https://www.wsj.com/articles/oh-no-the-labo...inion_lead_pos2Now we know why the Democrats who run all of Washington are so eager to rush through their $1.9 trillion spending bill without negotiating with Republicans. They’re afraid the economy is improving so fast before it passes that Americans might begin to wonder why Congress needs to spend all that money.
That was the story Friday as the Labor Department reported an encouraging 379,000 net jobs in February. Private payrolls were up an even more impressive 465,000. Add net upward revisions of 38,000 for the two previous months, including 117,000 more jobs in January, and the U.S. labor market has clearly shaken off its winter slowdown.
Most job growth came from service industries as the pandemic lockdowns ease in most states. Leisure and hospitality created 355,000 new jobs in the month as restaurants and bars opened further. Retailers added another 41,100. The hiring pace should escalate in March as the great national reopening continues.
Investment adviser Donald Luskin notes that his social-distancing index, which tracks cellphone data, improved sharply after the week in February when the Bureau of Labor Statistics takes its jobs sample.
While too many people are still unemployed, the reality is that there’s a job shortage in many industries. One is construction as home building sizzles. In that context, the Democratic bill’s $300 a week in extra jobless payments will slow the labor market recovery by giving millions a bigger incentive to stay home.
The February report overall is good news, except in Washington where the timing is awkward. Democrats are rushing into a law a gigantic spending bill under the guise of Covid-19 relief.
They need to pass it soon or the political momentum may fade as the public learns more about the non-Covid welfare and political spending it includes. The bill’s $350 billion bailout for states and localities that are gaining in tax revenue should be especially embarrassing, if politicians were capable of embarrassment.
Democrats also want to pass this quickly so they can pivot and take credit for the inevitable economic boom that would happen anyway this year as the pandemic eases even if Congress does nothing. The Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GDPNow estimate for the just-completed first quarter is 8.3%. Most private economists are predicting fast growth for the second quarter and beyond. This would be the most ill-timed “stimulus” bill in history, except it’s really income redistribution and has very little that’s stimulating in it.
All of which explains why President Biden responded to the February news with a plea of dire need. “Today’s jobs report shows that the American Rescue Plan is urgently needed, in our view,” he said, noting that “we have one million fewer educators—one million fewer educators—than we did this time last year.”
Well, sure. When teachers unions and school districts refuse to return to the classroom, as so many have, schools naturally employ fewer “educators.” Yet Mr. Biden and Democrats are offering unions a $130 billion payoff in their spending bill even if they don’t return to classrooms at all in the three months left in this school year.
The $1.9 trillion spending bill will pass because Democrats need to show their interest groups the money. But no one should think it will be responsible for the 2021 boom.
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