75 Comments

1. David Thomson:

I warned people a long time ago that Barack Obama has every intention of sticking it good and hard to white Americans. It was plainly obvious to those less susceptible to white guilt. After all, didn’t Obama attend, for roughly twenty years, a racist and anti-Semitic church? I have only one real question to ask the naive people who didn’t see this coming: what planet do you live on? Obama employed the race card at every opportunity during the presidential campaign. He wasn’t even that subtle. Oh well, we can only hope there is enough time to save the country from severe damage.

Feb 13, 2009 - 1:24 am 2. sbourg55:

I think you even understate the damage this could do, if significant tax dollars are diverted to these Workfare purposes. Unlike the 1930s, we now have almost 25 million total govt workers, about 1/5th of our workforce. These govt workers consume too much of our economy, partly because their health-care and lifetime pension benefits (which start WAY too early by the way) are MUCH too large. So we the reasonably successful private sector workers, have to support far too much “government”. See http://www.nypdrecruit.com to learn that a new policeman in NYC will work from age 21 to 41 and have regular pay +o.t. +health-care for life and pension for life, that amounts to well over $5M for those 20 years of “service”. That’s $250k/year they worked. This is only slightly larger than other police forces……..firemen do better in some places. We the taxpayer are getting fleeced. More ideas by Obama, like workfare, added to more govt spending by the Dems are going to absolutely destroy the chance that our Capitalism becomes vibrant again. They are playing with fire this time, and the “fire” they’re starting will be VERY difficult to extinguish.

Feb 13, 2009 - 3:04 am 3. Mongoose:

No, his objective was to screw the White Middle Class. He is Marxist. That is what they do.

Feb 13, 2009 - 3:05 am 4. SAF:

Robert Reich was always a socialist. Even Clinton had to get rid of him because he was too far left.

Feb 13, 2009 - 3:33 am 5. Craig:

“Nevertheless, unemployment remained high until the war and America sadly discovered that public-sector growth often comes at the expense of private industry.”

So when does that lightbulb pop on for a liberal?

Feb 13, 2009 - 4:23 am 6. NY Andy:

There was one wildly successful welfare to work program instituted in Bordentown, NJ. So successful it was profiled on 60 minutes and became an embarassment to the state welfare program. They sued Bordentown and forced them back into the state welfare system. Successful welfare alternatives are always a threat to the status quo bureaucracy.

Feb 13, 2009 - 4:27 am 7. progressoverpeace:

This whole administration is certifiably insane. Aside from that, they are all pretty stupid, too. Not a great combination. America has really “screwed” itself – to use the new Precedential vernacular.

If the United States survives this episode (and I am inclined to believe that it will not) then there had better be some serious discussion about the responsibilities of voters – such as no one voting for federal positions if they don’t pay federal income taxes, and some sort of minimal test to insure that our voters have even a clue what our governmental structure is. If those two criteria are not satisfied, then those people have no right having a voice in our government. The leeches will kill us, since they have nothing at stake and can treat our government like a joke – hence the joke of an administration and Congress that we have.

But, like I said, I don’t think the US makes it through this period intact, anyway, so this is probably all moot.

Feb 13, 2009 - 4:40 am 8. wildman:

Anyone who works in the private sector non-union or union and votes democratic should have their heads examined.

Feb 13, 2009 - 5:18 am 9. deguello:

The malevolent marxoid dwarf is projecting his resentments of the well constituted,able bodied American white males,whose health and physiques he envies and detests. Let him!Creeps like him are going to provoke a racial civil war,they cannot possibly win.

Feb 13, 2009 - 5:49 am 10. Meryl:

I was only 6 years old in 1950 and already understood that when my father laughingly referred to some “make work job” someone was doing as “peeling apples” that he was referencing “We Peel Apples” (WPA from the 1930’s). It was understood by children that real work and makework were two entirely different things, one respectable and one embarrassing. (Of course, it totally screws up the glossary to expect that the word “respectable” should be useful with this bunch.)

The alleged adults who just want to be taken care of by daddy government make me sick. And those who want to make them dependent make me sicker.

If I hear julio from Florida vomit his obama worship one more time…..why does no one in the obama mess grasp what an embarrassment that kind of crap is? Yuck. Give me Joe the Plumber any day.

I still don’t know if his moaning of “gracious (G)god” is a reference to obama or Yahweh. Either way, it’s a sickeningly offensive expression.

Feb 13, 2009 - 5:52 am 11. Historical perspective:

Here we go again. The failed employement policies (CETA) of the 70’s are coming back from the dead. I guess that is one of the shortcomings of our system of government – we have to keep re-learning the lessons of history.

Feb 13, 2009 - 5:56 am 12. Bilgeman:

Tristan Yates:

“These programs would also have job training components, teaching individuals how to install pipes, mix and pour cement, install solar panels, and/or even advise homeowners and businesses on how to improve energy conservation. Naturally, income assistance would be provided during training.”

See, this is how a faux-Marxist, (aka as a “Liberal”), practices class warfare.

Reich wnats to tax the proletariat, already with a surplus of working-class workers to compete against for available jobs, to train MORE people to become proles.

Ask yourself why the training programs aren’t being promulgated to move working-class people up into the bourgeois class?

