So, with unemployment at an impossible high, and with economic recovery at an impossible snail’s pace, and with job growth artificially inflated by temporary census worker hiring in May, what does Obama decide to do?
Why, ban offshore drilling, of course! Yep – his six-month ban (read: indefinite) on new off-shore drilling is going to cost up to 20,000 Louisiana jobs in the next year or so. Gov. Bobby Jindal sent Obama a letter which said in part, “The last thing we need is to enact public policies that will certainly destroy thousands of existing jobs while preventing the creation of thousands more.” And to that I say, well, DUH. But see, Obama has no capacity for understanding that he is IN THE WAY of private sector job growth. Even if he can’t physically CREATE new private industry jobs, he shouldn’t be the barrier. And yet, he totally is.
Now, Obama’s excuse is that he wants time for a “presidential panel” to investigate the oil rig explosion. That’s nice and all, and it needs to be investigated, and other offshore rigs need to be inspected, but production shouldn’t STOP. Tourism and fishing industries are already widely impacted by the spill. Jobs are being lost by the hundreds. Job-killing moratoriums are not the answer. Again, just because thousands of people die every year in car accidents, you don’t see the government putting a moratorium on driving, do you?
But Obama’s moratorium will shut down 33 rigs in the Gulf. 22 of those are near Louisiana, and Bobby Jindal says that’ll cost 6000 jobs in the next 3 weeks alone. Perfect!
But, you know, well over 400,000 government census workers were hired this past month, you guys. So, you know, we have that.
