Wait ... Didn't Michael Steele Just Say My Parents Never Had Jobs?

My mother and father were teachers. My father worked his way up and eventually ran a community college. My mother was paid by the county and my father was paid by the state. So, according to the head of the Republican Party, they never had "jobs."

Here's what Michael Steele told George Stephanopoulos yesterday:

STEELE: You've got to look at what's going to create sustainable jobs. What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work. What this administration is talking about is making work. It is creating work.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But that's a job.

STEELE: No, it's not a job. A job is something that -- that a business owner creates.

Somebody's going to have to break it to my parents that they they've never had a job - not even back in the 1940's. While they went to college my father worked nights in a shipyard as a welder while my mother picked up cigarette butts in the parking lot of a defense plant.

I guess those weren't jobs either, because both of them were funded by government contracts. Then my Dad joined the service. That was government "work," too. I wonder if Michael Steele wants to break it to these two people that they didn't really have sixty years of productive service to society. (And, well into their eighties, they're not done yet.)

While he's at it, he could also talk to my childhood friend Billy. Bill and I had a rock and roll band together when we were teenagers. His Dad used to like to have a few beers and then sit around with us, hammering away at the guitar and singing "I'm going to Chicago, but I won't take you ..." Mr. M was a good guy. He worked thirty years for the Thruway, dealing with accident scenes. Sometimes he'd tell us the grisly details.

Well, Mr. M never had a job either, as it turns out. The Thruway Authority's a government agency. That means we'll have to tell Bill the bad news about his late father. Last time I saw him he told me he works for the county now (Bill, not his Dad), inspecting sewers and that sort of thing. It's a decent job, he said ... oh, wait. That's right: It's not a job.

Who knew? Before Michael Steele and the Republicans, that is ...

This isn't about playing "gotcha" with some obstructionists. Well, okay, maybe it is a little ... But mostly it's about the economic ignorance, real or feigned, underlying most GOP objections to this stimulus package. Steele seem like an intelligent man. I honestly don't know if he and the other Republicans really believe what they're saying, or if they've just made a tactical decision to oppose the stimulus and then hope it fails. It's starting to look like it's the latter.

Either way, the rest of the Steele interview illustrates a level of confusion that makes his problem with the word "jobs" seem minor. He talks, for example, about "correcting those rules in the markets that have hindered and frustrated the banking process, that have lent itself to drying up the credit markets as we see them."

No, Mr. Steele. There has been a lack of rules in the market - one that led to too much credit being extended in irresponsible ways. Then the money was all gone. And then we got in trouble.

And it gets worse. Steele asks: "How does -- how does -- I mean, I'm all for Pell Grants, but how does a Pell Grant, increasing funding for Pell Grant get me a job when I just lost mine?"

Here's how, Mr. Steele: A Pell Grant provides funding for someone to get a college education. More students can go to college, which provides more jobs to teachers. And the businesses that serve the college community make more money, so they can hire more people. Then, after the student gets a degree, they can get a job and earn a better income. That means they spend more. So businesses make more more money then, too, and then they can hire more people.

Like the guy with the cellphone says: Can you hear me now?

We're going to be hearing a lot more of this kind of obstructionist talk in the next few days and weeks, so here's what's worth passing on to politically noncommitted friends and relatives: Government-funded jobs are real jobs. They're jobs for cops, firefighters, construction workers ... all sorts of folks. And Steele's not the only one playing games.

Now, people like Billy's father and my parents weren't big political donors. They didn't have that kind of money. But they had good jobs - government jobs. Yes, some of the jobs in this stimulus package will "go away" when contracts end, just like my parents' first jobs did in the forties. But they worked their way through college on those jobs. So will some of the people who get jobs under the stimulus plan.

And all of the people who get jobs because of this bill will spend money,which will stimulate the economy. (Hence the word "stimulus," which obstructionists either don't comprehend or choose to ignore.) That means that the economy will grow and there will be more private-sector jobs available by the time the government-funded jobs come to an end. That's how it worked under FDR. (And, yes, it did work under FDR. Read the history, Mr. Steele, not the talking points.)

The final stimulus bill may be imperfect. But if it gets the economy moving again, everybody will benefit. Pretty soon enough Republicans in Congress are going to realize that. They will put their country's interest above their party's and vote for this bill, and then it will pass. There will be a side benefit when that happens: My parents, and millions of others like them, won't have to go through retirement with a blank sheet of paper for a resumé.

Comments

[FebM]

And by definitation he never really worked as the Lt Gov. Oh wait maybe in his whole life?

[Scott Baker]

Actually, I think it is Mr. Steele who does not have a "real" job. I mean, heading a party without a coherent philosophy, which contributes nothing to America, not even reasonable discourse? What kind of job is that?

