Cheat Seeking Missiles

Posted by: Laer at 02:04 pm

Michelle Malkin dug up something both she and I missed a couple weeks back: Clintonista finance-man Robert Reich’s Congressional testimony and subsequent blog post on the ideal use of recovery plan largesse, a.k.a., your money and mine.

First, from the testimony, in which Reich shares his nightmare about what might go wrong with the current federal bailout programs:

REICH: …”I am concerned, as I’m sure many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to high-skilled people who are already professionals or to white male construction workers…I have nothing against white male construction workers, I’m just saying there are other people who have needs as well.”

Affirmative action and reverse discrimination are alive and well! Who really cares whether those white construction workers might be uniquely skilled for the job, or even the lowest bidders - there’s social justice to be done!

Reich did not explain why we still need social justice in a country that just elected a black president. He did, however, expound on his blog about his ideas for Obama’s new economic plan (which C-SM readers already know will be called The Big Deal):

It’s a two-fer: lots of new jobs, and investments in the nation’s future productivity.

But if there aren’t enough skilled professionals to do the jobs involving new technologies, the stimulus will just increase the wages of the professionals who already have the right skills rather than generate many new jobs in these fields. And if construction jobs go mainly to white males who already dominate the construction trades, many people who need jobs the most — women, minorities, and the poor and long-term unemployed — will be shut out.

What to do? There’s no easy solution to either dilemma…

People can be trained relatively quickly for these sorts of jobs, as well as many infrastructure j0bs generated by the stimulus — installing new pipes for water and sewage systems, repairing and upgrading equipment, basic construction — but contractors have to be nudged both to provide the training and to do the hiring.

I’d suggest that all contracts entered into with stimulus funds require contractors to provide at least 20 percent of jobs to the long-term unemployed and to people with incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. And at least 2 percent of project funds should be allocated to such training. In addition, advantage should be taken of buildings trades apprenticeships — wich must be fully available to women and minorities.

The big hand of big brother (bruttha?) will reach down into every business, mandating who works, how much to pay, and demanding that work crews get dumbed down and lazied down in the name of equality … again, in a country that just elected a black president, has a black AG and a black woman EPA chief, women at sec of state and sec of homeland security, an Asian energy secretary and would have had an Hispanic Sec. of Commerce if he hadn’t been doing the pay for play crookedness.

hat-tip: Jim

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