First I need to say that I don’t buy into the bogus claims that the President controls America’s economy and actually “creates jobs”. Jobs are created by businesses. And the Federal official with the most influence over America’s economy is the Federal Reserve Chairman, who is allowed to make decisions independent of the President after being appointed. Yes I’m fully aware that proposals by the Federal government (President included) influence some corporate decisions, but Presidents don’t “create” jobs. Businesses do. The economy and the business world move independent of the man in office. Although at times political moves might be factored into overall business decisions.

If we want to accept the notion that Presidents actually are the ones that “create” jobs in America, then it is time President Bush gets his due credit.

During the 2004 Presidential election cycle, Democratic candidate John Kerry pledged 10 million new jobs in four years if elected President. When Senator Kerry made this pledge, I figured his wife was planning to have the folks at Heinz do some major expansion . I’ve always found a candidate claiming they will bring about X numbers of jobs to be nothing more than good hype for the media. Smoke for the ignorant to inhale while casting their vote. Politicians can help foster a good business climate and that’s it. From there they have to cross their fingers, hope for more consumer demand and that businesses will need more employees to meet the demand.

As is pointed out by Jason at Polipundit, 2,646,000 total net jobs were created in 2005. At this pace, over 10 million new jobs will be created in 4 years. This would mean that President Bush is on pace to beat John Kerry’s campaign promise. Anyone that voted for Kerry because of his promise of jobs should thank us Bush voters for making the right vote .

The 2,646,000 total includes all new jobs, including contract, self employed and jobs created by companies.

You can get the numbers at the Bureau of Labor Statistics web site, by looking at the Civilian Employment report. Just look at the difference in jobs from December 2004 (140,133 million) to December 2005 (142,779 million). Which equals 2,646,000.

Thanks again to Jason for pointing out this information.