Democrats Are Losing the Future—and the Present

Democrats Continue to Push Failed Green Jobs Schemes and Insist on Destroying Jobs Available Today 

• Despite billions of dollars down the drain, Democrats have had little luck with their campaign to create “green” jobs that will “win the future.” Yet Democrats continue to call for more of the same failed stimulus—a sure recipe for losing the future.
• The Democrats’ job-destroying policies are making sure that America also loses the present. Obama’s decision to punt the Keystone XL pipeline approval until after the 2012 elections was a lost opportunity to create 20,000 jobs almost immediately.
• Combined with the Obama administration’s job-destroying regulatory rampage and the decision by Obama’s NLRB to destroy 500 jobs at a Boeing plant, the decision marks a trend of job-destroying actions by the Obama administration. Even as Democrats fail to create the jobs of tomorrow, they are insisting on also destroying jobs available today.  

BACKGROUND 

Despite billions of dollars down the drain, Democrats have had little luck with their campaign to create “green” jobs that will “win the future.” Yet Democrats continue to call for more of the same failed stimulus—a sure recipe for losing the future: 

FORMER WH ECONOMIST AUSTAN GOOLSBEE WARNED OBAMA FROM OUTSET THAT GREEN JOB CREATION WOULD BE “MODEST” AT BEST: “Nearly two years before, Goolsbee had told Obama, then an underdog candidate, that hiring from a clean-energy initiative would be modest. But now the White House was offering official pronouncements and fanfare, presenting the president and his top officials, for six thousand jobs?” (Ron Suskind, “Lost and Found,” Confidence Men, p. 366)

TODAY: “FEDERAL AND STATE EFFORTS TO STIMULATE CREATION OF GREEN JOBS HAVE LARGELY FAILED, GOVERNMENT RECORDS SHOW”: (Aaron Glantz, “Number of Green Jobs Fails to Live Up to Promises,” The New York Times, 8/18/2011)

THE GREEN JOBS SINKHOLE: STIMULUS “SPENT MORE THAN $111 MILLION TO TRAIN 18,000 PEOPLE WHO STILL HAVEN’T LANDED A [GREEN] JOB”: “President Obama’s highly-touted green jobs program — born out of his 2009 stimulus package — has spent more than $111 million to train 18,000 people who still haven’t landed a job.” (“Obama’s $500 Million Green Jobs Program ‘Far Behind’ Projections, Watchdog Says,”FoxNews.com, 11/2/2011)

STIMULUS GREEN PROGRAM AT 21 PERCENT OF TRAINING GOAL, 10 PERCENT OF JOB-PLACEMENT GOAL. PRETTY SURE THAT’S AN “F”: “Though the department set a goal of training nearly 97,000 people and placing 80,000 in jobs, the 26,000 people trained represent 21 percent of the goal while only 10 percent had found work.”(“Obama’s $500 Million Green Jobs Program ‘Far Behind’ Projections, Watchdog Says,”FoxNews.com, 11/2/2011)

EPA’S ESTIMATE OF GREEN JOBS “CREATED OR RETAINED” BY STIMULUS SHRANK TO JUST 7,140 JOBS. THE PRICETAG? $1 MILLION PER JOB AND $7.2 BILLION DOWN THE DRAIN: “President Obama’s green jobs agenda has become a victim of its own red tape. Several internal reports show that state-level projects have stalled for years due to federal regulations favors by labor and green groups—big boosters of the green jobs push.

“The reports offer a peek into the dysfunction within the White House’s green jobs initiative. In 2009, Obama dedicated $7.2 billion of stimulus funds to build ‘clean tech’ jobs. He vowed to create 5 million jobs over the next decade.

