Interesting how the Winston-Salem Journal undermines its own argument in today’s editorial:
A total of 18,700 former government workers, many of them school employees, have lost their jobs, the Employment Security Commission reported. That is considerably larger than the total for the private sector.
Truth be told, North Carolina was fortunate that many of these people didn’t lose their jobs two years ago at the depth of the recession. But federal stimulus funds, which are all gone now, saved their jobs at least temporarily. The N.C. Office of Recovery and Investment, which spent the federal stimulus money in the state, closed on Sept. 30, estimating that the $19.4 billion spent here created or preserved 25,000 jobs.
It’s at least encouraging to see that the Journal recognizes the stimulus was merely a band-aid, as was President Obama’s double-down jobs bill. When the money runs out, the states are the hook for the jobs and —in case the Journal hasn’t been reading the papers lately —— states are cash-strapped because they’ve spent money at an unsustainable level.
And that’s the problem.
Update: The Journal blames the cutters, I blame the spenders. JLF president John Hood has a third point of view.
