For quite some time, we have heard from President Barack Obama and his administration about the various things that government does to create jobs.

For example, on August 10, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney stated emphatically that extending unemployment benefits created jobs. Carney responded to questions about creating jobs by saying, "There are few other ways that can directly put money into the economy than applying unemployment insurance. . . .Every place [that] money is spent has added business and that creates growth and income for businesses that leads them to decisions about jobs, more hiring. So, there are few other ways that can directly put money into the economy than applying unemployment insurance…”

On August 16, in an interview with MSNBC, President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack stated that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or the food stamp program, “obviously is putting people to work. . . . You have to recognize that it’s (food stamps) also an economic stimulus. Every dollar of SNAP (food stamp) benefits generates $1.84 in the economy in terms of economic activity.” Incredulously, Vilsack further stated that food stamp benefits are “the most direct stimulus you can get into the economy during tough times.”

Oklahoma business owners and lawmakers trying to boost Oklahoma’s economy in spite of federal government intervention, rest assured. According to the current administration, you create jobs by paying unemployment insurance taxes, which reduces the amount of money your business has available to add additional jobs for your business and reduces the amount of money you have available to pay for things like higher salaries to yourself and your employees.

Oklahoma families, who are facing rising costs for food, transportation, health care (due in part to Obamacare), and higher education, take heart. The more of your property that is taken from you in the form of federal income taxes, the more jobs you create through government programs like the food stamp program. According to the current administration, you can’t spend your dollar at the same rate of return that your dollar would be spent if it were taken from you and spent through government programs like the food stamp program.

This line of thinking is preposterous! As we have written previously, this form of “creating jobs” is really based on the politics of envy. Whenever government creates a job, it comes at a high cost – much like the $278,000 cost per job created by the stimulus.

This week, the President will speak before a joint session of Congress, presenting his plan on how to address the weakened economy. Based on his track record, unless there was something in the water at Martha’s Vineyard, we are going to hear more of the same failed interventionist policies he has subjected Americans to since he entered the Office.

What he should say, but undoubtedly won’t is, “Let me be clear: myself, federal lawmakers and government must get out of the way of economic growth and individual freedom. It is time to permanently limit government’s ability to take someone’s property to no more than 10% of a person’s income.” One could only dream.

Let’s hope and pray that federal lawmakers recently returning from their August break have heard loud and clear from taxpayers, as President Ronald Reagan once said, “Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem.”