“So far, that effort has ‘created or retained’ just 7,140 jobs, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s about $1 million per job. That number is actually down from last year, when the EPA claimed 16,605 green jobs.” (Sean Higgins, “Davis-Bacon Clogs Green Jobs,” Investor’s Business Daily, 8/30/2011)

BUT DEMOCRATS ARE STILL PUSHING THEIR FAILED “GREEN” JOBS FANTASY:

DEMOCRATS STILL PUSHING “GREEN JOBS” IN STIMULUS 2.0: “Green jobs, green jobs, green jobs – where were the green jobs in the Obama jobs plan speech delivered to Congress last night? A glance at the plethora of material put out by the White House doesn’t immediately suggest green jobs, which the President glazed over last night, were on his agenda. If you look, and listen, closely though, you do see some green poking out of the $447 billion American Jobs Act.” (Nino Marchetti, “Green Jobs in Obama’s Speech if you Dig for Them,” Reuters, 9/12/2011)

APPARENTLY NOT JOKING: OBAMA LABOR SEC. HILDA SOLIS SAYS RETAINING BUS DRIVERS TO DRIVE HYBRID BUSES COUNTS AS GREEN JOB CREATION: “ ‘What makes driving a hybrid bus a green job and driving another bus that’s not a hybrid bus not a green job?’ asked Connie Mack, Republican of Florida. ‘Driving a bus is driving a bus, right?’”

“Ms. Solis replied, ‘the vehicles that are built there are green buses, they are fuel efficient.’ …

“But further discussion clarified that the driver of the ordinary bus also had a ‘green job,’ because all mass-transit workers fit the definition of a green job as they provided ‘services that benefit the environment.’” (Matthew L. Wald, “Republicans Attack on Handling of Stimulus Money and Green Jobs,” The New York Times, 9/22/2011)

VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: NOT SPENDING MORE ON GREEN JOBS WOULD BE THE “BIGGEST MISTAKE THAT THIS NATION HAS MADE IN ITS HISTORY”: “ ‘If we shrink from deciding whether we are going to lead in the area of alternative energy, renewable energy, then we will be making the biggest mistake that this nation has made in its history,’ Biden said during his keynote speech at the fourth-annual National Clean Energy Summit at the Aria hotel-casino.” (Cristina Silva, “Biden Calls for New Clean Energy Policy for U.S.,” Associated Press, 8/30/2011) 

The Democrats’ job-destroying policies are making sure that America also loses the present. Obama’s decision to punt the Keystone XL pipeline approval until after the 2012 elections was a lost opportunity to create 20,000 jobs almost immediately:

BUT “OBAMA PUNTS KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE” UNTIL AFTER 2012 ELECTION: (Dan Berman and Darren Goode, “Obama Punts Keystone XL Pipeline,” Politico, 11/10/2011) 

GREEN GROUPS HAD THREATENED TO ABANDON OBAMA IF HE APPROVED THE PROJECT: “Environmental groups have been protesting the pipeline that would run from Alberta oil sands to Texas refineries, and there have been rumblings that greens would abandon Obama next fall if he approved it.” (Dan Berman and Darren Goode, “Obama Punts Keystone XL Pipeline,” Politico, 11/10/2011) 

PROJECT HAD BROAD SUPPORT FROM UNIONS: “The pipeline has the support of many Republicans in Congress and also major labor unions like the Teamsters, Laborers’ International Union of North America and segments of the AFL-CIO.” (Dan Berman and Darren Goode, “Obama Punts Keystone XL Pipeline,” Politico, 11/10/2011) 

KEYSTONE PROJECT WAS PROJECTED TO CREATE MORE THAN 20,000 “SHOVEL-READY” JOBS: (Editorial, “Keystone Cop-Out,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/11/2011) 

LONG-TERM JOBS IMPACT: UP TO 130,000 JOBS: “Many of those 20,000 jobs on the construction of the pipeline would have been filled by skilled union members. Eventually, the completed pipeline was expected to result in as many as 130,000 jobs, many of them on the upper Texas Coast, where the heavy oil would be refined into 700,000 barrels of oil daily.” (Editorial, “Keystone Pipeline is the Wrong Call,” The Houston Chronicle, 11/11/2011) 

