Last week, President Obama attended a Labor Day rally in Detroit.

Before the president arrived, Teamsters Union leader James Hoffa spoke. He stressed the importance of creating American jobs and, in a very offensive manner, blamed members of the tea-party-movement for stalling action in Washington.¹

Last Thursday, before a joint session of Congress, Obama proposed the American Jobs Act.

• First, there is the article More 'Stimulus' from President Obama, in which the Heritage Foundation criticizes the president's proposal. ^2 P
• Also included is Obamanonics vs. Reaganomics. ("Obamanonic" is a word-play on the emptiness of his economic policies.) ^3 P
• And a final article is The Keynesian Fraud, which makes a case against the Obamanonic approach. ^4 P

The Heritage Foundation is skeptical of the new $450 Billion stimulus package.

• Extending unemployment benefits so far has not stimulated the economy. It's not going to stimulate it now. In fact, the new White House Chief Economist, Alan Kreuger, has published that these benefits discourage the job search and tend to increase the length of unemployment.⁵
  
  
• Obama's proposed tax hikes on job creators will slow economic growth and deter job creation.
  
  
• Throwing more money at building roads, bridges, and renovating 35,000 schools may employ construction workers, but only by reducing jobs in other sectors.
  
  
• The proposal to extend the Payroll Tax Holiday won't create jobs.
  
  
• And why retry a tax credit for businesses hiring new workers when it didn't work the first time?

Some economists support this so-called job-growth plan.

The chief economist at Moody's Analytics, estimates that the president's plan, compared with existing law, would boost economic growth by two percent, and reduce unemployment one percent by adding two million jobs next year.⁶

Why would any economist have this expectation, when the previous $800 billion "stimulus" bill was a clear failure?

Economists who think this way are Keynesians.

They think that demand-side stimulus through government deficit spending is the right medicine for this Great Recession and will bring long-term prosperity.

But the Keynesian "demand-side" philosophy on which Obamanonics is based just doesn't work: not in the Great Depression, not during the Carter Stagflation, and we know what followed the Bush-Democrat Stimulus Act of 2008.⁷

Compare the "supply-side" philosophy of Reaganomics: Lowering restraints on business expansion and investment worked a remarkable recovery from the Carter years of stagflation, leading to 80 consecutive months of economic growth.^3 P

From the perspective of the Austrian School of Economics, Keynesianism is a fraud. Nobel laureate, Friedrich Hayek, was a contributor to the Austrian school.⁸ President Reagan was profoundly influenced by Hayek.⁹

The article - The Keynesian Fraud - asks how Keynesian economics came to dominate so much of economic thinking.^4 P The total impact of the Keynesian policy is negative over its life. But Keynesianism is favored by the political class because it is the vehicle for the expansion of government.

The political solution to our economic problems is not simple. The political class cultivates the myth that government is responsible for economic success. Politicians will never admit the myth is a lie. That is why no political solution to the economic problem will be forthcoming.

The near-term solution to the present crisis is simple: We must get government out of the way and the economy will recover.

But we are up against the likes of James Hoffa. I quote:

"We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. … President Obama, we want one thing, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. … Let's take these son of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong."¹

And here's our reply to Mr. Hoffa:

We members of the Indiana-Armstrong Patriots hold that the U.S. Constitution, understood in its original intent and focus, is a guarantor for our individual liberty, our freedom, and our prosperity.¹⁰

As stated in the Preamble, We the People established the Constitution to secure the blessings of Liberty.

One of these blessings has been a prosperity unprecedented in human history.

Our prosperity - past and present - directly results from a respect for private property and freedom of contract.

Free enterprise naturally arises when the role of government in the People's lives is mostly limited to securing their unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The American experience shows that when persons are truly free to pursue individual happiness, there naturally ensues economic growth and, in turn, there is generated the abundance of jobs necessary to sustain that growth.

Thank you

-- Peter Cooper

1. Tea party fires back at Hoffa  
   White House Declines To Comment On Union Leader’s Anti-Tea Party Rhetoric At Labor Day Rally
2. Morning Bell: More 'Stimulus' from President Obama
3. Obamanonics vs. Reaganomics
4. The Keynesian Fraud
5. Alan Krueger: Unemployment benefits not such a boon to jobless numbers
6. Economists show support for Obama job-growth plan
7. Economic Stimulus Act of 2008  
   Changes in CBO's Baseline Projections Since January 2001
8. Friedrich Hayek
9. Friedrich August von Hayek; Economist Influenced Reagan Policy  
   Reflections on Reagan the Intellectual
10. About the Indiana-Armstrong Patriots