Governors and Unemployment

                    The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is that we must elect fiscally-conservative governors if we want more jobs and lower unemployment in our states.  The data shows that governors can greatly affect the rate of unemployment in their states by the policies they establish.

 The 17 states that elected new Republican governors in November 2010 have experienced a decline in their unemployment rates since January 2011.  The 17 states are:  Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

                    Robert Elliott of the Orlando Political Buzz Examiner wrote:  "Every single one of these 17 states has seen its unemployment rate decline since January 2011.  Three of them have had unemployment drop by more than 2% (Michigan, Florida, and Nevada).  The average drop in the unemployment rate in these states was 1.35%.  For a comparison, in January 2011 the U.S. national unemployment rate stood at 9.1%.  It is currently 8.2%, meaning that the national unemployment rate has declined by just 0.9% since then.  Based on these percentages, it can be said that the job market in states with new Republican governors is improving a full 50% faster than the job market nationally."

                    The eight states that elected new Democratic governors in 2010 have not fared so well.  These eight states are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, and Vermont. 

                    Elliott wrote:  "The average drop in the unemployment rate in these states was 0.95%, approximately the same as the drop seen nationally. It's interesting to note than one of these states (New York) has actually experienced an increase in its unemployment rate since January 2011.

                    "Based on this data, it appears that the policies being implemented at the state level by newly elected Republican governors are having a positive impact in terms of job creation."

                   

Freedom to Work

The topic of discussion for this Freedom Friday is the freedom to work. Unemployment has hovered around ten percent for too long. Millions of Americans continue to look for work, and their unemployment checks are nearing their end. The recession that was officially over in June 2009 continues to plague our nation because businesses are not hiring.

The Obama Administration and Congress have over-regulated our business community to the point that they don’t dare to hire or increase their business spending. Labor unions have become too powerful and demanding. People who are receiving unemployment checks for not working do not want to take jobs that would pay less money than they get from the government. Entitlement programs are depleting government funds. This all describes the conditions in our nation during the Carter Administration as well as at the present time.

Ronald Reagan was a ray of light after a very dark time. He said, “We hear much of special interest groups. Our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political party lines. It is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and our factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when we are sick – professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truck drivers. They are in short, `We the people,’ this breed called Americans. Well, this administration’s objective will be a healthy, vigorous, growing economy that provides equal opportunity for all Americans, with no barriers born of bigotry or discrimination. Putting America back to work means putting all Americans back to work. …All must share in the productive work of this `new beginning’ and all must share in the bounty of a revived economy. With the idealism and fair play which are the core of our system and our strength, we can have a strong and prosperous America at peace with itself and the world.”

Improvement in our economy and the freedom to work must be a “top down” condition. Until the leaders of our nation start running our nation as a successful business is run, the economy will continue to stagger, unemployment will remain high, and workers will not have the freedom to work.