Jobs

What The Media Won't -- Or Can't -- Tell You About The Jobs Crisis

Brian Beutler | September 6, 2011, 6:10AM

An unemployed man.

Everyone knows the unemployment rate is painfully high and not falling. Friday's monthly jobs report from the Department of Labor put a cruel point on this fact: In August, job gains in the private sector were entirely offset by job losses in the public sector, netting precisely zero new payrolls for the month.

Zero is a striking number in this context, but it's also a bit misleading. For instance, private sector job creation appeared artificially lower than it should have because 45,000 Verizon workers were on strike when the survey was taken. What happened in August has been happening for months, as policy makers allow federal spending to fall and, thus, for government jobs to disappear, placing a significant drag on overall growth.

Experts disagree to some extent over the precise measures lawmakers should take to stanch this bleeding -- but overwhelmingly they agree it can be stanched. Their recommendations give the lie to the idea -- pushed by conservatives and adopted by some Democrats -- that government is growing out of control and deficits need to be addressed urgently. And yet nearly all major news outlets ignore, or bury this fact -- indeed, most reports of this month's jobs figures place no emphasis on the contraction of the public sector, and the implications thereof.

Here's a sample.

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Health Care

The 'Un-American' Results If Republicans Really Force A Government Shutdown

Brian Beutler | September 2, 2010, 8:35AM

President Obama speaks at a bipartisan White House gathering with Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) in the background.

If Republicans win one or both houses of Congress and take their pledge to defund the health care law to its extreme, the logical end point of the ensuing fight with the White House will be a government shutdown. Or at least a partial one. And top conservatives are clamoring for that outcome.

"I'm almost giddy thinking about a government shutdown next year," tweeted Erick Erickson on Monday. "I cannot wait!"

"There's going to be a government shutdown, just like in '95 and '96 but we're going to win it this time and I'll be fightin' on your side," Dick Morris told attendees at the Americans for Prosperity Foundation Conference last week.

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