Suppose your spouse said on Monday, “We have to cut back on our sugar consumption because eating too much is bad for our health,” and then on Tuesday, “Put lots of more sugar on your cereal. It not only tastes good—it’s also healthful.”
No doubt you’d respond, “You just contradicted what you said yesterday. Did you learn something since then that made you change your mind? If so, what is it?”
That is the reaction we all should have to the Democrats’ abrupt switch from condemning unemployment to lauding it.
For decades the Democrats stressed the importance of everyone having a job and accused Republicans of placing too little value on work. Some examples:
The 2004 Democratic platform declared, “George Bush values wealth over hard work” and went on to assert their view: “We believe that a strong America begins at home, with good jobs that support families and an equal chance for all our people . . . We believe that good jobs will help strengthen [and] expand the strongest middle class the world has ever known.”
The 2008 Democratic platform stated, “We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values, and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.” It then went on to mention jobs over sixty times! The twin themes of these statements were lamentation over the loss of Americans’ jobs and promises of an unrelenting effort to create new jobs—good, high paying jobs—for workers.
The 2012 platform stressed the “need [for] an economy that creates the jobs of the future and makes things the rest of the world buys . . . And we continue to fight for measures that would strengthen the recovery and create jobs now.” Like the earlier platforms, this one spoke of “saving jobs,” “creating jobs,” “increas[ing] jobs,” bringing overseas jobs back home, “adding jobs,” and providing access to “good, family-supporting jobs.”
As these examples show, for a long time Democrats have gone out of their way to present themselves as champions of work and promoters of good jobs for the masses. And the advent of Obamacare brought more promises of job creation, with predicted numbers in the hundreds of thousands and even millions.
Then came the recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report stating that Obamacare will cause 2.3 million jobs to be lost and thus strike a devastating blow to the middle class.
Instantly, the Democratic mantra changed from the opportunity to work is crucial to American families to the diametrically opposed work isn’t all it’s cracked up to be—not working can be just as fulfilling. Here are some examples of that mantra:
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi claimed that one of the goals of Obamacare has been to “give people life, a healthy life, [and] liberty to pursue their happiness. And that liberty is to not be job-locked, but to follow their passion,” an example of which, she asserted, is to “write poetry.”
Congressman Keith Ellison enthusiastically agreed that the loss of jobs is a good thing: “We are going to have parents being able to come home, working reasonable hours. People are going to be able to retire. People might actually be able to cook dinner rather than have to order out and get some takeout.” The lack of jobs provides a “great opportunity,” he says, to “look at our work/life balance.”
Senator Chuck Schumer was no less exuberant: “Many American workers [will now] have freedom. Now that’s a good word. Freedom to do things that they couldn’t do. The single mom who’s raising three kids has to keep the job because of healthcare, can now spend some time raising those kids. That’s a family value.”
Here is a brief summary of what the Democrats have asked the American people to believe over the better part of the last decade:
That George W. Bush’s final unemployment rate of 4.6% in 2007 showed not only his incompetence but also his lack of concern for the working class.
That Barack Obama’s unemployment rate of 9.6% in 2010 was by some strange calculus inherited from Bush and therefore Bush’s fault.
That the CBO’s 2014 projection of an additional loss of 2.3 million jobs caused by Obamacare does not suggest that Barack Obama is incompetent or does not care for the working class. On the contrary, it is cause for REJOICING because being jobless frees us from the bondage of “job-lock.”
That the Democrats would ask the American people to swallow such hogwash proves not only that they think we are morons but also, and more importantly, that they are utterly shameless.
Copyright © 2014 by Vincent Ryan Ruggiero. All rights reserved
