The Jobs Deficit: What Can Be Done Now

By Terrance Heath

Created 06/16/2010 - 12:31pm

In his column concerning last month's jobs number, George Will does a nearly "Noonan-eque" job of spreading disorientation and doubt about what government should do— if anything — about chronic unemployment, delivering a simple-but-subtle message: Nothing can be done. Of course, that's not true. There's a lot that can and should be done, immediately, to address unemployment.

I have to admit, I was surprised. Until now, I thought that almost no conservative columnist alive could beat Peggy Noonan — who should henceforth be known as "Our Lady of the Blessed Dolphins" [1] — for the kind of mind-numbing blather that causes the eyes to glaze over, and a reader to wonder why the writer isn't on some kind of medication, instead of on the op-ed page. But Washington Post columnist George Will has emerged as a surprising contender.