Videos: Bayh says Democrats have yet to create a single private-sector job
posted at 12:55 pm on February 16, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
Did the Porkulus bill create any private-sector jobs? Most of us have said no, and according to the CBS/NYT poll, 94% of Americans agree. You can count retiring Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) among them. When asked what he plans to do with his time after his term expires, Bayh says that he will worry about that when the time comes. If he chooses to start a business in the private sector, though, he’s sure he will outperform Congress in job creation:
“[I]f I could create one job in the private sector by helping to grow a business, that would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months.”
That serves as a rather stinging accusation, coming from a man who voted for Porkulus a year ago. Bear in mind, though, that Bayh is careful to say “in the last six months” as a qualifier. Bayh could just mean that Congress ignored the crisis in unemployment for the last six months in order to ride their health-care hobby horse, and that certainly would be true — and closer to the frustration Bayh vented in his retirement announcement yesterday.
He may be offering that dodge as a way to rationalize his support for a failed stimulus policy, but it doesn’t wash. The Obama administration said that its $865 billion plan would start creating jobs in larger numbers in the third and fourth quarters of 2009. That hasn’t materialized; net employment has dropped in an almost-uninterrupted decline from the end of 2007 to now.
Either way, though, Bayh’s parting shot underscores what Republicans have said all along about the Democratic agenda — that it’s based in ideology, not in reality, and that it has little to do with the real concerns of Americans. Including, apparently, Evan Bayh, but not including CNN, as Greg Hengler notes at Townhall:
CNN just can’t believe that Bayh could conclude that working in the private sector could have more impact than being in Congress in terms of job creation. It’s actually kind of cute to see religious believers in big government bitterly clinging to their ideology.
Update: Apoliticus has some fun musing on a John Edwards-like twist to this rift between Bayh and Congress.
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Show me “PRIMARY CHALLENGE!”
fiatboomer on February 16, 2010 at 12:57 PM
Sen. Bayh seems to be willing to leave destruction in his wake. This is amazing.
Cindy Munford on February 16, 2010 at 12:59 PM
It just keeps getting better.
txag92 on February 16, 2010 at 1:00 PM
Bayh is:
Teabagger!
Terrorist!
Unpatriotic!
Hate-filled!
Klansman!
Nazi!
Racist!
Homophobe!
BushCheneyHitler!
There. I just wrote the copy for MSNBC’s primetime lineup tonight.
By the way, we told you Obamacrats so long before it was “hip” and fashionable to do so.
Government doesn’t create private sector jobs. Demand, and the free market, create jobs.
There is no “free lunch.” Learn it. Live it. Love it.
Good Lt on February 16, 2010 at 1:00 PM
Rush was just talking about this. He is on a roll today.
OmahaConservative on February 16, 2010 at 1:00 PM
I’m getting stuffed on popcorn…
It does look like Bayh is going to primary challenge Obama in 2012.
Enoxo on February 16, 2010 at 1:00 PM
How many icebergs are going to hit the HMS Hopeychange before Captain Jughead admits the ship is listing?
Even his rats have deserted.
NoDonkey on February 16, 2010 at 1:01 PM
The Donkey par-tay is tainted with Hopenchange.
hillbillyjim on February 16, 2010 at 1:01 PM
UltimateBob’s stock tip of the day: Buy Orville Redenbacher’s and Jiffy Pop.
This is going to get intersting….
UltimateBob on February 16, 2010 at 1:01 PM
I can’t stand these “moderates” who are constantly criticizing partisanship and ideology. Partisanship and ideology are what freedom and democracy is all about, the idea that people should abandon what they believe in just so politicians can say they’ve done something is repulsive. Sometimes, actually most of the time, it’s better if government and it’s politicians do nothing.
clearbluesky on February 16, 2010 at 1:01 PM
CAT.TOTALLY.OUT.OF.BAG
Seven Percent Solution on February 16, 2010 at 1:01 PM
You know, honestly, if Bayh wanted to really stick it to Obama and the Dems–and didn’t want to run for President (which I think is the main reason for this)–he should have just switched parties.
