Posted on 07/20/2009 5:42:18 AM PDT by FreeManDC
Its no secret that men have been hit hard by the recession. From November 2007 to November 2008, the U.S. economy lost over 2 million jobs 82% of those losses were male jobs and only 18% female jobs. The reason is because men are concentrated in the sectors devastated by the downturn: manufacturing and construction.
This employment gap prompted University of Michigan economist Mark Perry to dub the downturn a man-cession in the lipstick economy.
So in his Inauguration speech, Barack Obama glowingly promised, We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.
Within days, the newly-installed president unveiled his stimulus proposal, vowing it would create millions of shovel-ready jobs. And on February 17, Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.
That would get men back on the job and ready to rebuild the nations infrastructure, persons assumed. And if you visit the governments ARRA website www.recovery.gov youll see upbeat pictures of hard-hatted carpenters, energy-efficient courthouses, and gleaming hospitals.
But following passage of ARRA, unemployment continued to rise and the gender gap worsened. By May of this year, 10.5% of men, compared to eight percent of women, filled the ranks of the unemployed. Thats the worst gender gap reported since 1948.
So where did the $787 billion economic stimulus package go wrong?
Part of the problem is the crass influence of pay-back politics. According to a July 8 USA Today report, counties that supported Obama in the November election received $69 per person, compared to $34 per capita in counties that voted Republican.
Another reason is the hefty outlay of stimulus money to state governments at the expense of local groups. You dont fertilize a tree from the top down, quipped Democratic senator Tom Harkin of Iowa. Too much of this is going to the top.
But far worse is the fact that the Obama Administration sold out to the feminists. Christina Hoff Sommers recent exposé, No Country for Burly Men, offers a stunning account of the legislative transmogrification: www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/659dkrod.asp
As soon as Obama released his stimulus proposal, the National Organization for Women and other feminist groups swung into action. They knew the head of Obamas Council of Economic Advisors, Lawrence Summers, would be a push-over following the putsch at Harvard University.
So following a flurry of closed-door meetings, emails, petitions, and op-ed columns that derided Obamas Macho Stimulus Plan, the White House staff set out to revamp the proposal. They released a report assuring that 42% of all jobs would go for females, openly admitting the new approach skews job creation somewhat towards women.
When the final bill was signed into law, the feminists were ecstatic. NOW president Kim Gandy exulted how the law contained many of the very specific proposals that we had made with price tags carrying numbers that started with a B (as in billion). And $325 million was allocated for family-busting domestic violence programs.
Less than four months later the Associated Press would report, Most of the roughly $300 billion coming directly to the states is being funneled through existing government programs for health care, education, unemployment benefits, food stamps and other social services. In Georgia, two-thirds of the state governments stimulus money would pay social programs. In Mississippi, only 13% of the stimulus money is projected to go for road construction, according to the AP.
We talked about shovel-ready since September and assumed it was a whole lot of paving and building when, in fact, thats not the case, complained Chris Whatley of the Council of State Governments.
The irony is the male vote was a decisive factor in Obamas improbable quest to reach the White House. During the primary campaign, the white male vote propelled Obama to victory in 10 out of 17 states: www.renewamerica.us/columns/roberts/080624 . And last Nov. 4, males again played a crucial role, with 49% of men casting their vote for Obama, compared to 48% siding with McCain.
Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly believes the goal of the reverse discrimination that lards Obamas stimulus plan is to make men, husbands, and fathers irrelevant as family providers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 7.5 million American males are now listed on the unemployment rolls. Thats a lot of irrelevant men.
Id like to see it further broken down upon racial lines.
Already done - The key word in the title is "WORKING."
You already know what it looks like.
As I took immense satisfaction in chirping merrily to the more obnoxious of the two just yesterday, upon hearing her sniveled tale of woe after running into her at the grocery store: “HOPEY CHANGEMAS!!!” ;)
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You are insufferably cruel! Why didn’t you add, “And a Cappy new trade”? No, wait, I want to be the first to do that.
Those people are continuing to work without a paycheck?
Since when is anybody entitled to a job????
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Did someone say they were?
DearLeader is ENTITLED to his job and all the perks he WON. doncha know? /sarc
No, it ain’t about none o’ them unicorns er rainbows er nothin’ fallin’ from the sky Doc! Heer’s whut it tis jist like ol’ Merle done told it nigh onto thirty year ago. Jist hit this heer link an’ he’ll set you strate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9cVxOl9gYI
“DearLeader is ENTITLED to his job and all the perks he WON. doncha know?”
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Well, uh, yes, of course if it’s DearLeader we’re talking about, uh, well, uh, that’s different isn’t it? DearLeader is definitely entitled to anything and everything, absolutely, yes most assuredly, sorry sir, I certainly didn’t mean to step out of line, please forgive me.
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