Rep. John Culberson Sends Email With Federal Job Openings While Advocating For Smaller Government

WASHINGTON -- Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) frequently rails against government spending and the need for a smaller federal bureaucracy. Responding to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address in January, Culberson said, "The fact of the matter is that government can't create jobs like the private sector and government doesn't add value to the economy."

But in an email to his constituents about "job search resources," the two websites he highlighted were sites that focus on government and lobbying jobs.

In the email sent on Friday, Culberson wrote, "As your representative, I have worked to keep tax rates low and limit the size of government so businesses can grow and create jobs. With over 153 million people in our nation's labor force, we are a productive and hard-working country struggling through a turbulent economy."

"In an effort to help those of you who are looking for work, I have pulled together some resources that list a number of job vacancies in our area," he added.

The email then pointed constituents to two websites: USAJOBS -- The Federal Government's Official Jobs Site and Public Affairs Links, which describes itself as "the world's top website for careers in the lobbying industry."

"Additional listings are available on my website," continued Culberson, sending email readers to a page on his congressional site with links to the career pages of many local businesses.

The fact that Culberson chose to send an email highlighting his efforts to limit the size of the federal government on one hand, while advertising the need for individuals to fill federal vacancies and lobbying positions on the other, is at least an acknowledgment that public sector jobs are real jobs -- despite what other members of his party have asserted.

When asked about the choice of USAJOBS and Public Affairs Links, Culberson spokesperson Loree Thompson replied, "Congressman Culberson actually highlighted over 50 private sector job listing databases in the newsletter you are referring to. He did so with a link to our website toward the end of the letter. Due to Franking rules, we were only allowed to include government job listings in the actual email."

While Culberson's email described Public Affairs Links as a place where people can "subscribe to a email publication of government job listings," the site doesn't actually appear to list government jobs. Instead, it has openings for groups that lobby the government. For example, there's an ad for a director of public affairs and grassroots advocacy at the National Association of Manufacturers and another for a legislative and regulatory analyst at the American Insurance Association.

Thompson said via email that the Public Affairs Link was "approved by and coincides with all Congressional Franking rules."

"The purpose of the newsletter was simply to provide job opportunities for any of Congressman Culberson's constituents that may be looking for work during a time when, as you know, over 13 million Americans are unemployed," added Thompson.

In late August, a group of protesters gathered outside Culberson's Houston office to hold a mock funeral for high-wage jobs in Texas.

"My brothers and my sisters, we are assembled here today to mourn the passing of the jobs in Texas. Jobs died because of a steady influx of minimum-wage jobs, tax breaks for corporations and the super-rich, and the policies of politicians like Rep. John Culberson," said Rev. Louis Dorsey at the rally organized by Good Jobs = Great Houston.

Texas currently leads the nation in minimum-wage jobs.

State and local governments shed 200,000 jobs last year, according to the U.S. Census. Texas actually had the biggest gain in state workers from 2009 to 2010, seeing a 5.9 percent increase (17,800 full-time jobs). "Local governments in Texas also added the most part-time jobs of all cities, counties and towns, 24,731," reported Reuters.

Culberson's Email:

Comments

[Estrogenx]

03:42 PM on 09/14/2011

I don't know if American government jobs are as mindless as the Canadian ones seem to be. I was once hired when I was 19 to "measure" all the rooms in the airport, just in case the measurements changed from the last time they did their leases. Duh! My partner and I kept re-measuring all the airport lounges in the mornings to faciliate our breakfasts. I milked that gig for a record 6 months for sick money per hour. No complaints then, but now as a concerned tax payer I'd be pi$$ed to know such jobs were on the roster.

[ashenthorn]

10:10 AM on 09/13/2011

Please. Could anyone point to any time in history when under Republican rule, the size, scope or power of the federal government actually shrank? Republican oppostion to "big government" is strictly rhetorical and is a deliberate electoral strategy. When out of power, they make every effort to disrupt and weaken the effectiveness of the federal government and when voters understandably become frustrated, they run as the people that want to get rid of government. When they get in, they increase the size and power of the federal government, mostly under real or manufactured emergencies and crises. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[tosc]

09:34 AM on 09/13/2011

LOLOLOL...."we the people" ARE the government! That is democracy! How do you propose to shrink the population of U.S. citizens??

