Obama's "Department of Justice" attacks American companies.

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Fridays with Erick Erickson

08.26.11

Yet again the President intends to take a stab at jobs creation. Two things being touted by the White House are scholarships for engineers, which will not create jobs and will increase the costs of education through the subsidy. The other is paying people to retrofit buildings to make buildings greener. Even the New York Times is finally conceding that green jobs don't actually create many jobs.

All of this ignores that, should the President's plan work, it'll increase federal spending and not actually create sustainable jobs. It is also a distraction from bigger news.

The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets are reporting the Department of Justice has raided Gibson Guitars. Why? Because Gibson uses wood from India in its guitars. That wood is from a sustainable crop of wood that is industry certified. But Gibson takes the wood and finishes it here in the United States, providing Americans with jobs.

The Department of Justice believes it is illegal for Gibson to finish its guitars in the United States. According to the Department of Justice's interpretation of an Indian law that India itself does not interpret in the same way, wood taken from India must be finished in India. Never mind that the Indian government does not see it that way and has not requested American intervention against Gibson.

While the President is trying to create jobs, we should not fall for the distraction and should instead pay very real attention to how Barack Obama's appointees are killing American jobs.

— Erick Erickson