Washington's Policies On Jobs Misguided

Whether eligible voters voted for President Obama in the last election or not, all voters need to pay attention to the policies being pursued in Washington. Most are not creating an environment that is conducive to business and/or job creation.

Today's jobs report noted companies shed 85,000 jobs in December versus consensus expectations of a 10,000 job loss figure. Additionally, the work force declined 661,000 showing the jobless are giving up. When discouraged workers and part-time workers who would prefer full-time jobs are included, the so-called "underemployment" rate in December rose to 17.3% from 17.2% in November. This is near the record high reported in October of 17.4%.

As reported by ABC News, the administration's response to these job numbers was the implementation of a green jobs program.

"Obama announced the awarding of $2.3 billion in tax credits to companies that manufacture wind turbines, solar panels, cutting edge batteries and other green technologies. The money will come from last year's $787 billion stimulus program. He also renewed a call by Vice President Al Gore for Congress to approve an additional $5 billion to help create more such jobs."

What kind of success has been experienced by other countries that have modeled job growth on a "green" basis? President Obama often cites the Spain model.

A study released early last year by Dr. Gabriel Calzada, an economics professor at Juan Carlos University in Madrid, said the United States should expect results similar to those in Spain:

"Spain’s experience (cited by President Obama as a model) reveals with high confidence, by two different methods, that the U.S. should expect a loss of at least 2.2 jobs on average, or about 9 jobs lost for every 4 created, to which we have to add those jobs that non-subsidized investments with the same resources would have created,” wrote Calzada in his report: Study of the Effects on Employment of Public Aid to Renewable Energy Sources"

According to the Cybercast News Service, it is noted,

"in the study’s introduction Calzada argues that the renewable jobs program hindered, rather than helped, Spain’s attempts to emerge from its recession."

“The study’s results show how such 'green jobs' policy clearly hinders Spain’s way out of the current economic crisis, even while U.S. politicians insist that rushing into such a scheme will ease their own emergence from the turmoil,” says Calzada. “This study marks the very first time a critical analysis of the actual performance and impact has been made."

Pat Michaels, professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and senior fellow in environmental studies at the Cato Institute, a free market group, told CNSNews.com that the study’s conclusions do not surprise him. He added that the United States should expect similar results with the stimulus money it spends on green initiatives.

Michaels also said he was not surprised by the study’s finding that only one out of 10 jobs were permanent.

h/t: Michelle Malkin: Spain’s green jobs boondoggle
and Here comes another multi-billion-dollar Green Jobs boondoggle