A different approach

A different approach

Lima News: Recent figures showing unemployment nationally at 10.2 percent suggest those who proclaimed the end of the recession when GDP rose 3.5 percent during the third quarter were more than a little premature. Is a “jobless recovery” really a recovery?

President Barack Obamas response was particularly lame. He crowed that Congress had just passed a bill extending unemployment benefits and not only extending tax credits for first-time homebuyers but adding a credit for people who have owned a house for five years to “move up” to a more expensive house.

Extending unemployment benefits may ease some of the pain of unemployment, which makes it sound more than good here in high-unemployment Ohio, but it doesn’t create a single new job (and may even be a slight deterrent to job creation).

A sensible approach would include setting aside efforts to pass government-dominated health care reform and climate-change legislation, both of which are job-killers, followed by permanent tax cuts.

But don’t hold your breath.