Enoxo on February 16, 2010 at 1:01 PM
Well look at that. 2007 you say? Isn’t that the year Dems took control of Congress? Imagine that!
capejasmine on February 16, 2010 at 1:02 PM
I see a very big bus in Evan’s future.
cntrlfrk on February 16, 2010 at 1:02 PM
That was the intention of the left, who were on TV arguing until they were blue in the face that the government is better at running any company than the private sector. That was the main argument behind their push to have the federal government take over health insurance – they kept arguing that government is more efficient (LOL) than private business. That is why they explicitly argued, almost unbelievably, that the federal government needed to just open up an insurance company “to provide competition to the private sector”. The Constitutional scholar from Indonesia with the 73 IQ loved that argument, which was one of the most pathetic bits of argumentation to ever come from the White House – and repeated ad nauseum by every idiot dem who could get himself interviewed. I am still amazed that no one really took that unbelievable, un-Constitutional, un-American argument to task – the idea that government runs operations better than private business. I mean … is there anything dumber that one could say?
neurosculptor on February 16, 2010 at 1:03 PM
Uhm. So I guess this means he’s not planning to run for President. As a Democrat.
misterpeasea on February 16, 2010 at 1:03 PM
Painfully accurate.
Count to 10 on February 16, 2010 at 1:03 PM
I think this is more of a shot at Reid… who gutted his jobs bill…
ninjapirate on February 16, 2010 at 1:04 PM
I don’t think he would have been entirely trusted by either side, had he done that. He simply needed to stand up earlier against this liberal take over of our government, and country. Had he just stood up and said I can’t support this, I won’t vote for this, or that, and stood by that, he would have been far better off now. I think he knows that too. But it’s to little, to late now.
capejasmine on February 16, 2010 at 1:05 PM
OT at Drudge: Obama to embark on ‘Save the Senate’ tour…
OmahaConservative on February 16, 2010 at 1:05 PM
Bayh is imo just another clueless schmo who fell for ogabe’s smoke and mirrors crapola. The less we hear in the future from those pundits/journos and pols. who succumbed to hopeychangey the better. I wish they’d all fall on their swords.
JiangxiDad on February 16, 2010 at 1:07 PM
Didn’t the press immediately fact-check Scott Brown when he said this? In a snark-filled article, Dana Milbank said Brown’s statement was “demonstrably untrue.” I wonder if they’ll be as eager to dismiss Bayh’s remarks.
Slublog on February 16, 2010 at 1:08 PM
And it’s high time we stop requiring less common sense and ethical behavior from our pols than we do from ourselves. Anyone who was wrong about obama, or went along to get along, ought to STFU.
JiangxiDad on February 16, 2010 at 1:09 PM
He might not have been psychologically prepared for that.
Count to 10 on February 16, 2010 at 1:09 PM
He’s going to switch parties.
Knucklehead on February 16, 2010 at 1:10 PM
Bingo. It’s called integrity. And like McCain who told us not to be afraid of an Obama Presidency, I tell these failed hacks once again to STFU!
JiangxiDad on February 16, 2010 at 1:11 PM
The radicalization of the democrat party into a ferociously progressive movement, has left “old fashioned” liberals like Bayh and Lieberman without a party.
It might be time for a new 3rd party to preserve and advocate for the values that the “old” democrat party once had. Bayh could certainly start that ball rolling.
Rebar on February 16, 2010 at 1:12 PM
I’ll take “Primary Challenge” for a $1000 Alex.
thomasaur on February 16, 2010 at 1:13 PM
I have no use for him. Maybe if he tries to atone for what he’s done to this nation I would reconsider, but that atonement, if proper, would not leave him in any position to do anything in this Earthly world.