Let’s train a laid-off millwright to be a lawyer or a US Trade Representative, rather than outlaying monies to train some long-term economic parasite to be another unemployed millwright.
The millwright had to work for years to master his trade.

This state of affairs benefits only the Ruling classes, of whom Reich is a member.

I also haven’t heard anything about abolishing the H1-B Visa program from this administration, and neither have I heard about discontinuing federal subsidies to academia in the form of student loans for college majors that have essentially NO job market,(save for further federally-subsidized academic ones…do we need another PhD in French Literature, or another plumber?).

Again, this benefits solely the Liberal Ruling Class and their Corporate and Academic Running-Dog Stooges.

That’s the metier of the American Liberal:

Marxism for the Masses and Profits for the Priveleged Few.

Reich is perfectly welcome to come by and inflate my tires,(once I determine that he’s competent to do so), though…he certainly has the necessary stature for it.

Feb 13, 2009 - 6:15 am 13. drjohn:

When it comes to business, Reich is the ultimate eunuch at the harem.

Feb 13, 2009 - 6:23 am 14. Tom Kaptain:

I for one agree with Keynes and Roosevelt who thought it was better to try and get everyone that was willing to work jobs even if they were as basic as peeling apples than it was to let them remain unemployed, often collecting benefits at public expense. One of the things you didn’t mention was how many people who worked for the WPA later remained in the workforce.

Feb 13, 2009 - 6:32 am 15. Cybergeezer:

“Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell” being practiced in Congress.
Dems are using this to keep Repubs out of conference. “Don’t ask if you can attend, and don’t tell us what you want.
Too bad Abraham Lincoln isn’t around today; He’d put these idiots in jail for High Treason. We are being governed by traitors, felons, and pantywaists.

Feb 13, 2009 - 6:40 am 16. hp:

Tom Kaptain One of the things you didn’t mention was how many people who worked for the WPA later remained in the workforce.

interestingly you did not provide those numbers yourself EITHER. any particular reason?

Feb 13, 2009 - 7:01 am 17. MIKE:

“One of the things you didn’t mention was how many people who worked for the WPA later remained in the workforce.”
-You can thank Hitler for starting WW II. Those WPA employees were either sent to war, or took the places of others who were sent to war. They did not remain employed because of the effectiveness of the program.

Feb 13, 2009 - 7:13 am 18. JED:

Robert Reich on his NPR show stated that for every dollar the federal government spends (in federal programs) it returns a dollar fifty. Stunning!
It seems that we have returned to the age of the big lie, the whopper. This is a statement by a politician so impossible that the audience must stop breathing and try to rationalize any truth in the matter. Bill Clinton mastered that tact and his protege BHO is learning fast. At his press conference he stated that there was “No Pork” in the stimulus package.
Stay tuned for more doubt your sanity moments as Reich returns more to center stage and the era of “change you’re never going to believe” continues. “To the victor goes the spoils” is the oldie but goodie rule of politics that is not going to change. Amazingly in times of a great national and international crisis the polematic politician sounds the trumpet of further division from reality or even unity.

Feb 13, 2009 - 7:34 am 19. urbanleftbehind:

MIKE:

You are half right because most Americans circa 1939 could have gave a damn about Hitler (well, maybe except the joos and the DPs – eastern europeans to the youngins’ out there – whose cousins were getting the shaft over there). The Japanese attacking Pearl Harbor and Hitler having enough hubris to declare war back on us is what did it.

Feb 13, 2009 - 7:42 am 20. Adam:

There could be no better investment in America than to invest in America becoming energy independent! We need to utilize everything in out power to reduce our dependence on foreign oil including using our own natural resources. Create cheap clean energy, new badly needed green jobs, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. OPEC will continue to cut production until they achieve their desired 80-100. per barrel. If all gasoline cars, trucks, and SUV’s instead had plug-in electric drive trains, the amount of electricity needed to replace gasoline is about equal to the estimated wind energy potential of the state of North Dakota. There is a really good new book out by Jeff Wilson called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence Now.
http://www.themanhattanprojectof2009.com

Feb 13, 2009 - 7:48 am 21. Morry Rotenberg:

The people deserve the goverment that the people elected. The caveat of our current age was aptly described some 200 years ago:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with a result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence:

From Bondage to Spiritual Faith
From Spiritual Faith to Great Courage
From Courage to Liberty
From Liberty to Abundance
From Abundance to Selfishness
From Selfishness to Complacency
From Complacency to Apathy
From Apathy to Dependency
From Dependency back into Bondage

—————————————————————————-most commonly attributed to
“The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic”
by Alexander Fraser Tytler Lord Woodhouselee (1748-1813)
(Scottish judge and historian at Edinburgh University

Feb 13, 2009 - 7:51 am 22. Chemman:

He is going to do what he is going to do. That should be clear from the fact that the hoi poi burned down the switch-board against this stimulus package and it is still being forced down our throats. They can train these long term unemployed to do this but to date nothing in the law requires us to entertain them at our doors. Since illegal trespassing is still a crime, I will see that they are prosecuted by Springfield Armory and duly escorted off my property.

Feb 13, 2009 - 8:00 am 23. tanstaafl:

Here’s video of the socialist engineer, Robert Reich, testifying in front of the tax cheat and generic crook, Charles Rangel*, January 7, 2009.

