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Washington Prowler
Obama Jobs
Making Census workers permanent creatures of the Obama recovery. Plus: CEOs tell Obama all the wrong things.
THE PERMANENT CENSUS
The Obama White House, stung by criticism of the recent May
employment report, which showed virtually no job growth beyond
the 411,000 temporary census workers, is attempting to find ways
to put as many of the 411,000 in permanent government
jobs.
According to White House sources, the Labor Department is spearheading efforts to identify government jobs created or enabled by federal stimulus programs, as well as unfilled bureaucrat jobs, where the temporary workers might be placed.
“There are policies in place that would allow us to put those people into federal or possibly stimulus-related jobs fairly quickly,” says one White House source. “They are already in the pipeline given the employment forms they filled out for the census work.”
Federal hiring rules quietly eased and adjusted by the Obama Administration over the past year will further enable the administration to place those temporary workers, according to the White House source. For example, the Obama Administration has cut back the number of forms job seekers must fill out, ended the practice of a skills and knowledge essay, allowed the hiring process to take place with only the use of a résumé and writing samples, and, perhaps most important, eased hiring rules based on the “most qualified” requirement, so that less experienced prospective employees might be hired over better qualified or more experienced competitors.
Another byproduct of the census hiring? “It’s essentially a new job created if these volunteers move back to the unemployment rolls [and then back to a fulltime job in the federal government],” says a Senate Democrat leadership staffer.
ALL THE RIGHT THINGS
There were peels of laughter coming out of the offices of the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable when
President Obama claimed that speaking to the CEO of British
Petroleum would have been unhelpful because “when you talk to a
guy like the BP CEO, he’s going to say all the right things to
me.”
“Apparently the President hasn’t been listening to all those CEOs he’s been meeting with over the past 15 months,” says a senior executive with the U.S. Chamber. “Unless all those ladies and gentlemen have been lying, those private White House lunches and dinners and coffees with the President have been fairly frank. Mr. Obama may just not like what he’s hearing, but it’s laughable for him to say that his experience is that executives only tell him what they think he wants to hear.”
Obama has invited a number of CEOs to the White House for meetings, sometimes in groups as small as two to four and in larger groups, as well. The stated purpose of the meetings has been to discuss Obama administration efforts on employment, the economy, and legislative efforts like health care. Often times, the White House reaches out to the CEOs independent of the two large corporate associations — BRT, but particularly the U.S. Chamber, where relations between it and the White House have been less than warm — but after the fact, a number of CEOS or their Washington representatives will pass along the content of the discussions.
“Our impression is that our member CEOS have been respectful, but honest and often blunt when speaking with the President,” says the Chamber source. “These are highly accomplished individuals and I think some have gone into these meetings viewing them as ‘teachable moments’ for an administration that appears to neither like nor trust the business community.”
Letter to the Editor View all comments (49) | Leave a comment
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Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 6.14.10 @ 6:36AM
It's obvious that Obama listens to the ideologues in his administration when it comes to jobs or the environment.
By September the free market response to his moratorium on oil rigs and the loss of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of jobs, will be evident and just before the elections.
To accomplish this task of the moratorium Ken Salazar, the Interior Secretary, engaged in the art form of lying preferred by the Obama administration. In a report quoted by President Obama they stated that seven experts at the National Academy of Engineering had recommended the ban. Like most press releases and publicity stunts from Obama there wasn't any factual basis for that statement.
The seven experts quoted in the report issued a statement that clarified they did not recommend a moratorium. In essence, the President thought a get tough headline was better then an actual response.
This situation portrays Obama in all his glory. In serious situations he simply lies because he's an inexperienced ideologue surrounded by academia.
When trouble erupts they get out the Alinsky handbook.
Obama's faulty decision will come back to haunt the Democrats at the voting booth. Obama's idea of wealth is power, unbridled government power.
The problem with that is it's been tried before and failed each time.