Bayh is despicable, lying scum, just like the rest of the traitorous left.
neurosculptor on February 16, 2010 at 1:14 PM
Its really all falling apart on Obama’s democrats isn’t it? Serves them right though.
Reflexive anti-business attitude and a penchant for helping unions that have grown fat off of prior generation’s hard work is no political platform I wish to be a part of. It was my hope that dems would come around to the Evan Bayh side of things. Democrats needed to realize that there are ways to invest in America and its people without a dire cost to freedom or entrepreneurship. They needed to get away from the unions. Its too late.
Oddly, I find a Reagan quote quite fitting here…something about parties leaving us… ;-)
ernesto on February 16, 2010 at 1:14 PM
Whoa! That was a fast kitty!!
They didn’t leave the Democrat Party. The Party left them.
newton on February 16, 2010 at 1:15 PM
heh
:)
cmsinaz on February 16, 2010 at 1:15 PM
It’s all about Big Brother!
FontanaConservative on February 16, 2010 at 1:16 PM
I’ll take infamous Governors of Indiana for $1200 Alex.
percysunshine on February 16, 2010 at 1:16 PM
I’m just amazed by all this talk about the government creating jobs. It’s a joke.
And the only thing more annoying that Obama claiming to support government plans to create jobs is the Republicans brow-beating him with the “where are the jobs?!?!” faux outrage.
At least Republicans should be smart enough to know that the government doesn’t creat jobs. the best they can do is to just stay out of the way and let private businesses creat jobs.
Scrappy on February 16, 2010 at 1:16 PM
I just read an article yesterday by the AP of all places that pointed out barring divine intervention, the Fed will be paying out 80% of all revenue collected on mandated programs and debt servicing in less than 10 years. Maybe just maybe, Evan decided to jump ship before that house comes crumbling down, hoping for a rematch later on. After all he is young enough to wait 5-10 years for another run.
Johnnyreb on February 16, 2010 at 1:16 PM
I’ll be he had to write that on his palm.
Bayh ’12!
turfmann on February 16, 2010 at 1:18 PM
Yes, so maybe we should waste some more of the taxpayer’s hard-earned dollars by doing it again with Stimulus II, right?
Juno77 on February 16, 2010 at 1:18 PM
Thanks for sharing that article.
Unfortunately I could only stomach about 3 paragraphs. Dana Milquetoast is a schmuck.
UltimateBob on February 16, 2010 at 1:18 PM
Quick, deploy the rapid response truth squad!
JammieWearingFool on February 16, 2010 at 1:19 PM
Lets see if he has the courage of his convictions, if he takes a private sector job or government job.
fourdeucer on February 16, 2010 at 1:20 PM
But the dem party left no one. The dems all tagged right along with the treason and showed up arguing for every anti-American, un-Constitutional, idiotic proposal that their Indonesian imbecile wanted.
The difference is that America experienced a psychotic break during the credit crisis, tried to commit national suicide with the election of the ineligible idiot from Indonesia, and is finally snapping out of it. Unfortunately, it’s likely too late. This nation will never make it through The Precedent’s tenure, no matter who controls Congress.
Our nation swallowed a bottle full of sleeping pills on Nov 4th 2008 and now we’re trying to induce vomiting … but long after we already absorbed most of the drugs.
neurosculptor on February 16, 2010 at 1:21 PM
For the time he has left in DC, Bayh better be careful crossing the street and look out for black SUVs.
rbj on February 16, 2010 at 1:21 PM
wow, that man burnt some bridges, talk about a shot at the left and the netroots. To be honest I almost got the sense he wanted to paint himself as some type of third party alternative to the status quo.
rob verdi on February 16, 2010 at 1:21 PM
Ouch. That’s gonna leave a mark.
cibolo on February 16, 2010 at 1:22 PM
Is Evan heading towards the Republican Party? Let’s see if his “conservative” credentials are for real!
metroryder on February 16, 2010 at 1:23 PM
But that can’t be!!!!