White male construction workers need not apply

*Rangel is all Fuzzy Wuzzy with Nancy Pelosi, so investigations into his sundry illegal tax exploits have been delayed.

Feb 13, 2009 - 8:05 am 24. rocketeer:

20. Morry Rotenberg:
I used to think we were in the Selfishness to Complacency phase of our life cycle. Now I think we’re in the Dependency back into Bondage phase (or very close to it). I’m starting to wonder what is going to replace the United States. I’m going to guess that we’re going to break down into independent states or maybe even smaller into separate county governments. I think we’re going to start seeing, in the not-to-distant future, states trying to secede from the union when the tax debt becomes intolerable.

We’re already seeing some of this in California. There are several counties that are going to be suing the state government to discontinue operating state mandated but completely unfunded programs. There are other counties here in the state that are debating not sending their collected tax revenue on to the state.

This is turning into a major crisis for this country. The rule of law is seriously starting to break down. Our elected officials refuse to follow it and only selectively enforce it. Those of us in the general citizenry are growing extremely disgusted with our leaders, their stupid laws, excessive taxes, and general incompetence and malfeasance. We’re headed down a bad path here folks…

Feb 13, 2009 - 8:24 am 25. Don Rhudy:

Two things set Obama apart from the socialists of the Clinton, Carter, Johnson, and Roosevelt administrations. The first is that he is a radical socialist–a socialist who follows the Saul Alinsky (Reveille for Radicals, Rules for Radicals) model. The second is that he hates whites and the white part of himself. These two things will make him successful in his effort to quash Freedom and Liberty and install socialism. Whether he will prove to be a national socialist (a nazi) or an international socialist (a communist) is the only question about his socialism. I am optimistic that his early excesses will make him a one-term president and that he can be replaced by a real patriot in 2012, if he lives through his first term.

Feb 13, 2009 - 8:40 am 26. Saltherring:

My father, as a young man, forked manure from barns for $1.00 per day during the 1930’s, rather than endure the embarrassment of “shovel-leaning” with a WPA “road-building” crew. Therein lies the difference between then and now: Most of the working poor in the Great Depression still retained their dignity and considered ANY honest job superior to the shame of workfare. Nowadays our youth seem to suffer little indignity in stooping to slop the swill at the welfare trough. Work? Why? If we wanted work we wouldn’t have voted for Obama!

Feb 13, 2009 - 8:50 am 27. MarkD:

Nobody is inflating my tires but me. Really. I have been pushed further than I care to go.

Feb 13, 2009 - 8:57 am 28. Wally Lind:

Well, we had make work in the CCC camps of the 1930s, we survived it. If WWII really brought us out of the depression, don’t despair, if Iran gets nuclear weapons and their Islamic fanaticism isn’t just PR, we will have WWIII to get us out of this one. Nothing is permenant in American politics, there is nothing that Obama and the democrats are doing, that can’t be undone. If it doesn’t happen in 2012, it will in 2016. So keep your shirt on, and you can all be thankful that I will too, LOL.

Feb 13, 2009 - 9:17 am 29. Delia:

Workfare is the obscene joke of SOCIALISM in a nut-shell. What me worry?

Good article, Mr. Yates.

Feb 13, 2009 - 9:51 am 30. Dee:

No long term unemployed ner’do’well is coming into my home to tell me how to save energy. I will not allow them to scope my home out for burglary or other crimes.

For energy saving ideas, I can and have called on the free inspections by PG&E,trained and vetted professionals. For vehicle maintenance, I go to my mechanic, not someone who cannnot keep a job.

Or will it be a jailable offense not to allow them into my home. Why do I think I am going to end up in a gulag before this is over?

Feb 13, 2009 - 9:57 am 31. Robert F:

Re#28 Wally:
“Nothing is permanent in American politics, there is nothing that Obama and the democrats are doing, that can’t be undone.”
I wish this was true, but it is only partly true. Some things can be reversed to a degree, but the downward slide to socialism has been going on for many years, and will continue.

Feb 13, 2009 - 10:00 am 32. Marc Malone:

Yessiree, Bob! Can’t have all those qualified white men with real job skills hogging all the new jobs! Far better to give the jobs to unqualified minorities.

No worries. We’ll train them to compete with the white men for the same jobs. Then we’ll have an overabundance of laborers with the same skillsets. Then the jobs’ll pay squat… except they’ll be government jobs, which will pay better! The minorities will have those, and the same private sector jobs will pay the white men squat.

The thing is, if white men aren’t being paid well, who’ll pay your damned taxes? Oh, the orientals will… until they become the next on the hit list of those with these massive inferiority complexes. Then, we can all be poor together. Which will be soon. Because the Libs think the Public Treasury is a bottomless piggy-bank. Very soon, they’ll find out otherwise, as no one buys the debt we’re offering.

Who in their right mind would actually buy a T-Bill? It pays almost nothing. It’s less then the inflation rate. That’s a great way to go backwards in wealth. Furthermore, you just know Uncle Sam is going to be printing money as fast as it can, so the inflation rate will get worse. They’ll have to pay higher rates for T-Bills, which will create an even greater inflationary spiral. Think South America, if you doubt me.