Combined with the Obama administration’s job-destroying regulatory rampage and the decision by Obama’s NLRB to destroy 500 jobs at a Boeing plant, the decision marks a trend of job-destroying actions by the Obama administration. Even as Democrats fail to create the jobs of tomorrow, they are insisting on also destroying jobs available today: 

WHILE DEMOCRATS TOUT “GREEN JOBS” SCHEMES, THEY ARE SABOTAGINGBOEING JOB-CREATION EFFORTS WITH NLRB LAWSUIT: “President Barack Obama, emphasizing job creation in his 2012 re-election push, faces a drag on his message from his own appointees to the board created as a watchdog for workers’ rights.”(Holly Rosencrantz and Susanna Ray, “Obama Jobs Push Collides with NLRB Complaint,” Bloomberg, 8/24/2011) 

NEW EPA RULES DESTROY 500 JOBS AT TEXAS FACTORY: “Texas energy company Luminant announced on Monday new burdensome Environmental Protection Agency regulations are forcing it to close several facilities, which will result in about 500 job losses.” (Matthew Boyle, “EPA Regulations Forces Closure of Texas Energy Facilities, Eliminates 500 Jobs,” The Daily Caller, 9/12/2011)

STUDY: NEW AND PENDING EPA RULES WILL DESTROY 1.65 MILLLION JOBS:“Over the period from 2012 to 2020, about 183,000 jobs per year are predicted to be lost on net due to the effects of the four regulations. The cumulative effects mean that over the period from 2012 to 2020, about 1.65 million job-years of employment would be lost.” (“Potential Impacts of EPA Air, Coal Combustion Residuals, and Cooling Water Regulations,” NERA Economic Consulting, September 2011)

4,257 NEW REGULATIONS IN THE WORKS, MORE THAN 200 WILL COST OVER $100 MILLION ANNUALLY—15% MORE REGULATIONS THAN LAST YEAR.“Appropriate and responsible regulations play an important policymaking role. Yet the Obama administration has turned rule-making into an assault on American businesses and the jobs they create. Right now, 4,257 new regulations are in the works, 219 of which will cost over $100 million annually — 15 percent more than last year.” (Editorial, “How Obama’s Rules Hold Back Chicago Business,” The Chicago Sun-Times, 8/30/2011)

WHITE HOUSE “STRONGLY OPPOSES” GOP EFFORT TO MAKE EPA STOP DESTROYING JOBS: “The White House Wednesday said it strongly opposes a House bill that would delay several Environmental Protection Agency rules on air pollution, setting up another showdown over Republican-led efforts to postpone the agency’s agenda.” (Ryan Tracy, “White House Opposes House Bill to Delay EPA Rules,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/21/2011) 

NFIB: FARMERS SUFFERING UNDER WASHINGTON’S “GREAT REGULATION RUSH”:“The nation’s small farmers, ranchers and growers not only weathered the Great Recession, they had a record year in 2010. But can they survive the Great Regulation Rush coming out of Washington?” (Adam Wren, “The Great Regulation Rush,” National Federation of Independent Businesses, May/June 2011) 

RETIRING BLUE DOG DEM DENNIS CARDOZA (D-CA): REPUBLICANS “ARE RIGHT” ABOUT OBAMA’S HOSTILE REGULATIONS: “I think he needs to really focus on what’s happening on main street America. He needs to walk up and down the small towns that I represent or towns like mine and talk to shopkeepers and let them tell him how directly difficult it is to do business in America these days and what they think needs to be done. I got to tell you, the regulatory reform issues that my folks tell me about are real. The criticism that the Republicans say about it’s too tough to do business in this country, they are right. We need to figure out how to make it easier on them.” (Remarks from Rep. Dennis Cardoza, MSNBC’S “Daily Rundown,” 10/24/11)