"Job Creators"

The Washington Post has an excellent piece up on job-creation data: specifically, on what it does and does not say:

Some of the country’s best-known multi­national corporations closely guard a number they don’t want anyone to know: the breakdown between their jobs here and abroad.

So secretive are these companies that they hand the figure over to government statisticians on the condition that officials will release only an aggregate number. The latest data show that multinationals cut 2.9 million jobs in the United States and added 2.4 million overseas between 2000 and 2009.

This becomes of particular concern when it comes to economic policy:

“It’s an important piece of information that the American people should have,” said Ron Hira, an associate professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology. “Should you listen to the kind of advice these companies have about how to grow the economy when their record and their model indicates they’ve cut jobs? . . . Or should we talk to people who actually do create jobs in the United States?” [emphasis added]

This is vital. The next time you hear a Republican blustering about how "this administration has less private sector experience than blah blah" or "investment at home is stifled at fear that the Gub'mint Might Raise Taxes" think to yourself: hang on a second, these companies have stolen our money, driven our economy off of a cliff, and sent millions of jobs away from our communities here at home. Why the HELL am I listening to what these guys or their paid sponsors in the GOP or Democratic parties have to say about the economy?