Pelozilla has told us repeatedly since the beginning of the year how the fruits of Porkulus have created billions and billions of new jobs throughout the land!
She wouldn’t say anything like that unless it was true!
Unless she was a filthy stinking LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!
pilamaye on February 16, 2010 at 1:24 PM
He was a Hillary supporter.
Cindy Munford on February 16, 2010 at 1:24 PM
That’s a parting blow.
FontanaConservative on February 16, 2010 at 1:24 PM
I’ve reluctantly concluded that it’s too late for us all. I think an economic tsunami is going to hit, and it’s going to make the politics irrelevant. I even think Obama is largely irrelevant at this point. He’s accelerated the demise to be sure, but it was coming for a long time–chickens coming home to roost kinda thing. Just like Europe’s monetary union had no real chance without real political union, the US wasn’t going to survive “multi-culturalism.” Both are no-brainers. Hopefully sometime in the future, the lesson won’t be lost. Some rump state is in our future.
JiangxiDad on February 16, 2010 at 1:26 PM
Slightly OT–can you overdose on popcorn????!!
ted c on February 16, 2010 at 1:26 PM
Bitter clingers.
rollthedice on February 16, 2010 at 1:26 PM
Please, be our guest Mr. President
JusDreamin on February 16, 2010 at 1:27 PM
That is what I’m hoping for. And some kind of statement that he is joining the Party of No to Obama’s disastrous policies.
petunia on February 16, 2010 at 1:27 PM
Careful there, Evan. You’re bordering on becoming a patriot and progressives don’t like that.
Shiny_Tiara on February 16, 2010 at 1:27 PM
Evan is coming out of Congress swinging! If this is going to be his strategy, then Obama is in for a awful rough couple of years. First Palin, now Bayh.
ted c on February 16, 2010 at 1:28 PM
Wow… someone is Washington musta pissed in his cornflakes…
Either that… or he bothered to go home and take a look around… outside of the Beltway Echo chamber…
Guy sound Ticked… kinda like the rest of us.
Romeo13 on February 16, 2010 at 1:28 PM
Same shoe, different foot. I just meant a Dem at a time when it’s unconscionable to be one.
JiangxiDad on February 16, 2010 at 1:28 PM
He’s saying that those in the Congress and big daddy govmint are bitterly clinging to their ideology and their religion.
sweeeeet.
ted c on February 16, 2010 at 1:28 PM
Hi, nice to see you posting. Have any of your psycho in-laws or family members come out of the hope-n-change fever?
mrsmwp on February 16, 2010 at 1:28 PM
Where was this brave Sen. Bayh back in Dec when Maobama and Reid were trying to forcefeed Maobamacare? He wimped out.
james23 on February 16, 2010 at 1:29 PM
It was only a matter of time before SOMEONE in that house of cards decided enough was enough and told the truth about the stimulus bill. He can’t stop them from throwing good money after bad though.
scalleywag on February 16, 2010 at 1:29 PM
nope.
JiangxiDad on February 16, 2010 at 1:30 PM
This whole hope-n-change thing fell apart much faster than I anticipated.
Good job Rush, Sarah, Michelle, Ed, Hannity, Levin, Glenn Beck and the stubborn patriot Republican Senators and Congressmen and women on Capitol Hill.
Oh, and the MA voters, thank God for them coming to their senses.
FireBlogger on February 16, 2010 at 1:31 PM
It’s always dark and cold before the dawn. So what if everything fails? We are Americans we will rebuild. Better and stronger… without all the government restraints.
The trick is going to be whose ideology builds the new America. We can’t let the socialist talk people into needing government to hold their hands on everything.
They may think the Cloward thing works in their favor. But we can turn it. We can make people see who and what brought our financial system down and get rid of socialist ideology forever!
petunia on February 16, 2010 at 1:31 PM
Yet he also says he will work for the reelection of Obama in 2012.The man who lies ever day about all the jobs he created or saved.This is the mark of a person who will lie say or do anything to try to make himself look good.
thmcbb on February 16, 2010 at 1:32 PM
Nope.
