You cannot make up headlines like this; it’s simply not possible. This was, in fact, what the President of the United States said in an interview with NBC News.
At a jobs council meeting this week the president jokingly indicated that his stimulus package didn’t quite achieve their goals because “shovel-ready projects’ weren’t quite as shovel-ready as he thought.” People all over the country were incensed that the president has come to that conclusion after casting $787 billion to the wind and adding nearly a trillion dollars to the nation’s debt.
Mr. Obama, not one to put down the shovel when digging his own political grave, suggested that innovation and technology, such as ATMs, were the cause for the poor job market.
“There’s some structural issues with our economy where a lot of businesses have learned to become much more efficient with a lot fewer workers. You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM, you don’t go to a bank teller. Or you go to the airport, and you’re using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate,” the president said.
News flash for Mr. Obama, ATMs have been around for more than 20 years and the collapse of the job market didn’t occur until roughly 3 years ago. Banks all over the country didn’t start laying off tellers because there was a sudden explosion in ATMs. As of 2008 there were only 600,500 tellers in the entire country according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics; hardly a major employment sector. Perhaps Mr. Obama should speak with the folks at the Department of Labor, who are predicting a 6 percent growth in tellers with the prospects for employment for tellers as “favorable.”
When Mr. Obama throws out these nonsensical statements he’s begging for the Republicans to point to his neophyte views on the economy. Joking about the stimulus and blaming ATMs makes one wonder if the president takes the economic crisis as serious as the public.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “It’s patently obvious that the president is focused on the economy, that he takes enormously seriously the hardship that Americans continue to endure.” However the president’s cavalier attitude would tend to belie that point.
As the one year anniversary of the Vice President’s “Recovery Summer,” approaches, there appears to be far less than a recovery taking place. If the Republicans were looking for arguments against the administration, the president seems more than happy to deliver them by the truck load. Recovery Summer started in June 2010 with an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent and a year later the rate is at 9.1 percent.
House Speaker Boehner said, “Here we are on the anniversary of his administration’s recovery summer and Americans are still asking the question, ‘Where are the jobs?’ The American people deserve some answers, but when it comes to this administration, it’s clear that they don’t have many.”
Ex-Speaker Pelosi claimed Republicans were guilty of economic inaction after nearly six months in power in the House. Perhaps she’s correct. Had they been taking the kind of actions the Democrats did when they were in power for the prior 2 years unemployment would be well past 10 percent. Never missing a moment to demagogue Pelosi said, “Instead, the Republicans have put forth a budget that ends Medicare, making seniors pay more to get less. Democrats are focused on creating jobs, strengthening the middle class.”
Clearly both Obama and Pelosi are focused on the upcoming elections, but both are inadequately informed on the needs of the business community. The answer is to grab your sledge hammers and head over to your nearest bank branch and smash the ATMs, they’re destroying the economy. While you’re at it, head to those self check-outs at the local supermarket, cause they’re surely adding to the pathetic job growth. If Obama remains in office beyond January 2013, we’re all in serious trouble.
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