Feb 13, 2009 - 10:13 am 33. deguello:

Dee:I can only wait in anticipation the creation of green affirmative action jobs for dwarves with Ivy league credentials.For example,they can be made to operate hamster wheels, to generate “clean” electrical energy. BTW: Reich shall henceforth be referred to in this thread as “Dopey”.None of us are ending up on the Gulag;that’s what the second amendment exists to prevent.

Feb 13, 2009 - 10:21 am 34. ajacksonian:

Centinal No. 8, 29 DEC 1787:

“But as it is by comparison only that men estimate the value of any good, they are not sensible of the worth of those blessings they enjoy, until they are deprived of them; hence from ignorance of the horrors of slavery, nations, that have been in possession of that rarest of blessings, liberty, have so easily parted with it: when groaning under the yoke of tyranny what perils would they not encounter, what consideration would they not give to regain the inestimable jewel they had lost; but the jealousy of despotism guards every avenue to freedom, and confirms its empire at the expence of the devoted people, whose property is made instrumental to their misery, for the rapacious hand of power seizes upon every thing; dispair presently succeeds, and every noble faculty of the mind being depressed, and all motive to industry and exertion being removed, the people are adapted to the nature of government, and drag out a listless existence.

If ever America should be enslaved it will be from this cause, that they are not sensible of their peculiar felicity, that they are not aware of the value of the heavenly boon, committed to their care and protection, and if the present conspiracy fails, as I have no doubt will be the case, it will be the triumph of reason and philosophy, as these United States have never felt the iron hand of power, or experienced the wretchedness of slavery.”

Yes that grasping hand at trillions is the hand of tyranny that brooks no opposition, that seeks to sell such sweet goodness so long as you put on the yoke of it… do not worry, your terrible burden of liberty and freedom will be lifted from you. Such a heavy burden to you, poor Americans, your government will do *good* and remove your worries, your cares, your liberty, your freedom and make sure you live the life that government dictates to you. Soon the sweet draught of liberty will be but a fond memory, and the task master telling you what good it is to do as you are told will be there so that you will comply, you will submit, and you will *praise* government for *allowing* you to lead a good life.

Such sweet sorrow is giving up liberty.

Such deep redness is the blood to buy it back.

Feb 13, 2009 - 11:11 am 35. 888:

Robert Reich is a professor who’s also an absolute dimwit. Even if his idea to set-aside 20% of federal contracts to the poor and unskilled gets approved, is it realistic to think that the poor and the unskilled will submit proposals to the federal government in response to a federal agency’s 20 – 30 page solicitation for those contracts?? Is he kidding??? Large businesses hire lawyers and Contracting Officers like me to explain to them complex contract clauses and procedures, and Reich thinks the poor and unskilled will take the time to even read a solicitation?? What an idiot.

Reich and BO have 2 things in common — 1) they love to hear themselves talk, and 2) everyone knows they’re full of it.

Feb 13, 2009 - 11:41 am 36. The Historian:

WHY COMMON SENSE REJECTS THE STIMULUS BILL
It is not possible to be intellectually honest and vote for this bill.

http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/02/common-sense-vote-no-on-stimulus.html

Feb 13, 2009 - 11:55 am 37. progressoverpeace:

20. Adam:

There could be no better investment in America than to invest in America becoming energy independent! We need to utilize everything in out power to reduce our dependence on foreign oil including using our own natural resources.

Yeah … don’t allow offshore drilling. Don’t allow drilling in ANWR. Don’t allow any drilling here. Don’t allow nukes. Nope. No nuke power allowed. Don’t allow coal. …

Build windmills and various other inefficient means of producing truly expensive energy, plus a lot of government investment in pie-in-the-sky fashionable research that will crowd out any reasonable alternatives that are actually found by the private sector …

You people are insane. If you were in charge all along, we’d have had a government that forced a nice, inefficient, direct current electric grid forced on us.

Despicable, stupid and insane – and bent on bankrupting us. That’s our socialist government.

Feb 13, 2009 - 12:07 pm 38. Pat J:

Yates is purposely misusing the term “workfare” here. Workfare targets welfare recipients. Under workfare, recipients have to meet certain participation requirements to continue to receive their welfare benefits. These requirements are often a combination of activities that are intended to improve the recipient’s job prospects (such as training, rehabilitation and work experience) and those designated as contributing to society (such as unpaid or low-paid work).

Richard Nixon by the way was the President who first popularized workfare.

Feb 13, 2009 - 12:49 pm 39. bill-tb:

Reich is a dimwitted communist read his papers and see for yourself. Yeah I know, people don’t respond to name calling.

So what, FDR was a Fascist. When he got elected, Fascists worldwide responded ‘we now have a friend in the White House’. Read history or repeat it.

The downside, 125 million people were killed in the 20th century by Communists, Fascists, NAZIs, socialists, and now Obammunists are going to give it a go: When the gulags get full and when the free stuff runs out, that’s when the trouble begins. And it will always run out.

Feb 13, 2009 - 1:14 pm 40. tyates:

Thank you very much for the comments. Its a big part of why I like writing for Pajamas. A couple extra points:

1) In my research on the WPA I read that a lot of people once hired didn’t want to leave. After all, the workfare jobs were easy to do and had decent pay and, most importantly, job security. Why risk going to the private sector and maybe getting fired, especially in the middle of the depression? This not only killed the work ethic of the people on workfare, but made it harder for the private sector to create entry level jobs that attracted people away from workfare.