In college I roomed with a kid whose family raised popcorn. 5000 acres of it.
He showed up on the first day with a 50 pound bag of popcorn.
We practically lived on the stuff (and beer of course) :o)
cntrlfrk on February 16, 2010 at 1:32 PM
The economic tsunami is indeed on its way. Yes, it’s been comin at us for longer than I’ve been on this earth, but I can’t imagine what brings you to lay this at the feet of ‘multi-culturalism’. Not that it matters much, because I suspect, as you do (though for different reasons), that an acute case of radical decentralization may indeed befall the continent.
ernesto on February 16, 2010 at 1:33 PM
Wrong.
From the AP
Proud Rino on February 16, 2010 at 1:33 PM
While I agree that we are going to be facing an economic crisis of literally epic proportions, I don’t think the US as a country will fail. It will be extremely difficult, possibly worse than the depression, but we will pull through.
Johnnyreb on February 16, 2010 at 1:35 PM
Probably has a LOT to do with the bitterness in his voice..and who could blame him? I don’t. Harry cut him off at the knees (with Obama’s blessing, of course), so Evan has an ax to grind and pulling a “Jim Jeffords” isn’t out of the question. It won’t have the same affect as Jefford’s move had, but close.
GoldenEagle4444 on February 16, 2010 at 1:35 PM
You may be right. I fear the collapse, and the social chaos from it. What comes next might be ok (Starship Trooper kinda thing??) but I’m having a hard time shoveling all the snow. I’m not sure I can handle a whole new world order :)
JiangxiDad on February 16, 2010 at 1:35 PM
You may be right. I fear the collapse, and the social chaos from it. What comes next might be ok (Starship Trooper kinda thing??) but I’m having a hard time just shoveling all the snow. I’m not sure I can handle a whole new world order :)
JiangxiDad on February 16, 2010 at 1:36 PM
I have a way different take on the jobs issue. I think what most Independents know is that government never creates private jobs.
The issue is to get them out of the way.
I personally believe that most people get the problem. Obama’s administration, with its agenda to deliver on the promises, is really interfering.
Nobody knows what’s going to hit next? Nobody can find their own niche.
It’s a mess.
AnninCA on February 16, 2010 at 1:36 PM
I’m sorry to hear that. The holidays must have been a little easier for you knowing that their commie dreams are crashing all around them. Not that you wish ill on your family but at least they probably weren’t all smug like last year. I’m noticing that the lefties in my life are much quieter lately.
mrsmwp on February 16, 2010 at 1:37 PM
GAWD, the platitude and strawman meter broke with that Byah blather. It pin hit the red mark with reform; the wiring started smoking with “the public’s business is just not getting done”; the pin cracked at “vote out the ideologues”; and the machine blew up while trying to register “half a loaf instead on none.”
Dusty on February 16, 2010 at 1:37 PM
When Hillary resigns as Sec. of State after the donks lose the Senate in the 2010 elections we’ll know the proverbial fecal matter has hit the whirling blades. President Obiwan could have two primary challengers…Bayh and Hillary for the 2012 election. A lame duck 13 months into his first and only term. This is gettin’ good!
sdd on February 16, 2010 at 1:38 PM
People are simply waiting for him to get out of the way, in other words.
Stop pushing an agenda. That’s the problem. In a deep recession, NO agenda is the answer.
Just stop.
Let people catch their breath, figure out what they have to do. But stop with all the agenda-pushing rhetoric.
It’s demoralizing.
AnninCA on February 16, 2010 at 1:38 PM
Thank you for our quote of the day, Senator Bayh.
KeepOhioRed on February 16, 2010 at 1:38 PM
At best, he is considered a moderate Democrat here in IN. The only Hoosiers who consider him a “conservative” would be Hoosier communists (if such a beast exists outside of some college classroom).
