The O’Malley/Brown job creation narrative took another hit last week as it was announced Maryland lost the third-highest number of jobs in the country, with a decline of 6,200 jobs in April. Sadly for President Obama and his steadfast ally in Government House, the announcement came on the same day Obama was touting his record of job creation – a real “inconvenient truth.”
And wouldn’t you know it, Change Maryland and its founder Larry Hogan – which much to the chagrin of Martin O’Malley and his heir apparent Anthony Brown is adding social media followers at a faster pace than O’Malley is creating good-paying jobs – had to point this out:
The President has had a rough week. Visiting Maryland to tout job creation on the same day a report shows Maryland lost the third highest number of jobs in the country is just another stroke of bad luck for this President…(b)ut it is tragic for Maryland’s struggling middle class families.
After nearly seven years of failed economic policies, it has become crystal clear that the O’Malley-Brown Administration just does not get it when it comes to jobs. Year after year, their jobs, jobs, jobs rhetoric is simply that – rhetoric. But their record stands in stark contrast. The fact of the matter is when it comes to jobs, our increased reliance on government to create jobs has left Maryland’s economy vulnerable to the ever changing political winds in Washington.
Now it’s not like I haven’t featured helpful suggestions in this space – some mine, some by others – to help relieve the state of its over-reliance on the “industry” we call the federal government, but so far they’ve fallen on deaf ears. Two of my favorites are energy extraction and Anirban Basu’s idea of eliminating state corporate taxes – a thought that probably brings Annapolis liberals to the verge of a coronary or a stroke.
What seems to go unrealized in this day and age of shrinking paychecks, stunted home values, and millions collecting checks from Uncle Sam without the production one would normally associate with “earning” a salary is that every dollar the public sector takes from a participant in the private-sector economy is a dollar the average Joe can’t direct to the highest and best use of the market. If Joe Sixpack wants to invest in home improvement but can’t because his property tax bill went up thanks to an EPA mandate to clean up Chesapeake Bay – even if our state didn’t create the largest share of the problem and other remedies go untried – that’s going to affect the home improvement supplier, which may lay off a worker or two and throw their financial world into a tailspin. Granted, a measly $100 or so won’t do that by itself but those hundreds turn into thousands and thousands into millions. Even if Jill Sixpack simply couldn’t afford the morning latte because the tax bill increased it eventually affects jobs in this consumer sending-driven economy.
Martin O’Malley and Anthony Brown would have you believe that Maryland is a thriving state under their policies, and that the Free State weathered the recession better than its peers. Perhaps it did, but if losing 6,200 jobs qualifies as a recovery I would hate to see what a recession looks like.
As a former citizen (indeed, a product of Southern Maryland!), this and it’s primarily democratic cronies have run this beautiful state into ruin. The very citizens who built the communities are being driven out by the never-ending taxes levied by the state and counties. At the same time, millions are being spent to provide illegal immigrants with services from a state-of-the-art day labor center & HQ to education. Mr. O’Malley refuses to call them illegals…he prefers the moniker ‘new citizens’. So, by this reasoning, is a burglar now just an ‘uninvited guest’?
The people on the coast have to try to support themselves with the tourism income, while still pouring more dollars into the government taxes. How do you think that new fuel tax is going to affect tourism?
The agricultural communities, especially west of DC, are pretty much ignored except for an occasional campaign stop when elections are near. The new (and totally UNNECESSARY) gun laws are going to send Beretta out of the state. This is a business that has supported generations of people with steady work. And did you hear about the proposed tax on rainwater run-off? It will be interesting to see how that works out.
The saddest part of this whole debacle is that citizens continue to vote the same people into office over and over again…for decades. Hoyer & Mikulski have been in office nearly their entires adult lives. So what, they get out when they die? Wake up people, stop perpetuating your own financial demise.
signed, a former Marylander