Posted 12/6/2009

DEFICIT BALLOONING JOBS

The latest hot air oozing out of Washington is about jobs.

Some of President Obama’s "Czars" are claiming the country would be better off if more government jobs were created with the money used to pay contractors.

Sounds good if you're a socialist and prefer public jobs over private jobs.

But there's a big catch.

Government jobs expand the deficit while private jobs shrink the deficit.

Here's the fifth-grade arithmetic. Assume each job pays $40,000 and collects $8,000 in federal income taxes:

The $40,000 government job adds $32,000 to the deficit. ($40,000 minus the $8,000 returned to Uncle Sam in income tax.)

The $40,000 private job subtracts $8,000 from the deficit. (The income tax.)

Another way to look at it:

To be deficit-neutral, the economy would have to create four private jobs to pay for just one government job. (Divide $32,000 by $8,000.)

Fifth-grade arithmetic shows the folly of converting private jobs into government jobs.

Are you smarter than a fifth grader?

Is the Obama administration?

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