Extrafishy on February 16, 2010 at 1:39 PM
I personally believe that Hillary has resigned, like Bayh.
She just isn’t announcing it. She’s not interested.
AnninCA on February 16, 2010 at 1:39 PM
why multiculti? Insufficient assimilation. Unwillingness of some “minorities” to accept ‘western” culture. I mean my family is Jewish and Chinese. What the hell do we have to do with the line from greece to rome to America? But I willingly and gratefully claim it as my posterity. My thinking is that there’s a conflict here between patrimonies, and it didn’t work, and now many people see the only solution as one side winning, and the other losing. I think that’s the fault of multi-culti and hyphenated-Americanism.
JiangxiDad on February 16, 2010 at 1:40 PM
Ernesto:
I meant ancestry, not posterity.
JiangxiDad on February 16, 2010 at 1:42 PM
The GOP couldn’t create private sector jobs either. Let’s get real.
AnninCA on February 16, 2010 at 1:43 PM
fwiw, I don’t see them anymore, not since the election, but they live in all blue liberal areas so they still have plenty of company, and most likely chalk-up the MA election and things like that as examples of them being smarter than regular people. In other words, don’t think they’ve yet “felt” any pain.
JiangxiDad on February 16, 2010 at 1:44 PM
You might be right in that she has already made the decision. She seems pretty detached from the administration right now.
sdd on February 16, 2010 at 1:44 PM
I had the same thought. Or he is going to use his clout to bring the Dems back to the middle. Obama has jumped the shark and there really is no going back to the middle for him. Bayh sees the writing on the wall.
Texas Gal on February 16, 2010 at 1:44 PM
Does anyone wonder if things are going to get a whole lot worse in this country before they get better?
How many Democrats are dropping out because they know there is another economic downturn coming? Another shoe to drop, and they don’t want to be in the party in power when it happens?
They are privy to information the average citizen is not. It’s possible Bayh, knows things are going to get worse he has a better view of our horizon. What’s next for American Citizens “Hyper Inflation” ???
Dr Evil on February 16, 2010 at 1:44 PM
(In my best Montgomery Burns voice) Excellent!
Kiss of death, that. Oblahblah may as well show up wearing a black hooded robe, and carrying a scythe
iurockhead on February 16, 2010 at 1:47 PM
Yeah, for sure. I was just taking a minute to bemoan the loss of something I think was great. But enough of that. Like you say, time to look forward.
JiangxiDad on February 16, 2010 at 1:47 PM
I AM SICK OF CONGRESS IDIOTS PLAYING HEAD GAMES WITH EACH OTHER AT THE EXPENSE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND THE CONSTITUTION…
Ltlgeneral64 on February 16, 2010 at 1:50 PM
This man will put the bopy king into campaigne mode
Will HILLARY WAIT??????
bluegrass on February 16, 2010 at 1:50 PM
I think you’re right on the money. That commercial real estate bubble is getting ready to explode.
Knucklehead on February 16, 2010 at 1:52 PM
Obama “I Won” face palm!
Dr Evil on February 16, 2010 at 1:53 PM
When asked what he plans to do with his time after his term expires, Bayh says that he will do what his mentor Ted Kennedy did…I’ll drive off that bridge when I get to it.
repvoter on February 16, 2010 at 1:54 PM
I listened to his reasons but he has been in politics a long time so all of a sudden he has reached his patience with how the Senate is working? They say he was ahead in the Polls…so he was looking at something and it didn’t look good.
Dr Evil on February 16, 2010 at 1:55 PM
Technically you are right. No political party “creates” private sector jobs. But what you wrote is incredibly misleading. Under GOP leadership the country created a huge number of new jobs from 2001-2006, in the process recovering from the economic damage of the dot com bust and the terrorists’ attack. Senator Bayh’s frustration and anger appear to be fueled by the realization that Obama’s policies — to the extent he has any — are thwarting, rather than assisting, a national economic recovery.
jwolf on February 16, 2010 at 1:56 PM
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