Mass. losing more jobs after election
by Michael Graham
Monday, Nov. 15, 2010
You’ll be happy to know that your government is hard at work spending your money. It’s the taxpayers who are left unemployed.
In 2008, Gov. Deval Patrick promised that he could create hundreds of thousands of biotech jobs in Massachusetts if we’d just give him $1 billion of our money for projects supported by his pals (and political donors) in biotech and Big Pharma. The Democrat-dominated Legislature gave him his wish and now Beacon Hill is throwing around $100 million to “create jobs.”
And how’s that workin’ out for ya? Here’s the headline from Tuesday’s Boston Herald:
“Biotech aid falls flat.”
“The state’s $6 million handout to biotech giants Genzyme Corp. and Biogen Idec didn’t prevent those firms from issuing 270 pink slips in the Bay State last week - raising doubts about Gov. Deval Patrick’s ambitious plan to create 250,000 life sciences jobs in 10 years,” Jessica Van Sack reported. She added, in a moment of profound understatement, that Patrick’s promise of a quarter-million new jobs “now seems even more far-fetched.”Yeah, well “fetch” this: In the week since Patrick was re-elected, we’ve already lost more than 1,000 private-sector jobs, and more cuts at companies like Raytheon are on the way. Interestingly, the Associated Press reports that Patrick was asked about the upcoming cuts at Raytheon in the last days of the campaign, and rumors that he’d asked them to hold off until after Election Day.
“Patrick bristled when asked if he requested Raytheon delay any terminations, saying the company was adding jobs,” the AP reports.
Whatever really happened - and Raytheon’s smart enough to know the value of sucking up to government in a Democratic duchy like Massachusetts - it’s too late. Patrick’s back, the jobs are gone and voters stuck themselves with the tab.
It was embarrassing enough reading reports about “stimulus” jobs that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to “create.” But thanks to our government geniuses, we’re spending money to lose jobs. Instead of generating “green jobs” we’re passing out pink slips.
The Obama administration is a big fan of a California “green jobs” company called Solyndra, for example. So the O-bots gave this politically-connected company $535 million, but instead of adding thousands of net jobs, Solyndra’s actually cutting its payroll by around 150 people. That’s $3.6 million per job lost.
Anyone remember the good ol’ days before Patrick and Barack Obama, when companies laid off their own employees for free?
Meanwhile back in Boston, Mayor Tom Menino dumped $10.5 million of local tax dollars into the W Hotel and Residences project, inspiring yet another headline from Tuesday’s Herald:
“W woes could cost Hub $10M.”
“The city of Boston could be out $10.5 million if the Prudential Insurance Co. of America wins bankruptcy court approval to foreclose on the new W Hotel & Residences,” the Herald reported. That’s more tax money wasted and more jobs lost.
Ah, but there’s one part of the economy that’s growing. This headline from yesterday’s USA Today says it all:
“More federal workers’ pay tops $150,000.”
The number of federal workers earning $150K has doubled under Obama. His new plan? To give them an across-the-board raise.
I’ve got one more headline for you to ponder:
“Mass. Dems sweep state elections.”
Until that headline changes, nothing else will.
bill to biotech giants and promised it would create hundreds
of thousands of biotech jobs. Instead the company
announced to cut 270 jobs just last week.
Donnie Howie Michael Bill
Unlike the others, we tell you what's really happening.
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