2) Years after it was well understood that the WPA had done nothing to reduce unemployment, it was still impossible to kill off for political reasons – because you’d put too many people out of work by doing so! Yet the program was so expensive the government couldn’t continue it. Talk about digging yourself into a economic hole. Only the full employment created by WWII ended this human landfill.

3) This article has nothing to do with the “welfare vs workfare” debate, which is a false choice. Essentially, workfare is welfare, and anyone who says “let’s replace welfare with workfare” is just trying to figure out some other way of giving government money to people who aren’t working. The correct answer is Neither, but unfortunately the road we’re on now is Both.

Tristan Yates, author of “Enhanced Indexing Strategies”

Feb 13, 2009 - 1:53 pm 41. Dotar Sojat:

Tom Kaptain – a government make work job IS at the taxpayers’ expense.

Feb 13, 2009 - 2:13 pm 42. Bruce Rheinstein:

It may be economic nonsense, but it’s political genius!

Just think of it – millions of voters who owe their phoney-baloney make-work jobs to the Democratic Party. These are people who don’t typically vote and who would be motivated to go to the polls to vote for the party that will preserve their “jobs.”

Think of it as a Big City political machine on a national scale.

Feb 13, 2009 - 2:21 pm 43. Mummynicci:

If the US isn’t going to survive this administration “intact”, as many of you suggest, do any of you have any ideas for a country/nation where the remaining right-thinking people of this country can migrate to in mass? If enough of us just left, taking with us the spirit, ingenuity and work ethic that origianlly made this country so great, we could eventually re-create a new US of somewhere else, leaving the United Socialist States of America to implode. Any ideas??

Feb 13, 2009 - 2:36 pm 44. JB:

#43

Maybe Japan will reverse its no-immigration policy.

Feb 13, 2009 - 3:03 pm 45. Kenneth:

I think the goal here is to have a permanent workfare force that is reliant on government for their jobs. These people will unionize and also vote Democratic as a job protection measure. I think the specific target of this are poor whites in the South who now vote GOP for social reasons (God and country), but when job and livelihood are on the line (as we saw in the recent election), it changes your perspective.

Feb 13, 2009 - 3:17 pm 46. Glenn H:

I get very irritated when FDR’s Works Progress Administration programs get roundly mocked as useless wastes of money. My grandfather is a living example of the benefits of this program. His parent’s (my great grandparent’s) farm went under, and my grandfather left home at age 18 seeking to make money to send back to his family (parents + 8 siblings), so that they literally wouldn’t starve.

Frankly, he had no options in the private sector. He had a 7th grade education and his only experience was as a laborer on the family farm. He signed up for the CCC (Civil Conservation Corp). The CCC was part of FDR’s WPA program. His camp built roads and bridges and planted trees in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The camps were entirely government funded.

He spent 7 years in the camp. During his stay, he learned accounting/bookkeeping and eventually headed up all operations of the mess hall. He has told me repeatedly that it was the most valuable experience in his early life. It was the high school education he never received. He went on to serve on the board of directors of a bank and own several small businesses. He put 4 kids and 10 grandchildren through college.

So when Mr. Yates says, “the idea that the government can provide useful jobs and training to the unemployed has broad political appeal, especially across the all-important center. There’s just one problem: workfare just doesn’t work,” forgive me if I suggest he has no idea what he is talking about. Over the years, I’ve attended the CCC reunions with my grandfather and met the actual men who served. The stories are the same. They are stories about how the experience at the camp provided them with the education and training they desperately needed to succeed in private enterprise.

Feb 13, 2009 - 3:37 pm 47. Insufficiently Sensitive:

These programs would also have job training components, teaching individuals how to install pipes, mix and pour cement, install solar panels, and/or even advise homeowners and businesses on how to improve energy conservation.

Those job training ideas sound great, but they only work for motivated folks with some intelligence and the ability to work for many months at learning a trade. One does not create a worker competent to “install pipes”, or “mix and pour cement” in a once-over-lightly training camp. Had that been true, there would have been far more workers trained and available for the construction boom that ran through most of the Bush administration. There weren’t, and it was common knowledge that illegal immigrants were filling those jobs. Does the Obama administration intend really to train the long-term unemployed (or unemployable) citizens, or is it simply looking give a windfall to those illegals in order to harvest their future votes?

Says Reich: “people can be trained relatively quickly for these sorts of jobs, as well as many infrastructure jobs generated by the stimulus – installing new pipes for water and sewage systems, repairing and upgrading equipment, basic construction…”

By the casual hauteur that Robert Reich exhibits in this implausible scheme, it’s plain that he’s never had to perform to contract specifications on a construction job, and simply assumes that any idiot can do it – and collect union wages in the process. Or that evil white male contractors can be bullied into hiring any and all applicants, regardless of ability, and be forced to “provide the training and do the hiring”.

I have a better suggestion. Let the triumphant Obama administration hire those long-term unemployed with their obscenely hasty, wholly-owned Democratic party stimulus loot. People can be trained relatively quickly for Senatorial and Congressional staff positions – hell, even a few undersecretary positions might be set aside for those lucky pobrecitos, all they’d have to do is show up for work and parrot the Party line, that can’t be too hard.