However, that doesn't stop Obama from trying as he attempts to get 50 billion to bail out state and local governments who have massive leaks of their own in the form of unfunded pensions.
These two examples show that Obama doesn't have a clue and doesn't care about the role of the private sector. November may teach him his first real lesson on the economy.
Enemy of the State #666| 6.14.10 @ 6:45AM
Yeah big suprise, "does not like what he is hearing." Show me a marxist/statist/commie/progressive who actually takes advise from a capitalist, and I'll show you a liar. His name is hussein. This does not fit his agenda. I find it very disingenious of this liar-n-theif that while the gubmint dole's out the tune of increases to the employment in the role of all thing gubmint at a rate of 14-1/2%, the unemployed in the private sectors is a stagering 17-20%. That he wants to hear what these CEO's of successful company's has to tell him, how to elieviate unemployment, is beyond a joke, it's another lie justifing his fairytale of gubmint knows best mantra. It is one thing to have others believe you are concerned about the unemployed, quite another to waste these CEO's time and knowledge without any faith whatsoever that they actually know what they are talking about, how to get the unemployed working again. Anyone here believe a person who has never even so much as managed a popcorn stand really knows how to run the biggest economy in the world? any takers? This PUNK gansta-wannabe king is a thug and an ignorant one at that.
Brian Mc| 6.14.10 @ 6:55AM
"When you talk to a guy like the BP CEO, he's going to say all the right things to me."
What a narcissistic megalomaniac. This alien is the byproduct of our public education system.
RCV| 6.14.10 @ 1:21PM
When the Exxon Valdez disaster happened, how many times did Bush meet with the Exxon CEO? I'll tell you - ZERO. How many times did he visit Alaska - ZERO.
Ken (Old Texican)| 6.14.10 @ 1:49PM
RCV
YOU HAVE JUST SHOWN YOUR ARSE!
...BUSH WAS NOT PRESIDENT IN 1989. (when the Exxon Valdez happened.
Furthermore, as governor of Texas, W Bush offerred any assistance Texas could give.
Can't Soros find smarter liers than you?
GW| 6.14.10 @ 2:36PM
Bush I was president, though. So think before posting a sarcastic but stupid remark.
GavInTucson| 6.15.10 @ 12:07AM
Um, Ken, he was talking about Bush (41) aka "read my lips".
txnever| 6.14.10 @ 5:58PM
So, what's your point? Bush I got a pass so Obama should too? This is grade school logic at its finest.
Bush I sent several cabinet secretaries there within days. Know what their report said? No? I suggest you look it up.
Friend from Budapest| 6.14.10 @ 2:43PM
Sorry, wrong here. Obama never spent an hour in public school in his life. He was privately educated from start to finish, sources of funding unknown.
Brian Mc| 6.14.10 @ 10:33PM
I meant that the electorate, indoctrinated in our public schools, elected the alien. Hence, he is a byproduct of that system.
k962| 6.14.10 @ 7:16AM
This country is leaderless. What we have is an idealogue who is programmed to follow a single agenda. That agenda is socialism. Anything that falls outside of that agenda, he is clueless. He REACTS to public opinion. Not enough passion?
NBC roles him out and now he is "A$$ Kicking".
No communication with BP? all of sudden meeting scheduled this week! Not a clue!
Brian Richard Allen | 6.17.10 @ 1:36AM
This country (has) an idealogue, programmed to follow a single agenda. That agenda is socialism.
Nope.
He and they are Mussolini-modeled modified Marxists: By any other name? Fascists.
saleboter| 6.14.10 @ 7:23AM
If we all worked for the government then we would have full employment. That would work! It's called communism.
DT| 6.14.10 @ 10:14PM
Of course it would work - Its all so simple - government runs everything, owns all business sets wage and prices according to the needs and abilities of each subject er comrad a true paradice for all! We don't need any stinking wall street types or CEO's or any of the free markets types who have enslaved the world! If only America would wake up! We are so close! Just a little more effort by the Dear Leader and we are there!
