Wednesday Chronicle: Blowing Money on Green Jobs

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Subscribe to The Patriot Post — It's Right and It's FREE: click here. Chronicle · October 12, 2011 The Foundation "No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable, without possessing a certain portion of order and stability." --James Madison Editorial Exegesis Blowing money on "green jobs" "The green jobs subsidy story gets more embarrassing by the day. Three years ago President Obama promised that by the end of the decade America would have five million green jobs, but so far some $90 billion in government spending has delivered very few. A new report by the Labor Department's Office of Inspector General examined a $500 million grant under the stimulus program to the Employment and Training Administration to 'train and prepare individuals for careers in "green jobs."' So far about $162.8 million has been spent. The program was supposed to train 125,000 workers, but only 53,000 have been 'trained' so far, only 8,035 have found jobs, and only 1,033 were still in the job after six months. Overall, 'only 10% of participants entered employment.' In the understatement of the year, the IG says the program failed to 'assist those most impacted by the recession.' The jobs record is even more dismal when you consider that many of the jobs classified as green aren't even new jobs, much less green, according to a report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. They include positions that have been 'relabeled as green jobs by the [Bureau of Labor Statistics].' This means that bus drivers, Environmental Protection Agency regulators, university professors teaching ecology, and even the Washington lobbyists who secure energy loan guarantees count as green employees for the purposes of government counting. The Oversight Committee finds that even a charitable assessment of the Labor program puts the cost of each green job at $157,000. The silver lining is that the IG found that as of 'June 30, 2011, $327.3 million remained unexpended' from the Labor program's appropriation. The IG urges that all funds 'determined not to be needed should be recouped as soon as practicable and to the extent permitted by law.' That ought to be the deficit supercommittee's first $327 million in savings." --The Wall Street Journal What exactly are "green jobs"? Upright "The fun part of ['Occupy Wall Street'] is the sudden urge on the part of Democrats and liberals to hide behind the occupation forces, touting their cause for at least as long as it takes to beat out the Republicans' brains in 2012. Sure will be a sight when the campaigns start in earnest and the president has to decide for himself how to walk a fine line between hanging bankers and soliciting their campaign contributions." --columnist William Murchison "In an amusing inversion of the Russian model, Van Jones became a czar after he'd been a Communist. ... Needless to say, a man who never saw a cobwebbed collectivist nostrum he didn't like no matter how long past its sell-by date is hot for 'Occupy Wall Street.' Indeed, Van Jones thinks that the protests are the start of an 'American Autumn.' In case you don't get it, that's the American version of the 'Arab Spring.' Steve Jobs might have advised Van Jones he has a branding problem. ... Even in my great state of New Hampshire, where autumn is pretty darn impressive, we understand what that blaze of red and orange leaves means: They burn brightest before they fall and die, and the world turns chill and bare and hard." --columnist Mark Steyn "Here's a thought: Maybe Obama is just a big fan of public policy the way I'm a big fan of movies? ... But you know what? I don't have a frickn' clue how to make a Hollywood movie (and I've actually made some documentaries). ... The White House spent the first two years of this administration working from a slew of false assumptions not just about the economy, but about the political skills of the president. As Noemie Emery recently laid out, this president isn't nearly as good at politics as he and his advisors thought he was. Now they're explanation is that while he may not be great at politics, it's only because his true gift is for 'getting the policies right.' Good luck with that." --columnist Jonah Goldberg Essential Liberty "The transcontinental railroad lost tons of money. The government never covered its costs, and most rail lines that used the tracks went bankrupt or continued to be subsidized by taxpayers. The Union Pacific and Northern Pacific -- all those rail lines we learned about in history class -- milked the taxpayer and then went broke. One line worked. The Great Northern never went bankrupt. It was the railroad that got no subsidies. We need infrastructure, but the beauty of leaving most of these things to the private sector -- without subsidies, bailouts and other privileges -- is that they would have to be justified by the profit-and-loss test. In a truly free market, when private companies make bad choices, investors lose their own money. This tends to make them careful. By contrast, when government loses money, it just spends more and raises your taxes, or borrows more, or inflates. Building giant