On the other hand, teachers, construction workers, firefighters, steelworkers, wind turbine builders - all of these people would be helped and would have jobs. Oh, and one more thing, they produce things of real wealth, not those funny numbers on a screen that went poof about as fast as the screens could be shut off, and which didn't represent anything except more debt.

Republicans are the party of big spending, little ideas (tax cut All The Time, Anytime, Everytime) lies, corruption, and cynicism. They also care more about torpedoing serious efforts to save the country in an effort to outlast the Administration than in serving the country. I say, sweep the lot of them out the door.

[ChuckLin1]

It's nice to see more people waking up to the fact that wealth is something more than just numbers in the big computer in the sky.

[DoTheMath]

Come to think of it, we should be used to this by now. The GOP's modus operandi is to redefine or re-name things when they're doing something that wouldn't sound very good if they called it what it was.

Quick, what do you call:
- a program to eviscerate environmental protections?
- a program to reduce funding to schools with disadvantaged students?
- torture?
- the invasion of Iraq?

[joycehelene]

That's who the Republicans picked to lead their party, how dumb can they be?

[aloha43]

No, it is.....how much dumber can they get?

[frankm64]

Steele is right about government jobs- one minute he was Lt. Governor and then the voters in Maryland woke up and poof- he was out of work. But private sector jobs go away and then come back again- some of them come back a far away as India.

[WillFillmore]

HuffPost's Pick

The Republican party should assume the same name as the American Party who were known as the "Know Nothings". That party quickly dissolved, just as should the Republican Party. Michael Steele and company had better get a clue....

[Openeyes]

Actually, they've decided to become the "No! Nothing!" Party when it comes to anything except tax cuts.

And by the way Mr. Steele, what about the military the Reps are always saying they support? They don't have jobs either? I guess you think "volunteer military" is literal.

[Flower411]

So, Mr. Steele, do you have a 'job' or not?

[SteveDenver]

Whether it's "work" or "jobs," Republicans don't know how to create either.

Nor do Republicans know the difference between "fundamentally strong economics" and a financial "crash."

Nor do they know the difference between their wife's parts and those of a cop in the airport bathroom.

Nor do they know the distinction between truth and lies, and Obama is schooling them.

[mockley]

During the election the GOP said "hey they got a woman (Hillary) let's get us one - enter Sarah Palin.
Now it's "hey they got a black guy, lets get us one - enter Michael Steele.
They didn't quite end up with what they expected however ... any body want to buy two sacks of hammers? Contact the RNC.

[fredjernig]

that sums it up.

[Deparis]

Michael Steele's exchange with Georgie Stephanopoulos is a total embarrassment. It's going to feed the philosophy of his more conservative and bigot opponents within the Greedy Old Perverts, that people of color are good for nothing. Some of his vanquished opponents for RNC chair will have their "I told you so!" moment with that interview. In his attempt at showing that he is also smart, he instead exposed his intellectual myopia. Good for us Democrats if this continues through 2010 when his term is just a year away.

[shirleen01]

STEELE PLEASE STOP KISSIN UP TO THE REPUBLICANS. THE ELECTION IS OVER..OBAMA WON!
IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU!

[talyn530]

Sad...why doesn't someone put this party out of its misery already. I believe in the two-party system, but why can't the other party be the independent or libertarian party. Republicanism is dead, it's a disease to America...and it really needs to be cut out!

[fredjernig]

Decent honest conservatives need to found a Conservative Party and leave the loony right out there.

[Malkin71]

This is silly. I hate the GOP with passion and think little of Steele.

But to intentionally misunderstand him serves no point. The limited point he was making...that paying someone to build something is only a job until the something is built...is true.

He was not saying govt. jobs are not real jobs. Well, at least, he wasn't trying to say that...

[bogues]

Michael Steele's whole point about government created work versus private sector work makes no sense. Many private sector jobs come to an end. If you are a contractor and you build houses, when you finish building that house, you just hope someone else will come along and want to hire you to build a house for them too. The fact that the government is creating temporary jobs to get the economy moving again is no different than a small business owner opening a business and hiring people.

[fredjernig]

are you saying we misunderestimated him?

[fishgirl26]

Note to Mr. Steele...a job just isn't done by someone who sits on Wall street Mr. Steele. Making WORK creates JOBS, jobs that pay money, that helps buy things that must be produced by people. People produce things by WORKING. Why is this such a foreign concept to the GOP??? That's right, because they outsource our WORK to foreign companies and we lose JOBS in this country. Amazing, just f-ing amazing is all I can say.

[GrammieJ]

Steele is totally embarassing.

I worked for 24 years as a teacher. I taught in public schools for 3 years and the remainder in the college system teaching the GED program in our county. Each year over 1000 adults came to our program to either earn a GED or to upgrade skills needed to be marketable finding a job.
In this world, a job is a sweet 3 letter word. If you have one, you better keep it. If you don't have one,ekkkk and good luck

So how do you define the word "job", Mr Steele. You need to come to our GED classes and learn a few things.