The following is a guest post from Cesar Zambrano. If you are interested in guest posting at Geek Politics, check out the guidelines here.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics published a discouraging jobs report before the July 4th holiday weekend. For the first time in 2010, the U.S. economy actually shed, instead of gaining, 125,000 jobs in the month of June. The primary reason given was the termination of 225,000 temporary Census Bureau jobs. The “silver lining” in the report, however, was that the unemployment rate actually dropped from 9.7 to 9.5%, driven by disappointed workers who gave up looking for jobs.

Excuses from government officials, followed by accusatory attacks from the conservative right, emphasized once more that the politics of unemployment are alive and well. Liberals point fingers at Republicans for blocking new jobs initiatives and extensions of unemployment benefits. Conservatives are crying for heads to role in the Obama Administration since over $1.5 trillion have been spent on bank bailouts and economic stimulus packages with little job growth in the balance. The Congressional Budget Office, the official arbiter of numbers that both parties have agreed to support, has found that the stimulus actually created up to 1.6 million jobs.

Why is unemployment data so contentious and difficult to understand? Job growth has not been material and permanent, as we would prefer. Pain is particularly acute at lower income levels and for minorities, as was detailed in a recent study produced by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northwestern University. The Northwestern study highlights the key political issue in our society, the growing differences between the haves and the have-nots. Battle lines are already being drawn early for this November’s campaign, still four months away and counting. Fear and obfuscation will reign down on a public that only wants results, not political infighting.

The economic fact is that unemployment rates have leveled off. However, during the recession, 8.4 million jobs have been lost. Trying to reconcile a rate with total jobs is like comparing apples with oranges, or from a purely financial perspective, like comparing a balance sheet with a revenue and expense statement. An unemployment rate is like a snapshot in time, when the public is more concerned and impacted by job gains (revenue) and job losses (expense). Net earnings, or net job gains, are what is really important. However, the rate announcements each month draw all the publicity. The relevant data is buried in the small print and left to a diligent reporter to perform his real investigative duty and let everyone know what is really happening.

In any event, job recovery of late has been painfully slow. Is this economic recession that much different than others? We have had two other recessions since 1990. In 90/91, unemployment peaked at 7.8%, versus a GDP drop from peak-to-trough of 1.4%. In 2000/2001, the relative figures were 6.3% and 0.3%. Our recent recession had unemployment peak at 10.2% versus a 3.9% GDP drop, definitely larger in magnitude on all counts. However, strong capital flows from forex trading and have helped to bolster the economy this time around. In both previous recoveries, it took well over three years in both cases for the unemployment rate to return below 5%. Employment is a lagging indicator during recovery. Material hiring returns gradually, only after confidence markedly returns.

The “elephant in the room”, however, is that many of the 8.4 million jobs lost will never return due to outsourcing trends. The IMF’s recent “World Outlook Report” highlights what is transpiring on a global stage in the following chart:

Although many may argue the finer points, the impact of outsourcing can be visibly seen following 1990 as the GDP for emerging and developing economies began to eclipse and double the respective growth rates of advanced economies. The human eye can easily craft a trend line for the blue line above, and the future direction is disconcerting as well. Jobs sent overseas were not burger-flipping jobs at McDonald’s. They were hardcore, middle class jobs that are gone forever.

Elections are less than four months away. The political rhetoric is already heating up daily. The focus will be jobs and which party do you trust to generate them. Hopefully, the economy will not be held hostage for the next four months while campaign slogans and political finger pointing dominate the airwaves pre-November. Our elections cannot come quickly enough.

The following is a guest post by Mackenzie Howard. If you are interested in guest posting at Geek Politics, check out the guidelines here.

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. ─Deuteronomy 6:5–9

This Fourth of July marks a significant anniversary for my family and friends. Last year on Independence Day, my best friend’s husband was deployed to Iraq. The irony of leaving for war on that day was not lost on us.

I’ve always had a huge appreciation for America, but when my friend entered the war zone, that appreciation became very personal. While politicians and political hosts bickered about bailouts and health care, he was flying over foreign soil defending the cause of freedom.

Oddly enough, I’ve always loved politics. There were times in my life when I thought maybe I should even consider a career in it, but as of late, I can’t say that I’m that interested. I look at the world around me, and I become very disillusioned with a government who continues to climb deeper into debt and people who expect someone else to take care of them.

Don’t get me wrong, America has made a lot of progress over the past couple centuries, but in many ways, it would seem we’re regressing. When greed wins out over common sense and when apathy rules over ambition, we’re in trouble. When God is tossed out of our lives and our culture, we’re in big trouble.

I sat, rather disheartened, the other evening at a political dinner, where I wondered what I could do about this. What can any one person do to fix this mess? But then this thought came to me:

We can teach the children.

We can teach them about the values of forefathers. We can teach them about the principles our country was founded on. We can teach them about heroes who were larger than life, instruments of God, and warriors for millions unborn. We can teach them to work hard, tell the truth, and not spend more money than they have.
My parents taught my brother and I to love God, love people, and love America. Because of them, I have a huge appreciation for the country of my birth. They took us on road trips all over this country so we could charge the hills of Gettysburg, walk down Freedom Trail, and stand in the rooms where some of the greatest men and women in history lived and died and changed the world.