But having my local infrastructure beset by swarms of ‘long term unemployed’ after quickie training programs? Only if the Democratic Party will take out a ten-year maintenance guarantee bond for each project involved, and pay for those bonds out of their own fundraising – not my taxes, thank you.

Feb 13, 2009 - 3:53 pm 48. Cybergeezer:

Oh, Mr. Reich! Can I inflate your tires? I use platinum. You’ll love it.

Feb 13, 2009 - 3:54 pm 49. Zach:

FDR understood the political advantages of massive welfare (or the more insidious workfare) and used it to create the powerful Democratic hegemony that lasted until the end of the 70s. Ronald Reagan ushered in a conservative era- although the Democratic Congress fought him tooth and nail on reducing government spending. Obama recognizes the potential of a New New Deal to bring the Democrats back into power for a long time (people will vote Democratic in gratitude for their “job”). The conservative movement needs to remake itself along much more libertarian/classical liberal ideas i.e. advocate dropping dead weight bureaucracies like Department of Education, repealing the Sixteenth Amendment (income taxes), and abolishing the Federal Reserve (a central bank is antithetical to a free market economy). That’s just a sampling. We can only compete with the populist/socialist liberals if we offer a COMPLETELY different political philosophy.

Feb 13, 2009 - 4:02 pm 50. Mark M:

I thought we had a fully funded, long term job training program provided by the government: Primary and Secondary public education.
We also have a large government jobs program, that, if you listen to the MSM over the past eight years, is in dire needs of applicants: The US Military.
As as graduate of the former and a proud member of the latter, they work for me.

Feb 13, 2009 - 4:48 pm 51. Blue Eyed Indian:

# 24 Rocketeer
You may be right that some states will secede rather than lose their freedom. It is possible Texas would “jump the traces” and take the contiguous “Red” states with them. Central States of America? Including Alaska,Alberta and Yukon. That would leave the Blue states East(including Cuba) and the Blue States West(including Hawaii). The following events could precipitate this action:

1) An attempt to Unionize the country by passing “card check”.
2) An attempt to open the borders to illegals or grant amnesty.
3) A gross violation of the constitution over the census.
40 An attempt to force the country into socialism (which we are seeing already).

Feb 13, 2009 - 5:11 pm 52. MarkJ:

The “Fourth Reich” has come to pass…and “Robert” is his name!

Feb 13, 2009 - 5:29 pm 53. Glenn H:

You guys are off your respective rockers. Secession? Sweet fancy Moses! Are you freaking joking? You have too much time on your hands.

For the record, FDR’s works programs created the following in Colorado:

-Red Rocks Amphitheater: The 3rd most visited attraction in Colorado has brought in HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars to the local economy since its opening. .

-Sewer systems, disposal plants and water filtration plants.

-3,500 miles of paved roads.

-Irrigation systems that were crucial to farming along the South Platte River.

-3,400 bridges.

-The first ski rope tow and trail on Aspen Mountain (last I checked Aspen is not owned by the government and provides millions of tourism dollars for local and state economies).

Does anybody sincerely want to argue that projects like these didn’t create jobs and money for the private sector? In inflation-adjusted terms, Red Rocks alone paid the tab in Colorado.

Do some REAL research instead of just repeating what Rush Limbaugh said today or what you read on Instapundit. That means actually contacting one of the men who worked in one of FDR’s WPA programs and finding out what it did for their lives. You will find that for many, it was THE experience that made them successful in the private sector.

Feb 13, 2009 - 6:44 pm 54. Seerak:

Do some REAL research instead of just repeating what Rush Limbaugh said today or what you read on Instapundit. That means actually contacting one of the men who worked in one of FDR’s WPA programs and finding out what it did for their lives. You will find that for many, it was THE experience that made them successful in the private sector.

A lot of nice stadiums got built in the Soviet Union as well.

Your argument does not account for what is not seen, i.e. what might have been built if the stolen capital would have been left in the hands of those who created it.

Sure we got some “nice stuff” from the WPA. Hoover Dam is something else to see.

But the price we paid — not only in dollars, but in the horrible precedent established — was far, far too high.

Feb 13, 2009 - 8:42 pm 55. paul_unalaska:

Golly Glenn H, you use your tongue purtier than a.. (I’m sure you’ve seen ‘Blazing Saddles’ and know the end of the sentence)

I too am a native Coloradan and have seen the supposed ‘perks’ of allowing incompetents take jobs from skilled workers.

Colorado has over 500,000 illegals rampant in its borders. Taking a myriad of construction jobs. I’d a home in the Kissing Camels area, near Garden of the Gods (WHICH HAS A PLAQUE STATING IT WILL FOREVER BE FREE FOR ITS VISITORS.. I wonder why the good folks, visiting artists at the amphitheater can’t do the same?) and we moved for the homes were shoddily built, electrical work wasn’t up to code, et al. by the ‘workfare’ folks you give kudos to.

These same low skilled job stealers have Joe and Jane Taxpayer foot the bill for their kids Head Start program. School supplied lunches, inclusion schooling, after school English tutoring, etc.,

As well as the average illegal alien family receiving more Government aid (pssst.. again that’s YOURS and MINE money) than disabled vets.