[AyeChart]

09:12 AM on 09/13/2011

1) Government jobs are government EXPENSES that add to the deficit.
2) Government jobs do not produce economic growth or increases in GDP.

The conclusion would be that they are detrimental, not beneficial.  Growing government is a bad idea.  The TEA Party has been right all along.

And as for "jobs training programs:"

Between 1961 and 1980, the feds spent tens of billions on federal job-training and employment programs. To what effect? A 1979 Washington Post investigation concluded, "Incredibly, the government has kept no meaningful statistics on the effectiveness of these programs—making the past 15 years' effort almost worthless in terms of learning what works." CETA hirees were often assigned to do whatever benefited the government agency or nonprofit that put them on the payroll, with no concern for the trainees' development. An Urban Institute study of the mid-1980s concluded that participation in CETA programs resulted in "significant earnings losses for young men of all races and no significant effects for young women."
After CETA became a laughingstock, Congress replaced it in 1982 with the Job Training Partnership Act. JTPA spent lavishly—to expand an Indiana circus museum, teach Washington taxi drivers to smile, provide foreign junkets for state and local politicians, and bankroll business relocations. According to the Labor Department's inspector general, young trainees were twice as likely to rely on food stamps after JTPA involvement than before since the "training" often included instructions on applying for an array of government benefits.
--wsj.com

Just what we need now.  Another government boondoggle designed to employ government workers and make THEM feel good and give them trips overseas to study how other countries "create jobs."

[Kyle Edwards]

09:24 AM on 09/13/2011

You can always send your money back and refuse benefits the evil government gives you.

[Eagleman]

09:06 AM on 09/13/2011

Government jobs are like unemployment benefits for life... With special lazy bum perks

[miketothad]

10:56 AM on 09/13/2011

"Conservative" base legislative intelligence is like gossip for votes... With special "screw your own family" perks.

[Social Construct]

08:17 AM on 09/13/2011

Texas Republicans: Laughing at the least fortunate since 2000.

Probably before.

[AyeChart]

09:14 AM on 09/13/2011

Left-wing radicals:  Laughing at conservatives since 1917...

[sharin]

09:48 AM on 09/13/2011

and rightly so

[thegreenhornet]

08:06 AM on 09/13/2011

Of course government jobs are jobs. They are not "manufacturing jobs" but that is not what defines a job. The only difference between government jobs and non-government jobs is the impact on the multiplier effect under Keynsian economics. Private jobs multiply the spending by a factor of 5 and public jobs by a factor of 4 when calculating the impact on GNP.

[chronic]

05:18 AM on 09/13/2011

Typical.

[Unca Allen]

01:52 AM on 09/13/2011

I am a retired air traffic controller. I had a government job; I served 25 years. I did not strike in 1981, when Reagan fired 90% of the controllers. I stayed on; in my time, less than 1 % of the population could do an air traffic controller's job. For all of you who think government jobs are a piece of cake, I invite you to try to become an air traffic controller. I saved thousands of lives. I have directed pilots who thought they could beat the odds...to safety. I recieved one thank you in my career, and during the entire time, my government worked assiduously to reduce my pay and benefits. If I had been a nuclear physicist, they would have raised me and extended my benefits...because they wouldn't understand what I was doing. Guess what? They didn't understand what I was doing anyway. It takes seven years of intensive training to become an air traffic controller. The attrition rate is 90%, and that's after I was selected, one of eighteen out of 680. No, you can't lump me under the pejorative of "lazy government employees." Without me, you can't fly. Government tried to contrast us with pilots, who made three times our salary...allowed to fly only 40 hours a month...for safety reasons. We worked 160 hours a month and more. These pilots would take off, set the automatic pilot, and sleep until their destination. We were watching...