JP| 6.14.10 @ 7:29AM
Evidently the President listens to the CEOs of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgen, and GE. Add to that the CEOs of Blue Cross, Merck, GM, and Chrysler.
The President wishes to have it both ways. He loves the "inside game" of power politics, in which he can get Fortune 500 companies to endorse his agenda and thereby look "business friendly" to the local chamber of commerce. But he also cannot resist the old class warefare schtick.
BP, by the way, has long given up any semblence of defending the energy extraction business. It's spent considerable resources in recent years to rebrand itself as a "green energy" company. Early on it endorsed the Cap and Tax law pushed by the Dems. Fat lot of good it did them. It will be lucky to make it through this crisis intact.
Pecos Pete| 6.14.10 @ 8:15AM
BP is a "walking dead" company. Just a matter of time until it declares bankruptcy to protect its remaining assets. Or, possibly, the US government will "arrange" for the price of all fossil fuel products to increase in price to heights that will have us all sitting in the dark and walking to work.
GreyLion| 6.14.10 @ 9:50AM
Walking to work? What work?
Louis Jenkins| 6.14.10 @ 9:31AM
"eased hiring rules based on the "most qualified" requirement, so that less experienced prospective employees might be hired over better qualified or more experienced competitors. "
And that leaves out a lot of people. People that the Pretender n Chief doesn't want to hire, and what's more, probably wouldn't take a an Obama approved job to begin with. As Merle Haggard sang, "We're headed down hill like a snow ball headed for HELL..."
Stan Redmond| 6.14.10 @ 9:31AM
Obama's little meetings with CEOs will look great for campaign commercials. "I'm Barry Soetero Hussein Obama and I listened to the CEOs. They were uncooperative and I took the tough steps necessary and nationalized their industries...for the children...and it's Bush's fault."
Ammo Guy| 6.14.10 @ 9:40AM
Yeah, haven't seen any of those annoying BP "beyond petroleum" commercials lately...probably working on a new set of commercials: BP - "beyond preserving"
Anthony| 6.14.10 @ 10:02AM
You gotta hand it to these leftist geniuses that run our country. Obama will accomplish 0% unemployment by hiring all Americans for government jobs!!!
Goodness gracious, who's brilliant idea was this anyway? Oh, yeah, that's right, it was Karl Marx. Oh well, Obama, Marx, Marx, Obama, distinctions without a difference.
Clinton nee Publius| 6.14.10 @ 10:06AM
Mr. Obama has failed to observe the laws of mathematics and now he is engaging in pure folly. If we are to use his metric of economic organization and management, then why not hire all 15.7 million unemployed workers as federal workers and be done with it? Wouldn't that end the unemployment problems of Obamaland?
Mr. Obama has met the reality that every socialist must face: the realization that all fiscal spending has to have a source and the source of socialist fiscal policy is stealing; they steal money from those who have it and give it to those who don't and keep a cut for the government. That's how socialism works on an elemental level.
In the end, the President knows this doesn't work because the source of jobs is also the source of funding for government spending. When you take money from the source that also pays for jobs, jobs are reduced - this means every new government job comes at the cost of a score of private-sector jobs.
There is only one answer to the "jobs bill" business; decrease government spending and Rational Choice Theory will create new jobs as if by magic, but really by intelligent design and this design has centuries of success to commend itself.
The only reason government is in the "jobs business" is to redirect resources so that the people who support the criminal conspiracy cult of the liberal-progressive movement towards world socialism can be rewarded for participating in the scam.
Like everything else we have to endure, the economy will have to recover in spite of the damage being caused by Obama and the liberals, not because of the benefits as there are no benefits out there; just more failure waiting to be discovered yet again just as it has with every other so-called liberal economic "policy" from FDR to the present day.