And you know what? It really means something to me. It’s personal. I can’t see a soldier’s grave or read about George Washington without being overcome with gratitude.

If we really want to change America, we need to make it personal for our kids. We need to make God personal; we need to make our heritage personal. And when they are older, they will not depart from it.

The great thing is, if you can’t travel all over this great nation to walk where these folks walked, you and your family can learn about them and experience them from your home. When I was little, my mother bought flash cards and taught my brother and I all of the presidents. To this day, we can recite them forward and backward. And they’re more than names on a list. They’re distinct personalities who all played a role, good or bad, in shaping the nation we call home.

You can do the same for your kids. Read books together, visit interesting places, talk about the colorful people who crafted our nation. Pray for our leaders . . . when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

This Fourth of July, I hope between the hot dogs and the fireworks, you’ll stop for a moment with your family and give thanks. I hope you’ll salute a soldier when you see one. I hope you’ll take a moment to learn something new about America, and I hope you’ll stop to share it with your children. We have a fascinating history—I hope you’ll make it personal.

This weekend, I’ll fly my flag on my porch, probably eat way more than I should, and give my friend a big hug—as long as there are men and women like him, making it personal and defending our freedom, we’ll be okay.

Teach your kids!
On July 4, 1826, two of our nation’s greatest leaders breathed their last. Fifty years to the day of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams whispered “Thomas Jefferson survives” shortly before he slipped into eternity. What he didn’t know was that Jefferson had already passed away just a few hours earlier. These two men dedicated the whole of their lives to America.

How do people like this get put into decision making positions?

Obama and Biden had some interesting things with their 2009 tax returns. A couple things, first their charitable contributions, second their mortgages.

Charitable Contributions

Obama made $5.5 million, mostly from book sales. Biden made $333,182. Of that, Obama gave $329,100 to charities and Biden gave $4,820. So Obama gave 5.9% and Biden a whopping 1.4%.

Obama’s isn’t too bad, over 300k is a pretty good chunk of change, but as a percentage it still isn’t that high. Biden on the other hand, is pretty pathetic.

For people who campaign on “helping people” you’d think they’d give a little more of their vast resources to actually help them. Apparently they’d prefer to take your money through taxes than give some of their own.

Mortgages

Obama paid $52,195 in home mortgage interest payments and Biden paid $30,349. This is pretty unbelievable to me. How in the world do you make over 5 million dollars in a year and still have a mortgage? What could possibly be the point? Maybe he needed to take out a HELOC on the White House to buy some votes for ObamaCare.

Apparently they haven’t read my article on how to payoff their mortgage early. It’s no wonder they can’t figure how to balance the federal budget.

I rather enjoyed this video from standupeconomist.com. Check it out, it’s pretty funny.

Watch this video and tell me how this man got elected. Seriously.

We can do a better job taking care of people than the government does. It is that simple. I was reading something the other day, and the argument the guy was making is that lots of Christians are Republicans so we should be in favor of health care. “We are helping lots of people by giving them free health care, if you were really a Christian you would be for government health care.”

Well, I am a Christian, but I am not for government health care. You know why? Because I think I can do a better job helping people with my money than the government can. The government waste so much money it is unbelievable. They actually spend more money on the bureaucracy and paperwork of reimbursing travel expenses in a year, than they do on the travel expenses. And the number is in the billions. Efficiency at its finest. That is pathetic.

Every government program is fraught with waste. Each of the entitlement programs we have make people lazier and lazier. If I can get the government to take care of me, what is the point of actually working and being productive myself. These entitlement programs aren’t “helping” anybody. They are just making people wards of the state.

So no, I do not want government health care. I do want to help people though, and so I give money to people who are doing real good in this world. People who are going on mission trips to Haiti to help ease the suffering. My church that feeds homeless people and reaches out to prisoners and drug addicts. These are good uses of my money. They waste far less and do much more good than the government does.

Here’s a little graphic to prove my point. It ranks states by their “generosity index” of each of the states, and next to it who they voted for in the Bush - Kerry election. The generosity index compares average charitable giving to average gross income.

Do you see a trend? That is why Christians can say they don’t want government health care and not be hypocrites. If you are really concerned about helping people, go and help people. Don’t try to make the government do it, because they are really bad at it.

Chuck Grassley submitted an amendment today forcing Congress, the President, Vice-President, political appointees, and congressional staffers to get their federal health insurances through the to be created exchanges. As usual, they excluded themselves from this bill.

“President Obama has publicly advertised that his reforms would give members of the public the same coverage available to Members of Congress,” reads a GOP summary of the Grassley measure. “This amendment would ensure that he, his successors, and all his appointed political officials would also have the same coverage members of the public enrolled in the Exchange receive.”

Beautiful. I really hope the Democrats vote against this amendment, as it would make for some entertainment during the fall campaigns.