Quirky Wall Street Journal Says Firing Government Workers May Lead To Higher Unemployment!

We are sorry, but we do not know what has gotten into the formerly sensible Wall Street Journal. Just listen to this Communist nonsense! 

One reason the unemployment rate may have remained persistently high: The sharp cuts in state and local government spending in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and the layoffs those cuts wrought.

We are not buying it, Wall Street Journal! Everybody knows government jobs come at the expense of private-industry jobs, and that is why Mitt Romney said we should learn the lesson of Wisconsin and have fewer teachers before saying it was "absurd" that anyone would say he said we should have fewer teachers!

The Labor Department’s establishment survey of employers — the jobs count that it bases its payroll figures on — shows that the government has been steadily shedding workers since the crisis struck, with 586,000 fewer jobs than in December 2008. Friday’s employment report showed the cuts continued in April, with 15,000 government jobs lost.

But the survey of households that the unemployment rate is based on suggests the government job cuts have been much, much worse.

The Journal takes from this report the bizarre notion that if more people had jobs, unemployment would be lower.

The unemployment rate would be far lower if it hadn’t been for those cuts: If there were as many people working in government as there were in December 2008, the unemployment rate in April would have been 7.1%, not 8.1%.

We commend the GOP (and Barack Obama) for resisting this nonsense and making American government "leaner" and "more efficient," as always works so well at places like HP and the Times-Picayune. Now everyone go and kiss the hem of Rand Paul's robe, for He shall lead us from this desert, the end.

[ WSJ ]