Jerbs
By Mitch Berg
It’s been one of the left’s counter-tacks both in St. Paul and DC this past few months; they get that knowing, smug little curl in their lips (you can see it even if they’re writing on Twitter or a blog) and that semi-animated look that says both “Ooh, I have a chanting point that is just going to Pwn3 you!” and, almost inevitably, they are about to get rhetorically shredded (although they never know that in advance. Never, ever) and titter “Oh, yeah, GOP? So where are the jerbs?”
To which one responds “What jobs do you want? A bunch of government jobs – perhaps those “shovel-ready” “infrastructure” jobs that The One was yapping about two years ago? Which were at best glorified temp jobs designed to buff up union dues collections, and at worst just more money to be spent after being extorted from the private sector or the private sector’s grandchildren, to help the government pick the desired winners and losers?”
Which generally makes them pause a moment, and repeat “where are the jerbs?”
“You want jobs…er, “jerbs”? Deregulate large swathes of our economy; the energy sector, for starters, if you wanna make the whole western half of this country and the Gulf Coast perform like North Dakota. That’d put hundreds of thousands of Americans back to work and, more importantly, do something no government “jerb” has ever done; create new weatlh, make a bigger pie for us all to split”.
The usual response, after a slack-jawed moment or two, is “your ugly”, including the spoken bad punctuation (don’t ask me how, they just do it), but every once in a while you get one who just sits with that vegan deer in the headlights look.
I take pity on them. “Government can create “jerbs” by deregulating industries”.
“Hah!”, they respond. “I told you government could create jerbs!”
It’d be a worthwhile trade.
August 10th, 2011 at 10:13 am
Joe Biden: A three letter word “jerbs”.
August 10th, 2011 at 10:42 am
Mitch, be honest: the only reason North Dakota is doing as well as its doing is because it is too small and too environmentally boring (you can see from one end of the state to another on a good day) to attract liberal green attention and that’s why its energy production grew so rapidly and without government interference.
Of course, now that it’s going gangbusters Reagan will be proven right about a Democratic government:”Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
August 10th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
OMG!! I took one look at that title and INSTANTLY thought of this:
http://www.homestarrunner.com/cantsayjob.html
August 10th, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Good jerb, Bill.
August 10th, 2011 at 9:17 pm
Maybe the GOP could borrow the President’s idea and insist that thousands of jobs have been saved by the various spending cuts to government. It sounds good and is completely unprovable!
August 10th, 2011 at 10:01 pm
That’s the new Dem talking point. None of the GOP presidential contenders has a “jobs program”. It’s hilarious. To a democrat, a growing economy does not create jobs, only government programs designed by democrats create jobs.