government projects is no way to create jobs. When government spends on infrastructure, it takes money away from projects that consumers might think are more important. When government isn't killing jobs by sucking money out of the private sector, it kills jobs by smothering the private sector with regulation." --columnist John Stossel United States Navy Birthday On Oct. 13, 1775, the U.S. Navy was born when the Continental Congress authorized the arming of two sailing vessels with 80 men and 10 carriage guns in order to intercept British supply and munitions transports. The Declaration of Independence came nine months later, followed by the creation of the Department of the Navy in 1798. Today, our Navy is the most powerful in the world. We at The Patriot Post offer our thanks to all our sailors for a job well done and wish you a Happy 236th Birthday! God bless you and your families. Please visit The Patriot Post Shop for a great selection of items bearing the Navy's insignia. The Demo-gogues Stubborn like a jackass: "[Tuesday's] vote [to kill my 'jobs' bill] is by no means the end of this fight. Independent economists have said that the American Jobs Act would grow the economy and lead to nearly two million jobs, which is why the majority of the American people support these bipartisan, common-sense proposals." --Barack Obama Tuesday night on the defeat of his American Jobs Act by the Senate (The president failed to mention that two democrat Senators united with Republicans in voting against the proposal.) You need government: "The Republicans talk about class warfare. Our goal is to make success available for everybody. ... Somebody -- an outstanding entrepreneur like a Steve Jobs -- somewhere along the line he had a teacher who helped inspire him. All those great Internet businesses wouldn't have succeeded unless somebody had invested in the government research that helped to create the Internet. We don't succeed on our own." --Barack Obama arguing that government is what makes a person successful The BIG Lie: "Twenty-six years ago, another president said that some of these tax loopholes, and I quote, 'made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing while a bus driver was paying 10 percent of his salary, and that's crazy. It's time we stopped it.' That was 26 years ago. You know the name of that president? Ronald Reagan. So was that class warfare? By the way, taxes are much lower now than they ever were when Ronald Reagan was president." --Barack Obama Just making it up: "The message of the protesters is a message for the establishment everyplace. No longer will the recklessness of some on Wall Street cause massive joblessness on Main Street. ... God bless them for their spontaneity. It's independent ... it's young, it's spontaneous, it's focused. And it's going to be effective." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Insight "There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up." --American author Rex Stout (1886-1975) "A great many people mistake opinions for thoughts." --banking executive and author Herbert Victor Prochnow (1897-1998) Dezinformatsia Stupid question: "So you're saying that Republicans want to increase the disparity of wealth rather than decrease it. That's their intention?" --MSNBC's Martin Bashir to Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) "Never let a good crisis go to waste": "Do you think this president wasted it -- the crisis you talked about -- to do the big things at that moment, to really be a jobs president to create the demand in the economy that you're talking about through more government spending?" --NBC's David Gregory to none other than current Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, original author of that crisis line Wearing a blindfold: "[T]here's little sign that the Department of Energy has handed out money recklessly: the vetting process, which relied on three thousand outside experts, was unusually rigorous. ... Solyndra was a big bet that happened to go bad. But we probably need to be making more bets like it." --New Yorker journalist James Surowiecki Rooting for the Flea Party: "Speaking of Wall Street, we thought we'd bring you up to date on those protesters, the Occupy Wall Street movement. As of tonight, it has spread to more than 250 American cities, more than a thousand countries -- every continent but Antarctica." --ABC's Diane Sawyer Newspulper Headlines: Answers to Questions Nobody Is Asking: "William Shatner: Obama Can't Be Captain Kirk" --Politico.com Don't Ask, Don't Tell: "Washington Struggles to Keep Occupiers Straight" --RollCall.com We Blame Global Warming: "Canadians Cool to Embracing Multicultural Values: Study" --Vancouver Sun News of the Tautological: "The Occupy Wall Street protest has drawn an unwelcome crowd of freeloaders." --New York Post Breaking News From 2009: "Peace Prize Winner's Troubling Affiliation" --Commentary website Bottom Story of the Day: "Obama Calls for Passage of Jobs Bill" --Associated Press (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto) Village Idiots Victimitis: "Well, [Congress] wanted us to keep doing what we were expected to do in Iraq, doing in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and, oh