Reflections on Two Issues - Jobs and Taxes

The May jobs numbers are in - the stunning Obama recovery created 54,000 new jobs - about half of what is necessary to just break even.  But the numbers are even a bit worse.  In early May McDonalds ended up hiring 62,000 people on their "hiring day" if all those numbers are included in the May figure that means the recovery produced a net negative job growth of 8000.   One of the President's cheerleaders, Ron Blackwell the chief economist of the AFL-CIO beamed ""Basically, this is what economic stagnation feels like."

The share of the 13 plus million people who are out of work that have been in that condition for more than six months amounts to 45.1%.   Mr. Blackwell may be a bit of a Pollyanna.

A recent Gallup Poll highlights the partisan divide on the issue of redistributing wealth.  By huge margins, democrats believe in using government to redistribute wealth and by almost similar margins republicans do not believe in redistribution.   The independents split slightly (53-43) against redistribution.  That means the total electorate is slightly against (by 2%) against redistribution.