DGA| 6.16.10 @ 5:51PM
Well said Clinton Nee Publius, down to the point exactly.
stmichrick| 6.14.10 @ 10:34AM
"Teachable moments"?
This guy is incapable of learning from a teachable moment with business people. As a committed socialist, any sessions with CEOs are gestures he must endure in order to avoid being exposed to all as the radical that he is, as much as he may HOPE to hear something he 'wants to hear.'
Ken (Old Texican)| 6.14.10 @ 10:56AM
Uh OHH!
I am back in my “Quiet Sunday Mode” (to be posted Monday or Tuesday)
First,
again, thank you to the Spectator Editors for choosing to have an open forum here.
I am writing today to address you fellow conversationalists. The articles this last week were very needed, and very provocative, and I suppose I felt a need to comment on the comments. (heh).
I really do not have any interest in engaging the fringe leftists and their “useful idiots” here. They expose their silly rear ends adequately enough without much help from me.
Neither do I have much interest in engaging the conversational “dilettantes” who drop in to show off their triangulating skills, just in order to get attention and showcase their “contrarian proclivities”. We pretty much know who they are, and we all have scroll buttons if we wish to use them.
No. Today I want to try to address the two…or three… “schools? “ of thought I see becoming apparent among those of us who love America here… her warts and all.
One “school of thought” seems to me to be centered around …..no center.
Rather, it is a continuing series of grumbles, often about peripheral issues; venting frustration instead of forthright questions ie: “What the hell do we do, about this?”
OK, venting is good for our blood-pressure. Go for it at need. (smile)…but it is the “posture” I am questioning here. “Lay back and bitch? …or “lean forward” and charge? “Charge…fine…but where?” you ask. All in good time, little grasshopper. (smile)
Please…those of you who have succumbed to this “school”…start asking anew: “what do we do, (I do), about this particular bitch subject?” See, folks, the Spectator can only lay out the problems and issues…or be shut down. We commenters, on the other hand, are private citizens…with at least presumed….. freedom of speech.
Please, start framing questions as described here. There are some truly bright folks here. Perhaps we can find some concrete answers.
Another “school of thought” here.
…….expressed or implied.
“Let’s just shoot these communist bastards…and their Jihadi buddies!”
Well,
one problem with that is that mostly, only their “useful idiots” and the stupid Jihadest “tools” would be in the line of fire. The evil bastards guiding them and launching them would merely step back and make YOU into a caricature of the “bad guys”….along with the state supported media singing their song. Heck, people, Janet Neopolitano (sic) has already pin-pointed YOU GUYS as the “terrorists to be feared” in this country.
While there is no question in my mind that most here would, with a heavy heart, pick up arms in defense of your families, my best guess is that most of you are simply trying to warn the communists, (pardon the shorthand), and their Jihadist buddies, that there is a point beyond you will not be pushed, so please do not push. Many of you have figured out already that you won’t have any “friends” to march with. In this interconnected world, you would need to be a single sniper, holding all thoughts and plans to yourself, even from your families. Whew, what a lonely death you would be contemplating… and not only death, but a stained name forever among the sheeple.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Let’s not let it get to that point. In the very best of cases, you would still be allowing foreign interests to attack us while our backs are turned.
No.
I shall not accept those “schools” of thought. As many of you know…I have already painted a large target on my own back with my posts here… and elsewhere.
Nevertheless, I am content with that, though I hope you will miss me if I am disappeared.
I do not believe we are doomed as some here seem to believe, but sadly, I also do not believe we will see a clear overall “victory of freedom” in my life-time. Senator Jim DeMint in his book “Saving Freedom” talks about spending the next thirty years or so “unwinding” the spool of socialist bull-corn we have allowed to quietly wrap around our society. Perhaps worse, many of our very own (adult) kids…expect…to be taken care of…by someone.
Conclusion: Enjoy Purpleguy and his ilk. Stay prepared the best you can for “game-changer” events such as a rigged election in November, or even a failure of decent people to get off their butts and vote…..Republican.
