The Tea Party Red Herring - The Unemployed

The Tea Party (and others) would like to have you, the voter, believe that the size of the United States Federal Government is too big. I could, and have argued in these pages that in many ways, they are correct. Certainly there is far too much money being spent and wasted on a number of federal projects, both black and white as well. But their focus is also in the physical size of the government, and the number of people it employs. And I have to sit back and wonder if these individuals have even thought through the issue.

The latest job numbers, release last week, indicated that mixed into the 9% unemployment rate, were 90,000 odd federal workers who lost their jobs. Now most of these were temporary workers hired for the census, but still, these blips are just the same as the blips we see in January when all the temporary retail workers hired for the Christmas season are dumped back into the pool of the unemployed. But I also learned this weekend that the number, often cited by the media as the unemployment number is the little number or a convenient statistic, but does not actually represent the unemployment rate, which apparently is closer to 15% than it is to 9%. And that is shocking.

What is more shocking is the Tea Party saying that the government is too big. Which begs the question, what are you going to do with all the people you are planning to fire? How are they supposed to survive, since clearly you have no intention of paying unemployment to them?

And then, there are the soldiers. Remember them? There are thousands of reservists that will be returning to the United States after years abroad and they will have to be integrated into the work force. And there are several that fall under the heading the they have a guaranteed job despite the fact that the company they worked for may not have a position for them. So does that mean the company has to fire someone else? Or bring on someone they cannot afford to pay and have no work for? The only ones who will get rich on this are the lawyers and human relations specialists that will have to sort through all the laws. And yes, I am also overlooking the medical costs that are associated with returning soldiers.

So, if you are a Tea Party candidate, just how do you plan to reduce the size of the Government and yet not add to the ranks of the unemployed. They would like to have us believe that the commercial world will pick up the slack. The truth is that unless there is a profit, and a huge profit, the commercial world will not step up to the plate. And that is why the Government is so big. Legally or not.