Labor Dept Report Points to Crisis of Confidence

We have a crisis of confidence. The crisis of confidence is not only felt by the consumer but also by business executives. The ones making hiring and firing decisions are uncertain on how to proceed. The dismal jobs numbers from the Friday Labor Department report of August statistics is proof of the existing crisis.

The jobs report was the worst in a year.

The Labor Department released its August jobs report and the news was dismal, to understate it. For the first time since 1945 no new jobs were created. Zero. Doesn't get much worse than that. But wait, there's more - the last two month's jobs growth reports were revised down by thousands. This has definitely not been a summer of recovery, as last summer was dubbed. It also was not.

There is no doubt that the fruits of the stimulus plan put into place in Barack Obama's first year in office has now failed miserably. The money accepted by companies and states to hire and make payrolls has run out and now everyone is back to where everything was a year ago. The outlook is not bright with items from the President's anticipated speech coming forth - more stimulus money and more of the same.

President Obama headed off to Camp David for the Labor Day weekend - ironic, yes - without a peep to the press about the report findings. For the past few weeks he has been out in front of the jobs reports with attempts of silver lings and blaming Republicans for the nation's economic woes. So today's silent treatment from the President was a change of pace.

Maybe Team Obama is trying to downplay the high expectations they have promoted over the upcoming speech on job creation next week to be delivered before a joint session of Congress by President Obama. My playing coy about the plan, by going off to vacation on Martha's Vineyard and golfing for ten days as the jobs situation continued to spiral down, by repeating he would deliver a plan, he has built up unrealistic expectations. A run of the mill speech before Congress offering no specific actions, only vague 'hopes' and criticism of Republicans again will further produce a disgruntled public.

Though the Obama campaign strategy is to paint the GOP as the meanies who will not jump on the Obama economic train to nowhere, even DNC Chairwoman Rep Debbie Wasserman-Schultz admits that the Democrats "own" the economy.

We own the economy. We own the beginning of the turnaround and we want to make sure that we continue that pace of recovery, not go back to the policies of the past under the Bush administration that put us in the ditch in the first place,” Wasserman Schultz told Mike Allen at POLITICO’s ‘Playbook Breakfast.’

The economy, she said, “has turned around” since President Obama took office, with steady job growth evident even if the pace leaves something to be desired.

Speaker Boehner will deliver his own speech on job creation on September 15 at the Economic Club of Washington. It is noted that this is the same venue where Boehner spoke of the conditions necessary for his vote to raise the debt ceiling in May.

The fear of a double dip recession is real now. The economy is stagnate.

Maybe there is one bright note - Obama has asked the EPA to ease off its unrealistic air quality requirements until after the election in 2012. Convenient for him, sure, but still a bit of good news for companies who were facing the added expense of meeting unnecessary mandates.

Obama today said that he would oppose the regulations “at this time.” He went on to explain: “Work is already underway to update a 2006 review of the science that will result in the reconsideration of the ozone standard in 2013.” In other words, Obama still plans to pursue this disastrous regulation, but not until after the next election.

The dismal jobs report was just too much writing on the wall, it would appear.

“When someone finds himself trapped into a hole, the first step to getting out is to quit digging. On a day when the nation’s ghastly jobs picture has been captured in stark detail, President Obama’s withdrawal of the EPA’s draconian, costly, and unnecessary new ozone standard is a rare bit of good news.

“By the EPA’s own admission, the proposed ozone standard would have imposed costs as much as $90 billion – making it the most expensive environmental regulation to date. Organized labor, the business community, leading scientists, many states, and members of Congress from both parties sharply oppose this rule.

“Though this single action is welcome, Washington, D.C.'s, unelected federal bureaucrats continue to unleash an avalanche of more than 4,000 other job-killing rules that would undermine the nation’s electric power supply, increase energy prices, and send U.S. business and jobs to other countries. Most notably, the EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule still threatens the stability of the Texas electricity grid next year.