact than they actually were."

Browner and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made sure the drilling ban report completely misrepresented the Obama-appointed panel's own overwhelming scientific objections to the job-killing edict.  Federal judge Martin Feldman in Louisiana blasted the Obama Interior Department for defying his May 2010 order to lift its fraudulent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling in the Gulf.

The Republican Party has attempted to hold administration officials accountable for the drilling ban fraud, but the truth has been diverted, and the public has been distracted with the tactics of personal destruction against any GOP member involved in shedding any light on the truth.

The reports were full of intentional editing, specifically designed to deceive the public, and investigators. In fact, now the IG report is being used by the Obama Administration and others as a defense that this matter has already been investigated and resolved. Nonetheless, the emails contradict that claim and raise new questions on whether the IG's investigation was as thorough and complete as it should have been.

Congressman Hastings wrote, "Despite the President's pledge of transparency, this Administration has not answered questions by anyone on how this decision was made that forced thousands of Americans out of work and cost millions of dollars in lost economic activity."

Now, to finish us off, after all of this spending, and destructive policies against the private sector, the Obama administration plans to slam us with the biggest tax hike in American History.

The increase in taxes will happen January 1, 2013, if Obama has his way. The coming tax hike is being named "Taxmageddon," and would impose $494 billion in higher taxes on the American people in the first year. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has warned that if it takes place, it will send this country toward a “fiscal cliff.” House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has announced that the House of Representatives will take on this issue before the November election, but the democrat controlled Senate has vowed to do as it has been doing for the last few years. . . punt, and then blame the republicans when things go south.

The mere threat of the massive tax hike is already having an impact on the economy. Business owners and corporations are putting off growth, which means they will also be putting off hiring.  That kind of rise in taxes could destroy any chance to climb out of this economic hole. Not only will income tax rates shoot up, but also the child credit will be cut in half, the marriage penalty will be back in place, the capital gains tax rate will rise, the dividend tax rate will rise, the payroll tax rate will jump two percentage points, the Marxist estate tax/death tax will be restored to its punitive past, the Alternative Minimum Tax relief will expire, and a new additional payroll tax hike from Obamacare takes effect.

Higher taxation is only the tip of the iceberg, however. The result of the taxation on any chance for economic growth, job loss, and a second wave of foreclosures will be devastating.

Congress must act to keep this from happening at the end of the year, and make the lower tax rates permanent if they wish to avoid this in the future.  Then, we need to work towards real tax reform, which in my opinion would include repealing the 16th Amendment altogether.

Repealing the 16th Amendment would take away a lot of power from the federal government. I am not talking about replacing the income tax with some national sales tax, or something, but eliminating taxing the American People directly once and for all.  It would not only force the federal government to cut back a lot of unnecessary, unconstitutional spending, and become a smaller governmental bureaucracy, but it would do a lot for returning sovereignty to the States.

Liberals reading this will immediately cry about the loss of revenue, but understand this, if eliminating the income tax would have happened in 2008, it would have set back federal revenues to the same level as they were in 1997. Income tax is but a minor source of revenue, and a huge tool for governmental control and manipulation of the economy. Elimination of the income tax, and the IRS, would be a grand step in the right direction, returning America to the Constitution, halting the collapse of our economy, and stopping the destruction of the United States as founded.

Eliminating the Federal Reserve would be the next step after that.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

People Not in Labor Force Soar by 522,000, Labor Force Participation Rate Lowest Since 1981 - ZeroHedge

Lies, damn lies and unemployment rates - Tea Party Nation

White House Lied, Jobs Died - GOP USA

Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Hamilton's Curse - How Jefferson's Arch Enemy Betrayed The American Revolution and What It Means For Americans Today; New York: Three Rivers Press (2008), page 203