( Yeah yeah yeah, the Republican congress proved chicken and even slimy when they had the majority…politics as usual. BUT, very very few of them EVER considered the idea of destroying our republic. The silly bastards at least understood the concept of the “goose that lays the golden eggs”.)
“Game-changing events”
… Heck, people…I’m not a prophet…but I can think of several “events” that could turn everything upside-down.
1. Interference with our elections
2. Israel nuking the Iranian nuclear facilities, (and don’t think for a moment that Israel doesn’t know where every single one is.)
3. Iran nuking Israel through an “independent” terror group they support
4. The “regime” here finally pissing off our oil-field people enough to turn off the fuel for the whole darned country
5. A WMD (nukes, bacterial, etc) attack on America herself, or…a rash of incidents to shut down commerce
6. Finally, our own kids voting for more more more, when there is less less less.
Add your own “game-changers” in your darkest moments, but remember finally that we cannot win on “defense”. Your best “bullet” is your vote in November…and the votes of your sane friends. Please start e-mailing them today to get their voter cards current.
Then, let’s all plan on camping on the steps of the capitol and having our freedom agenda implemented after the elections…ie “De-Fund Everything”
God bless
Howard Lohmuller| 6.14.10 @ 11:02AM
There is another nefarious reason for rehiring Census workers besides counting them as 2 hires. These largely low skills workers will become patronage workers working along side Union "volunteers" and ACORN type organizations in Obama's 2012 campaign if he makes it that far.
Mattled| 6.14.10 @ 11:25AM
Howard,
Then we need to have some of our own working the census.
You can get glasses and pens that record 4 GB of video/audio to catch the hoodlums.
Around $95 each.
Shamus| 6.14.10 @ 11:21AM
Soviets used to say that they pretended to work and their masters pretended to pay them.
Pete | 6.14.10 @ 1:56PM
For every government (public sector) job created, it takes five private sector working stiffs to pay for it-----that's not including the private sector stiff paying his own way. When will people get ticked off enough about paying for someone else's retirement while they are struggling to make ends meet and put away a little money for their own---ticked off enough to do something about it? Or will things just have to inevitably collapse when critical mass is attained?
Marc Jeric| 6.14.10 @ 2:54PM
We are in it forever - it is too late to do anything about it. Abu Hussein al-Nairobi (or whatever Kenyan hellhole that Muslim was born in) will finish nationalizing private enterprise - oil & gas companies, coal mines, electricity companies will shortly join car companies, insurance and mortgage companies, health care, banks. Voter fraud army is ready, financed by the $8.7 billion waiting from the stimulus bill - ACORN, SEIU, AFL-CIO, AFSME, teachers unions. I applied for the census work, passed the exam, and was told "no go" - you see, a retired engineer with a PhD was not good enough for the "evaluator". Same thing happened when I applied to be voting clerk. They have their instructions as to whom they hire. This is the dawn of communism in America, and there is no remedy for it. 47% of people pay no income tax and are on the dole; with 15 million more Mexican Indians who will be amnestied Abu Hussein will obtain permanent majority.
Buckeyeman| 6.14.10 @ 3:29PM
The leftist don't get it and they never will, (and for that matter, they don't want to). The critical issue here is neither jobs nor income. Jobs could created out of thin air as has been mentioned above and it would do nothing. On the other hand, money can be created out of thin air and then simply be handed out as in the tax "rebates". But if we can hand out $3,000, then why not $30,000, $300,000 or $3,000,000. (Almost) everyone could pay off their debt and life would be great, right? Except that anyone with half a brain would immediately realize that such centrally wrought distortions would traumatize the economy and create havoc for years to come.
It's the PRODUCTIVITY, stupid.
