GOP Chairman - Only private employment counts as a "job"

[erik_t]

Can't make this shit up, folks. I'm generally not a huge fan of Stephanopoulos, but he did just fine here.

TEELE: You’ve got to look at what’s going to create sustainable jobs. What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that’s a job.

STEELE: No, it’s not a job. A job is something that — that a business owner creates. It’s going to be long term. What he’s creating...

STEPHANOPOULOS: So a job doesn’t count if it’s a government job?

(CROSSTALK)

STEELE: Hold on. No, let me — let me — let me finish. That is a contract. It ends at a certain point, George. You know that. These road projects that we’re talking about have an end point.

As a small-business owner, I’m looking to grow my business, expand my business. I want to reach further. I want to be international. I want to be national. It’s a whole different perspective on how you create a job versus how you create work. And I’m — either way, the bottom line is...

STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess I don’t really understand that distinction.

STEELE: Well, the difference — the distinction is this. If a government — if you’ve got a government contract that is a fixed period of time, it goes away. The work may go away. That’s — there’s no guarantee that that — that there’s going to be more work when you’re done in that job.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, but we’ve seen millions and millions of jobs going away in the private sector just in the last year.

STEELE: But they come — yes, they — and they come back, though, George. That’s the point. When they go — they’ve gone away before, and they come back.

IP helpfully points out that there are plenty of economies that have gone south and haven't come back. It's truly approaching a GOP article of faith that private industry jobs are intrinsically different from government jobs.

(linkage)

[KrauserKrauser]

Well as a product of a Navy Commander and a 33 year Navy civilian contractor, this guy put his foot way past his mouth and it is currently sticking out of his ass.

I can see the relevance of objecting to make-work funding that may or may not be present in the stimulus bill, but going so far as to say government jobs are not known for their stability is, well, stupid. I know I can get a government job and there is a lower likelihood that I will be downsized or fired, so I don't really know what this guy is talking about.

[andrewgpaul]

I think, under the bullshit, he's saying that a fixed-term contract is less secure than a career for life. Fair enough. Of course, he then seems to be saying all government employment is the former, while all private employment is the latter. Which is nonsense.

[erik_t]

Never mind that there's apparently no utility in having people employed anything less than indefinitely. It's either short-term contract labor and therefore utterly worthless, or it's magical private sector labor that can, will and must recover from any arbitrary downturn in business.

I wonder what the fine folks at British Leyland think about that.

[Solauren]

The guy needs a proverbal swift-shot to the head with a government union contract copy.

Some government work is temporary. The contract offer even says it. However, alot of government work is permanent.

Even in infrastructure creation / support. Hell, especially in that.

After all, in addition to being created, these things need to be maintained.

The only reason alot of infrastructure jobs in the US are 'temporary' is because the previous Republican administrations were cutting them back! (No doubt the Democracts did some infrastructure cutting, but the Republicans, as been discussed on this board, are the major cutters here).

The current 'create government' construction jobs approach is designed to reverse that, give people jobs (even short term ones), and fix our dying infrastructure.

Why can't this idiot see that?

Will all the new jobs be permanent? Probably not. It generally takes less people to maintain something then to create it.

However, the permanent jobs will still go to people, and the people on temporary jobs at least got paid for a while, knew their jobs was temporary, and now have a good reference on their resume.

"I want my business to grow!" guy is just being a short sighted, selfish, bastard.

[Chris OFarrell]

So the GOP Chairman as a Government worker is actually unemployed?

Go get a job Hippy!

[Illuminatus Primus]

So the GOP Chairman as a Government worker is actually unemployed?

Go get a job Hippy!

What are you talking about? The GOP Chairman is not a government employee.

[Chris OFarrell]

*hits head*

My bad, for some crazy reason I thought he was the GOP senate leader. Disregard!

Still nice to see what respect he has for his fellow Republitards in the public service, and the fact that his organizations very existance is about *getting* people in to work for the Government...

[KrauserKrauser]

*hits head*

My bad, for some crazy reason I thought he was the GOP senate leader. Disregard!

Still nice to see what respect he has for his fellow Republitards in the public service, and the fact that his organizations very existance is about *getting* people in to work for the Government...

That's......stretching, quite a bit. His organization's purpose is getting people into elected office, which is a far cry from normal government employment. You're reaching for straws and coming up short.

There are a ton of arguments that can be made in response to that statement, you've chosen poorly.

[Stark]

Is the issue here that going from short-term contract to short-term contract doesn't have much security (since there's an 'endpoint) and thus doesn't count as a real job? In IT plenty of people don't have jobs under this definition, and I'm certain other industries work the same way.

[General Zod]

Is the issue here that going from short-term contract to short-term contract doesn't have much security (since there's an 'endpoint) and thus doesn't count as a real job? In IT plenty of people don't have jobs under this definition, and I'm certain other industries work the same way.

Construction is the one big industry that comes to mind that works precisely the way this Republitard chucklehead is dismissing as not a real job.

[Stark]

Amusingly that's the very industry they're talking about in the quote! Dear me.

[LMSx]

Shouldn't Steele be delighted that any government jobs are temporary? Then in 2012 or whenever we're fully out of this the government sheds a ton of jobs into a private sector that presumably is expanding at a healthy rate again, and needs private employees.

Well, to be fair he'd be blasting the stimulus bill as a bureaucratic steroid if it generated permanent jobs, too. The only real solution is tax cuts for the rich!

[General Zod]

Amusingly that's the very industry they're talking about in the quote! Dear me.

I don't really tend to equate "road projects" with "construction". I tend to think more along the lines of office buildings and skyscrapers, but whatever.

[Kanastrous]

I have not worked any position within the last fifteen years that lasted for more than about sixteen months.

Guess I haven't had a job, in all that time.

[Rahvin]

I'm currently a contract worker for a private firm. Apparently I don't have a job either. Can I get unemployment benefits? I could use the money to pay for health insurance.

The whole point of these infrastructure projects is to give people temporary work. The intent was never to make the employment portion a long-term solution - it's meant to put unemployed people to work until the economy recovers and they can get jobs more easily, and to update our infrastructure, which needs to be done anyway.

I don't understand how people can pretend that unemployment is "better" than infrastructure projects. I mean, we're talking about either putting people to work and getting some benefit to society while giving people money to reinject into the economy and feed their families, and the alternative is handing out free money through unemployment insurance and welfare and getting nothing out of it with all of the additional problems that an idle workforce brings like crime.

I mean, I suppose we could just let people die, too. Everybody knows that unemployment is solely caused by people who don't "try hard enough," right? And lazy people deserve to starve. Right?

[Oni Koneko Damien]

So I guess every temp-agency in the US, pretty much the largest and best available springboard for full-time employment for unskilled/low-skilled workers, do not offer actual jobs. Can we sue them for fraud based on this?

[Knife]

So if the business aristocracy can't get money through tax cuts or straight out bailouts, they want the stimulus through only giving them the stimulus and allowing them how best to dole out the cash to the plebes? Yeah, great plan GOP.