Behind the Jobs Report, Buying the Student Vote, Border Issues
Steve Dittmer | AFF Sentinel
Colorado Springs, CO
Originally sent to subscribers 04/10/24
D.C. Update-Wednesday--The delivery of the impeachment papers on HHS Secretary Mayorkas from the House to the Senate, originally scheduled for Wednesday, was delayed until next week. The FISA reauthorization bill did not pass a procedural vote. Its progress is uncertain. The Judiciary Committee version of the bill requires the FBI to get a warrant to spy on American citizens, an Intelligence Committee version does not. Republicans have not agreed on how to proceed.
We all know the economy is very complex and very interrelated. Politicians in general don’t understand or care about that. Few are economists or even logical beings. Regular business people grasp it much better. But even the experts can’t necessarily analyze and grasp all the moving parts at every moment in time.
Which is why the present is so difficult to pin down and, it being an election year, people want to understand better as the economic forces interact with the politics of things.
The Labor department has made substantial revisions to their numbers every month for nearly two years because their model seems to be significantly unable to measure unemployment and employment numbers. That’s the corporate survey numbers. The household survey is regarded as more accurate by many experts. But it has significantly differed from the corporate survey for enough months that its accuracy is being questioned.
As for those job numbers, most of the new jobs were government jobs -- again -- and healthcare jobs. Some 300,000 jobs were created but the general media did not mention that 690,000 part-time jobs were created. The question is, are those part-timers people who would like to have full-time jobs, people who only want part-time work or people working from home?
The labor forced participation rate was 62.7 percent, up slightly from February’s 62.5. In Biden’s term, the participation rate dropped from Feb. 2020’s (63.3) before the shutdowns to April 2020’s 60.1, post shutdown. In a little over three years of Biden’s term, the rate still is 0.6 behind the end of Trump’s term. For historical reference, the peak of 67.3 was 20 years ago, April 2000.
Wonder how much of that lag in the rate since 2000 measures the advance of the welfare state?
March’s CPI index came in at 3.5 percent year over year, only 0.1 more than estimates but that was enough to spook the stock market. Many observers now believe no rate cuts from the Federal Reserve will happen in the first half of the year and likely only one or two in the second half. There is also a school of thought that this Fed board really will try to avoid the appearance of political favoritism and not do any cuts until after the election.
Candidates make promises in election years and we are in the months when politicians get very nervous, Charlie Hurt noted. So President Biden is busy trading more student loan forgiveness for the youth vote. Hurt, a commentator for the Washington Times, Breitbart and Fox News, pointed out that 38 percent of voters hold bachelor degrees, many with paid off student loans. That means the 62 percent of voters who didn’t go to college and get a degree are supposed to pay for other peoples’ college loans. Parents who couldn’t afford to send their kids to college are expected to pay loans off for those who could.
Dan Bongino points out that the left’s tactics, as usual, use euphemisms they choose to obscure what they are really doing. Student loans are not being “forgiven.” The debt doesn’t go away, the repayment bill is just being shifted to the taxpayers.
Just like “illegals,” once re-named “undocumented” are now referred to as “newcomers.” Next, squatters will be called “alternate homeowners” or “temporary occupiers.”
This is the kind of “equity” Biden and the left espouse these days.
After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Biden’s earlier large forgiveness program unconstitutional, the administration began efforts on another program and hustled hearings through. Interestingly, the hearings heard testimony from borrowers, student loan industry officials and universities. No mention of taxpayers being represented.
Biden is making promises but whether or not the bureaucracy will get their program through red tape hoops and survive legal challenges before the election remains to be seen. No matter, whether it happens or not, he will have made the promise and influenced the votes, just like the last time he ran a similar election campaign scam that the Supreme Court nixed.
Of course, he ignored the Supreme Court, bragged about his defiance and “forgave” some loans anyway.
But giveaways are a primary tool in the lefts’ arsenal these days. One giveaway that the electorate is getting very upset about involves giving the benefits of citizenship to illegal, non-citizens from around the world.
Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wy.) pointed out on a call that requests for asylum are, by law, supposed to be handled on a case-by-case basis, only for applicants who have crossed at an official port of entry. Instead, the Biden administration has given illegals from Venezuela, Colombia and Haiti blanket asylum by the thousands. Currently they are being given court dates 12 years from now.
Hageman also said Congress needs to pass a bill specifying that illegals cannot be counted by the census for purposes of Congressional apportionment. An attempt was made to remove the rule allowing illegals to be counted during the Trump years but was defeated. She said there is still time to pass that law before the counts are made official.
Next time: Voter attitudes, our electric grid and more.
House contact info:
To contribute to AFF with a credit card there are two options:
To use any credit card on Square, click first link below:
To use your Paypal acct. click below: