If I Only Had a Heart, Part 2

Ever since Texas Gov. Rick Perry told the majority of Americans that we are without hearts because we disagree with his policy of giving in-state tuition to the children of illegal aliens, I have been thinking of all the other heartless ways in which I fail daily to demonstrate the requisite amount of appreciation for having my government steal my money, give it to other people and then castigate me for objecting to the entire process.

Gov. Perry, of course, is a piker in this area when his policies are contrasted with the intrusive nanny-state government now foisted upon us by the feds. President Barack Obama himself has demonstrated that he is fully capable of dreaming up a new stimulus plan or entitlement program every other week. In fact, it’s all he knows. (That, and the community agitating we see happening on Wall Street and across the country at the moment.)

Recently, the Associated Press published a story designed to assist the president in tugging at our heartstrings (if we had any) concerning the plight of another newly created class of victim. The AP has suddenly discovered a colossal new injustice right here in our midst. And they assure us that the president’s "jobs bill" is just the ticket to fix this problem.

The article tells the story of a 55-year-old Cleveland, Ohio, woman who has been unemployed since 2009. After trying for two years to find work in her chosen field (as a bus driver), she is now convinced that discrimination must be the reason another company has not hired her. Not discrimination against her because she is black, mind you. Nor is it because of her age. It is not even discrimination because she is a woman. No. Apparently, there is now a completely new class of people who must be protected from discrimination: the long-term unemployed.

Of course, Obama’s "jobs bill" purports to do just that. Yet even a cursory examination of this bureaucratic monstrosity offers more than ample grounds for developing a whole new case of heartlessness. The proposal contains penalties for businesses that fail to hire anyone out of work for more than six months. This means that if you are a business owner with fifteen employees and you have to make a choice between two candidates for a new position in your company, you had better choose the one who has been unemployed the longest. And heaven help you if you hire someone who is already employed over someone who has been without a job for a year or two.

Barack Obama has the audacity to destroy the economy, shackle business owners with crippling taxes and regulations, demand that they hire more workers and then fine them if they hire the wrong people!

Obama's bill would give those claiming discrimination a right to sue, and violators would face fines of up to $1,000 a day, plus attorney's fees and other costs. This from the president who keeps telling us his top priority is job creation. Business groups are warning Obama that this legislation will do exactly the opposite.

"Threatening business owners with new lawsuits is not going to help create jobs, and will probably have a chilling effect on hiring," said Cynthia Magnuson, spokesperson for the National Federation of Independent Business. "Business owners may be concerned about posting a new job if they could face a possible lawsuit."

The only jobs created by this president are jobs for trial lawyers, bureaucrats and union thugs. Can you imagine the mass exodus from the business world that will surely occur if this man is reelected? I would not open a business in Barack Obama's America on a bet. And if I were already a business owner, I would sell out rather than operate under this tyrant's rule.

But then, I'm just a heartless conservative.