On Saturday’s Forbes on Fox (10/28/12), the topic was the President’s 20-page pamphlet for the middle class and jobs. Steve Forbes blasted it. “It’s the equivalent of a doctor bleeding a patient… It’s going to make the patient worse. Why? Because it takes resources for people to put that money to work. This is going to cost jobs… Every job they create with means two or three fewer jobs in the private sector.”

On Saturday’s Forbes on Fox (10/28/12), the topic was the President’s 20-page pamphlet for the middle class and jobs. Steve Forbes blasted it. “It’s the equivalent of a doctor bleeding a patient… It’s going to make the patient worse. Why? Because it takes resources for people to put that money to work. This is going to cost jobs… Every job they create with means two or three fewer jobs in the private sector.”

Host David Asman asked, “Does it mean that I’m unpatriotic, the fact that I don’t necessarily agree with this? …I don’t like the mixing of patriotism with an economic plan.”

Rick Ungar answered, “I like the infrastructure part of this plan. It’s what the President has already suggested in the past. I wish Congress had taken it more seriously. …The same people who are concerned about our deficit, as well they should be… infrastructure is every bit as important. If we don’t bring it up to speed, it’s going to hurt.”

Asman asked John Tamny, “Do you really think that building a better school is going to change the education of our students?”

John Tamny “Not one iota. This is just a desperate act from an administration wanting to be seen to be doing something after all its previous interventions have failed. One hundred thousand teachers is not going to make investment rise so there’s job creation. …The best way to get the economy moving is to reduce the burden on the productive.”

Mark Tatge  said, “The last one (stimulus) was ineffective in part because members of Congress decided that they were gonna block it, and we spent too little. We needed to spend two or three times the amount of what we spent… We have a $14.8 trillion dollar economy. Half of what we spent went into loans, and aid to bail out Wall Street and fat cats like Mitt Romney… When are we going to spend some money on jobs?”

Asman argued, “We also have a $16.2 trillion debt.”

Tatge shot back, “From two wars we fought.”

Elizabeth MacDonald jumped in. “Also five trillion in new spending from this President, which is the equivalent of Germany and South Korea.”

Tatge argued, “Where are you getting that?”

MacDonald sneered “That is the math according to the CBO… This is just another warmed over Kelly Blue Book of used car ideas for the US economy.”

She got a round of chuckles, including from the host. Asman added, “This one is filled with a lot of stuff that hasn’t worked before.”

Rich Karlgaard “We are badly in need of infrastructure reform and telecommunications and utilities, but the answer is to get the government off the back of the industries or to reduce the regulation.”

Tatge said, “We unburdened Wall Street, and look at what they brought us, one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression.” 

That brought on a large argument and Asman interrupted to say, “Wasn’t that done under President Clinton’s watch? Yes it was.” As if that had anything to do with being against the policy.

In an excellent article in The Nation, Ari Berman explains how President Obama can create 1.9 million jobs with his plan, and Romney’s plan would lose 4.1 million jobs. Nobody mentioned Romney’s jobs plan.