In Mississippi, the Republican governor is using federal stimulus money to pay private employers to hire people.
This rather novel approach is somehow different than having the government hire people directly, which most economists agree is the most cost-effective way to do something about unemployment.
Here’s how current Know Nothing Philosophy works:
1) When the private sector receives a government subsidy, that’s supporting the free market and “welfare to work”. The Republican governor hopes the government subsidy program will continue beyond its expiration date.
2) When the government hires workers directly to do the same jobs, the same Republican governor says that’s “a dog chasing its tail”.
Astonishingly, regardless of who hires them, the workers have jobs, they pay taxes, they pay mortgages, and they have a future.
No matter how the Republican governor slices it up, the federal government is providing the money that makes the hiring possible.
That’s what was done in the 1930s via a program called the Works Progress Administration.
Of course, Republicans then thought that government paying people to work was the first step down the road to socialism.
Now, socialism’s ok so long as nobody notices and the capitalists get paid.
Oh yes, the Republican governor who’s using stimulus money used to be Chairman of the same Republican party that voted against the stimulus package.
Happy they are not to lead, while taking credit for something they opposed.
Couldn’t such a thing of hypocritical beauty be tried on a bipartisan basis and on a much larger scale in Washington’s new “jobs” bill, rather than another round of pointless, wasteful tax credits?
Gorilla says: “Remember: The Know Nothing Party was against the WPA before they were for it!”