[Jim Pasterczyk]

03:29 AM on 09/13/2011

The GOP first promotes, then feeds upon, the vast public's ignorance of just what the government actually does.

[GloriaY]

01:38 AM on 09/13/2011

Please clarify for me. Does Rep Culberson work for himself or for a private firm, or a corporation? Does he receive a US taxpayer funded government pay check, receive US taxpayer funded government health care coverage for himself and his family, and will he receive a US taxpayer funded government pension when ever ho is out of office? If he believes in smaller government, he should be one of the first to walk away from all of these ENTITLEMENTS, his housing allowance and everything else.

[whyus]

01:16 AM on 09/13/2011

Republicans = hypocrisy & avarice

And visa versa

[AyeChart]

09:18 AM on 09/13/2011

Which surely explains why GE paid no taxes and Jeffrey Immelt is sending jobs overseas...oh, wait, he's a Democrat, isn't he?

[sharin]

09:50 AM on 09/13/2011

immelt is a republican
and GE is just one of many corporations that pay no taxes

[sharin]

09:51 AM on 09/13/2011

you are obviously anti-government..... yet you are military - pure government
so which is it? government=bad or government=good?

[icon22]

12:20 AM on 09/13/2011

Government workers make more money and recieve better benefits than most people who work in the private sector. The Democrats seem to think that everybody in the private sector is an evil, rich, capitalist and in order to even out the playing field, they create these high paying and mostly un-neccessary, government jobs. What they're really doing is hurting the hard working middle class workers, who have to foot the bill for these government workers, who produce nothing and suck the life out of the American economy.

[FL TallMan]

12:44 AM on 09/13/2011

It would be interesting to learn where you get your information that " Democrats seem to think that everybody . . ." I suppose you think that all those "high paying and mostly un-neccess­ary, government jobs" were created by Obama since he was elected and never existed under any GOP president.

Such generalized and painfully inaccurate statements tend to discredit your entire post making what you have posted a massive waste of time.

[MashUser]

01:01 AM on 09/13/2011

Where were you from 1995 to 2002? Probably laughing at Federal workers for making SO LITTLE money, with no upside to the careers. Hypocrisy bites.

[CroatianCritter]

11:20 PM on 09/12/2011

Are government jobs real jobs? YES!
Does government have to tax to create jobs? YES!
Is the amount of money needed to create jobs by the government affecting the private sector hiring? YES, BECAUSE TAXES ELIMINATE WEALTH!
Would a simple tax on rich people's investments be the best way for the government to raise money? YES!
Should we cut the corporate tax? YES AS WELL AS CREATE A LAW BANNING THEM FROM LOBBYING!
Will this happen? NO!
What can we do? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. OUR ELECTED LEADERS ARE ALL FAILURES.
Do we have hope? ARE YOU A POSITIVE THINKER OR RELIGIOUS INDIVIDUAL? THESE ARE THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE THAT THIS ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS NOT GOING TO CRASH DOWN AND COLLAPSE ON ITSELF. THE AMERICAN EMPIRE IS DONE!

[MashUser]

01:03 AM on 09/13/2011

Govt does not HAVE TO TAX to create jobs. There are numerous agencies that are self-sustaining through a fee-for-service model and no I'm not referring to the USPS in it's current business model.

If you're wrong on such a simple fact, how can your opinions hold any weight?

[AyeChart]

09:43 AM on 09/13/2011

Real jobs does not equate to BENEFICIAL jobs for the economy.
Taking more money out of the private sector (no matter how it's done) is not going to benefit the private sector.
Corporate taxes are taxes on PEOPLE, not upon big brick or concrete buildings.  It's just government's way of TAXING YOU and making you think they are taxing an inanimate object.

[MauricioC]

11:15 PM on 09/12/2011

I don't know, Culbertson, why don't you try asking those firefighters you have trying to put out those huge flames without any support.

[eddw88]

10:55 PM on 09/12/2011

Well the GOP doesn’t believe that its constituents are smart enough to figure things out. So, GOP is bold enough to say anything and its constituents will believe it.