So, we have either low skilled Americans who are living off the Gov’t teat, or low skilled illegal workers taking these jobs and providing garbage in their wake.. who’s ore deserving, Glenn H?

I’m going with none of the above and choose the person who’s more apt to live by the code, ‘A hard day’s work for a hard day’s pay.’

Enjoy yourself next time you’re at Red Rocks and paying exorbient prices for today’s crummy bands.

Feb 14, 2009 - 12:14 am 56. paul_unalaska:

‘Golly Glenn H, you use your tongue purtier than a..’ (I’m sure you’ve seen ‘Blazing Saddles’ and know the end)

I too am a native Coloradan and have seen the supposed ‘perks’ of allowing incompetents take jobs from skilled workers.

Colorado has over 500,000 illegals rampant in its borders. Taking a myriad of jobs in the state, specifically construction jobs.

I’d a home in the Kissing Camels area, near Garden of the Gods (Garden of the Gods HAS A PLAQUE STATING IT WILL FOREVER BE FREE TO ITS VISITORS.. I wonder why the good folks, visiting artists at the amphitheater can’t do the same? (Red Rocks is baby poo compared to the Garden..) and we moved, for ours and many of our neighbors homes were shoddily built, electrical work wasn’t up to code, et al. by the ‘workfare’ folks you give kudos to.

These same low skilled job stealers have Joe and Jane Taxpayer foot the bill for their kids Head Start program. School supplied lunches, inclusion schooling, flu shots, after school English tutoring, etc.,

As well as the average illegal alien family receiving more Government aid (pssst.. again that’s YOURS and MINE money) than disabled vets.

So, we have either low skilled Americans who are living off the Gov’t teat, or low skilled illegal workers taking these jobs and providing garbage in their wake.. also living off the Gov’t teat. As well as putting their money not into our economy but to their country of origin.. who’s more deserving, Glenn H?

I’m going with none of the above and choose the person who’s more apt to live by the code, ‘A hard day’s work for a hard day’s pay.’

Enjoy yourself next time you’re at Red Rocks, paying exorbient prices for today’s crummy bands.

My wife and I chose Alaska after Colorado spat on its citizens and put PC above an American and their safety. Don’t fret, though. When seconds count, the Police are but minutes away..

Feb 14, 2009 - 12:25 am 57. vivo:

46. Glenn H:

“So when Mr. Yates says, “the idea that the government can provide useful jobs and training to the unemployed has broad political appeal, especially across the all-important center. There’s just one problem: workfare just doesn’t work,” forgive me if I suggest he has no idea what he is talking about.”

Great story. Yates and all the other conservatives reject the idea that providing jobs and training to an underclass is useful. What’s their alternative? Do nothing? A lot of the blame for this underclass is the educational system and the parents that don’t support and discipline their kids. Skin color has nothing to do with this.

Feb 14, 2009 - 4:39 am 58. vivo:

47. Insufficiently Sensitive:

“People can be trained relatively quickly for Senatorial and Congressional staff positions – hell, even a few undersecretary positions might be set aside for those lucky pobrecitos”

No, sir. You don’t want these trained pobrecitos competing with Ivy Leaguers for these positions . . . What are these elitists going to do??

Feb 14, 2009 - 4:46 am 59. Boyd:

“The government is planning to hire, train, and pay the long-term unemployed to come to your house and tell you how to save energy.”

If this sounds too far-fetched to be true one can always look to England for the Socialist/Communist future our current government has planned for us. They are giving people one days training and then coming to homes to indoctrinate the public on cooking techniques and limiting food waste. No, really. And you have no choice about letting them in.

Feb 14, 2009 - 6:53 am 60. tanstaafl:

We’re frogs in water, being slowly brought to a boil. We won’t even try to jump out of the pot until we’ve been turned to frog toast.

James Madison in 1788 speaking to the Virginia convention said, “Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”

The 10 scariest words in the English language…

“I’m from the federal government and I’m here to help.”

Feb 14, 2009 - 8:04 am 61. boqueronman:

Since nobody seems to be really upset yet, here is something else that might actually scare you. If 34 state legislatures approve, a constitutional convention can be called. Such a convention can declare the existing Constitution null and void and, as is their wont, write one that enshrines all the pet “collective rights” and “common good” dreams of every red blooded progressive. Hey, we could go all the way and make the new first amendment “from each according to his means, to each according to his needs.” How many states have approved a call for a new constitutional convention? 32. That’s right, with only two more states (the left’s current target is Ohio) the 34th will not be hard to find. And after that? Hold on to your seats, pals.

Feb 14, 2009 - 10:59 am 62. Glenn H:

@ Seerak. Doing some real research means actually tracking down the men that served in the WPA programs and finding out how the program impacted their lives. I’ve visited with dozens and to a man, they went on to successful careers in the private sector. They ALL credit the CCC (a WPA program) as vital to their success.

But go ahead and keep saying thing like “they built stadiums in the Soviet Union too,” which is clever but also cynical and lazy.

Feb 14, 2009 - 11:53 am 63. Marc Malone:

#46 Glenn H – So, why did the family farm go under, even with the price supports the government gave? Did people stop eating food? Or, could it be that the deflation caused by FDR’s policies, high unemployment, and consfiscatory tax rates caused it?