The free market allocates resources (money) to those areas which the free market determines to be desirable (jobs, which create desired work or products). What centrally planned economies can NEVER do is accurately and honestly determine what the free market wants. Centrally planned economies almost always guess wrong and create products which no one wants. Ie; census workers (who we didn't want in the first place) held over to do......... WHAT? To Obamanites, it doesn't matter what they do as long as they receive money stolen from others and continue to vote democratic.
Exactly what is productive work output? Well it depends on what the individuals in the free market will willingly spend their money on. I wouldn't spend two cents for rap "music" but others would and that is fine with me (sort of). As long as free individuals make the choice with their own money the system works. When the government confiscates the productive output of individuals to spend on its own schemes the system begins to corrode. The few services which must necessarily come from government are bad enough without the avalanche of statism we have today.
It's all about PRODUCTIVITY and Marxists can never get that one right, but they'll analyse the details of meaningless statistics forever.
Oldefarte| 6.14.10 @ 3:33PM
What a complete JOKE this guy is as PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. I blame this stupidity on the voters that pulled the lever for his election. He is nothing but an embarrassment to this nation and its citizens. How could [or why would] any rational, semi-intelligent person even consider voting for him? I just hope the American people have learned their lesson the hard way, and NOW have the common sense and courage to admit their supreme mistake of 11/4/08 and to begin the reversal/solution in November of this year!!!!!
Publius| 6.14.10 @ 3:33PM
"When you talk to a guy like the BP CEO, he's going to say all the right things to me." Yeah Barry, precisely what you do to the American people.
Stan Allen | 6.14.10 @ 4:52PM
I believe the expression is "Peals of laughter", rather than "Peels" - it's another one of those old-timey phrases that's used so infrequently that it winds up being misspelled.
Okay, I'm done splitting hairs in an otherwise fine article! Sad to imagine that there was a time when I would have thought, "Okay, the government's creating jobs by directly paying front groups that support Democrats and their policies - that's fine, since we're the good guys!"
It took many years for me to grow out of that kind of thinking; very sad that nowadays, so many ostensible adults continue to buy into this childishness, which is what it is - except that it affects the real world!
JerseyJK| 6.14.10 @ 7:19PM
"For example, the Obama Administration has ... ended the practice of a skills and knowledge essay"
... because the last things we want in government employees are skills and knowledge.
JJ| 6.14.10 @ 7:39PM
... as a matter of fact the census workers who came to my building would be perfect for the interior departments minerals management service ...
Answers1| 6.15.10 @ 12:32AM
Why does Obama talk to CEOs when he won't listen anyway? Like he treats the American people.
Jeffry| 6.15.10 @ 4:50AM
President Obama has created good paying jobs for millions of Americans. His dedication and leadership to this issue is sorely understated. The media harps about the Census jobs, but our president realized the need for a continued census. This will make the issue of fair representation a fron-burner affair, that no previous president had the courage to face and cure. As time goes on, President Obama will solve the jobs issue and create enough jobs so that everyone that wants to work can do so.
Ret. Marine| 6.15.10 @ 6:39AM
You sir, and I use this term Sir lightly, are a dip-stick of the second order.
Steve A | 6.15.10 @ 9:29AM
Hey Jeffry,
You are clearly borderline genius. Perhaps BO could tap you to run the show on the perpetual census. I also think he should get rid of Biden & tap that rocket scientist who just won the senate primary in SC Alvin Green for VP. Another true display of the deep thinking Dems put into pulling the lever on election day.
emo| 6.15.10 @ 9:18PM
Most of the census workers wont take a permanent job from the Govt. Most arent unemployed former full time workers. Nearly all census employees are students, the elderly or have other jobs.
But the fact that Obama wants full time permanent employment for the 411,000 hired, shows that as a leftist, Obama knows nothing about wealth creation, as the census workers would be creating no wealth what so ever. Only draining it.
UGGSSALE | 7.19.10 @ 9:53PM
Most of the census workers wont take a permanent job from the Govt. Most arent unemployed former full time workers. Nearly all census employees are students, the elderly or have other jobs.