Mr. President, less will be more.

A Reuters-Ipsos poll just released reveals that an overwhelming 67 percent of Americans believe that President Obama hasn’t devoted enough of his time to creating jobs.

Look at the numbers and you can understand why. The most recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the unemployment rate at 9.5 percent, down from 9.7 percent. But that slight decline in unemployment is misleading. The reason the rate came down is because a large number of workers have been unemployed for so long that they are no longer counted as being in the labor force. The percentage of workers unemployed six months or longer is at the highest level since 1948 when we started keeping score.

The real unemployment rate, which counts workers who have been unemployed so long that they have quit looking and workers who are working part time but prefer fulltime work, is closer to 17 percent.

One of every two households in the U.S. is said to be “employment sensitive,” meaning that the household is either living with an unemployed worker in the house or has reason to fear that unemployment is imminent.

Thus, when asked by pollsters, two out of three respondents say that President Obama isn’t devoting enough of his energy to creating jobs.

But I think the poll is wrong.

President Obama’s failure arises not from doing too little but from doing too much. It is Obama’s over-intervention in the economy that lies at the root of the problem.

Don’t push a huge health care mandate on employers Mr. President, and business owners won’t be frightened of the future costs attendant to having employees and therefore might be less reticent to hire some.

Don’t raise the tax rates on investment and capital, Mr. President and the investment that will be necessary to bring about employment growth might happen more quickly.

Promise to get out of the auto and banking businesses as quickly as possible and vow to never go into private business again.

Above all, stop borrowing and spending money, Mr. President. You’re scaring us all to death.

An amazingly concise 288 words in Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution sets forth the powers and duties of the president.

He is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He appoints ambassadors and judges. He negotiates treaties. He grants pardons. He convenes the Congress if he feels it necessary. He approves or disapproves legislation.

But he doesn’t manage the economy.

It’s not that the president hasn’t done enough to create jobs. The problem is that so many people believe that the president has any such power in the first place.

Widespread belief that the government is what drives America, instead of the other way around, is why we find ourselves drowning in debt while unable to find work for willing people to do.

The poll is wrong. President Obama hasn’t done too little. He has done too much.

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Paul Gleiser

Paul L. Gleiser is president of ATW Media, LLC, licensee of radio stations KTBB 97.5 FM/AM600, 92.1 The TEAM FM in Tyler-Longview, Texas.

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5 Responses

  1. Gary G. Rowden says:

    Too much? I think we are missing the obvious. That being that the gameplan of the Obama administration is deliberately sinking the American boat in order to ‘transform’ the capitalist, free-market system into the socialist/markist vision of their progrssive heros – not the 80% of Americans who oppose them.

  2. Earl Holt III says:

    That poll IS silly: Our village-idiot “President” doesn’t have a clue as to how jobs or wealth are created. His kind knows only how to redistribute wealth from those who work to those who never will.

    Come to think of it, there isn’t a “Democrat” in any major office in the U.S. who has an inkling how to create wealth and jobs.

    “Democrat” = communist

  3. Linda E. Montrose says:

    Polls, on an average, are lopsided in favor of one of the other party…depending on WHO is polled. I have only been polled once in my life and the questions asked were so misleading, I just hung up!
    I will just say this…if obama had left everything alone and not “bailed out” or bought out banks, car industry and so forth, we would not be in this mess. But that wasn’t in his plan, now was it? The more unemployed there are, the more government can step in to ease their suffering. Which leads to a dependence on government, which in turn means more votes to keep the “benefits”. All this is planned!

  4. Sam says:

    TARP started under Bush and continued under Obama. I truly hope that I am wrong but both parties strike me as one of the same. Both parties, in my opinion, throw the crumbs to us the working people. By ‘working people’ I mean about 90% of the American People (my unscientific numbers). I figure about 5% or so are super rich that make their money off our hard work and the other 5% are the lazy people who make it their job to sit on their **** and collect money from the government for extended periods of time.

    My conclusions:
    Popular vote (good)
    Electoral vote (bad)
    Gerrymandering (bad)
    Corporate contributions to politicians (bad)
    ~20% media companies control 90%+ of media (bad)
    Kneejerk (bad)
    Getting enlightened by doing our homework (good)
    Living within our means (good)
    Raising healthy families (good)
    Giving Dads their role back in families (good)
    Drunk driving (bad)
    Drugs (bad)

    Finally, being verbose (BAAAAD) but it is a bad habit of mine….. (SORRY)
    Have a beautifull day.

  5. William says:

    You are obviously another disgrutled republican. Who does not understand the writting on the statue of liberty and want to afflict a culture on the basis of a faction of radiculist like you (GOP and Tea ).Your just another American that goes along with the majority of of Texas just to keep his job. Ignoring the fact that Texas is just one state and you are not the majority for a reason.

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