So, they took away the family farm, then gave grandpa a job. Lucky him. The country was broke, and he was grateful for the work. Grateful to the same idiots who broke the farm in the first place. With his strong farmwork ethic, he turned it into something, but don’t conflate his successful result with the idea that the projects were good in the first place. You’ve heard many success stories, but how many failure stories have you heard? You never get to hear those, do you?

As for all the good done with these projects, all of these things could have been done without the massive suffering of the Great Depression. In fact, more would likely have been done without it. There was a worldwide Depression, but only in America was it Great. FDR made it so.

One last thing, the people today lack the strong work ethic of your Grandpa. Do you honestly think we would get similar results, assuming the previous programs were successsful?

Feb 14, 2009 - 5:35 pm 64. Cognitivecarbon:

To #21:
Not that I disagree with your point of view, but I did find this about your about “Athenian Repulic” reference:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/athenian.asp

Feb 14, 2009 - 7:00 pm 65. therealist:

vivo:
I am champion of you, the underclass. Let me show you how to empty the recycling bins and inflate the tires of my wealthy friends. Thanks to my largesse, you too can be productive members of society. Now remember if you lose this green hat its cost must be taken out of your wages. That will teach you responsibility.

And by the way, i’ve heard rumors that you sometimes work as a driver. Yes, they told me that the old man next door pays you $5/hr plus gas money to take him to the grocery store, to the doctor, and to church on sundays. Well, I’m sad to see you so focused on selfishness and greed. Here you work to save the planet.

Feb 15, 2009 - 2:05 am 66. vivo:

65. therealist:

You sound like an acrid, immature, paunchy, lurid Con. At least I’m happy . . .

Feb 15, 2009 - 5:33 am 67. deguello:

VIVO:” At least I’m happy” What did you mistake your anti-psychotic drugs for saccharine tablets? Providing training to the american underclass in the expectation that they will work, is like providing an amputee with a football uniform expecting him to go pro. The underclass in the USA is a morally,mentally crippled welfare class that lives on welfare . That is why they vote democrat,and why they ask Obama for houses,cars and kitchens.These losers have been carefully groomed to be welfare addicts since the sixties; They serve as a key mental aids for libs like you who need welfare dependent rabble to “help” tolerate having to deal with guilt at not being in the underclass yourself. It is gruesomely sick to be happy by pushing people into welfare dependency.

Feb 15, 2009 - 11:49 am 68. Bilgeman:

#53 GlennH:
“-Red Rocks Amphitheater: The 3rd most visited attraction in Colorado has brought in HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars to the local economy since its opening. .
-Sewer systems, disposal plants and water filtration plants.
-3,500 miles of paved roads.
-Irrigation systems that were crucial to farming along the South Platte River.
-3400 bridges.”

And what does the stimulus signed by that fellow who claims to have been born in Hawaii give us?

Public tennis courts in Virginia Beach, VA and solar water heaters for rural Puerto Rico.

The TVA it ain’t.

A lot of FDR’s programs were more like capital improvements that just HAPPENNED to provide quite a few high-skilled jobs.

Uncle Bam’s dog’s breakfast looks a lot more like LBJ’s “Great Society”…a bunch of “Lifestyle Subsidies” and political reward from the public purse.

Feb 15, 2009 - 6:48 pm 69. vivo:

67. deguello:

“Providing training to the american underclass in the expectation that they will work, is like providing an amputee with a football uniform expecting him to go pro. The underclass in the USA is a morally,mentally crippled welfare class that lives on welfare .”

And the solution IS . . . ?

Feb 15, 2009 - 11:46 pm 70. shaun fischer:

To use the chronic unemployed and no skill workers to canvas neighborhoods to tell me how to save energy? They can’t at the most read at a 3rd grade level!! Thats why they are chronically unemployABLE 1They won’t be canvasing the neighborhoods somuch as casing it!!!

Feb 16, 2009 - 8:14 am 71. Blankman:

Unfortunately, with exceptions, the long-term unemployed are that way because they’re unemployable for one reason or another so simply setting aside jobs and/or funds for this group isn’t going to accomplish much.

And exactly how is someone with little education or training going to provide me with any help in improving my energy efficiency (not to mention that I’m not exactly thrilled about allowing someone that hasn’t been seriously vetted by his employer to look through my home).

Feb 16, 2009 - 8:30 am 72. Larr:

I was talking with my mom (born 1932) and mentioned the WPA…It was as if she were thinking of back then, because she immediately responded that they referred to it as “We Poke Along”…

Feb 16, 2009 - 11:48 am 73. joe:

vivo

Sometimes there are no solutions. I realize that might be difficult for you to accept.

Just as I have come to accept there is no solution to how wrong your point of view is about both America, the American people and their desire for socialism.

Feb 16, 2009 - 12:38 pm 74. vivo:

73. joe:

I agree, sometimes there are no acceptable solutions.

I don’t care what you call me, all I know is that I don’t fit one mold. I look at situations as they are and then at the broad outlook.

Feb 17, 2009 - 3:54 am 75. Marc Malone:

vivo – There IS a solution. God invented it. It’s called hunger. When your stomach gets empty enough, it touches your backbone and motivates you to action. the underclass is where it is, because Liberals have taken the edge off their hunger. They’ve been crippled by taking away their greatest asset – hunger.

Feb 17, 2009 - 2:04 pm