by the way, what you're trying to do in Yemen, what you're trying to do in Somalia, what you're trying to do in Sudan, etc., etc. But we don't want to give you as much money, so you just keeping doing that. It's a burden for us to keep making the case. But then I'll get called by a conservative member of Congress who asks, 'Why aren't we doing more in the Horn of Africa? Those people are starving.' And so we have to keep making the case, and we are." --Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reacting to possible budget cuts That's racist: "It's pretty obvious what [the Tea Party is]. The division of the country is not about the government having too much power. I think everything right now is geared toward getting that guy out of office, whatever that means. It's not politics. It is not economics. It all boils down to pretty much to race. It is a shame." --actor Samuel L. Jackson Bizarre reasoning: "[W]hat is the Republican solution to these outrageous [racial] inequalities? There isn't one. And that's the point. Denying racism is the new racism." --HBO's Bill Maher Double standard: "The Tea Party, whatever it pretends, is just the latest manifestation of the right wing's refusal to accept the idea of Democrats running the government. Every time one gets elected, there's this crazed right-wing upheaval. The Wall Street protests are a cry of pain from a generation that feels it's been cheated, and for good reason" --New York Times columnist Gail Collins Socialism, plain and simple: "Is this the time though that we can change the discussion in this country away from just deficit cutting toward really how we distribute the wealth in this country?" --"Reverend" Al Sharpton Click Here Let your clothing speak for you! Make a patriotic and politically incorrect fashion statement with these high-quality shirts, hoodies, caps, ties and more! Short Cuts "Take a good long look at the Occupy protesters. Virtually every one of their demands is textbook anti-capitalist, radical environmentalist big-government-is-our-savior progressivism. The overarching commonality? An irrational me-first ignorance so entrenched, only a precious few would recognize the irony of railing against capitalism using products created, developed and funded by capitalists." --columnist Arnold Ahlert "The protests were like a stumbling little fawn trying to find its legs. They'd been in existence for about two weeks, and NBC was already suggesting the 'potential' for what the Tea Party achieved in 2010 -- a massive Democratic wave election in 2012. Journalists are either easily impressed or very energetic practitioners of wishful thinking." --columnist L. Brent Bozell "New York's Occupy Wall Street protesters argued among themselves about whether they should sew their own sleeping bags with winter coming or engage in capitalism and buy them. Also, they argued over whether to beg for food or buy donuts. It took two hours in the real world to convert the entire movement to supply-side economics." --comedian Argus Hamilton "Christopher Columbus claimed America for Spain. If the British had never come here, we would all be speaking Spanish -- as opposed to just half of the country speaking Spanish. --comedian Jay Leno Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis! Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team (To submit reader comments click here.) Patriot News Review Gingrich: Plot to Kill Saudi Ambassador Shows Obama Is 'Clueless' About Iran Romney Says He Supports 'Partnership Agreements' for Same-Sex Couples State Dept. Considering 5,662 'Diversity Visa' Applicants From 'State Sponsors of Terrorism' Michelle Obama: 'It's Amazing How People Don't Recognize You' Voters Share Blame for Gridlock in Congress, Dem Leader Says Another TSA Agent Arrested for Unlawfully Bringing Gun to Airport More News The Right Opinion Tony Blankley: Euro-Debt Danger L. Brent Bozell: Protesters Occupy the Liberal Media Michelle Malkin: Obama's Teachable Truthiness Moment John Stossel: Government the Job Killer Jacob Sullum: Read My Tea Leaves Paul Greenberg: Law, War and Nonsense Ben Shapiro: How Players Unions Are Killing Sports Jonah Goldberg: Morality, Not Theology Austin Bay: Arab Spring and the Paradox of American Leadership Terence Jeffrey: DOJ: Feds Can Tell Church Who Its Ministers Will Be Walter E. Williams: It's Hard to Be a Racist Rebecca Hagelin: Supermom Is Stressed Out! More Opinion Grassroots Commentary The Role of Federal Government Why We Should Have to Defend Marriage On a 'Living' Constitution Nemo me impune lacesset America's Sense of the Serious An Open Letter to President Obama More Commentary Policy and Analysis Heritage Foundation Insider Heritage Foundation Research American Enterprise Institute Center for Strategic and International Studies The Cato Institute Hoover Institution National Rifle Association Ludwig von Mises Institute Citizens Against Government Waste National Center for Policy Analysis The Heartland Institute (Please pray for our Armed Forces standing in harm's way around the world, and for their families -- especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.) Follow The Patriot Post:

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