Daniels: Government Faces "Limits" When Helping the Unemployed

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels visited Georgetown University on Friday, September 23rd, for a refreshingly intimate conversation sponsored by the Georgetown College Republicans.

Daniels is known for his candor and modesty, and both were on display when I asked him what could be done for the 14 million unemployed workers as well as for myself and the graduating classes of 2012, 2013, and 2014.

Daniels’ did concede that the unemployment crisis was on par with the “red menace” of debt. But solutions escaped him. In fact, he ended his answer with one of the more troubling claims a sitting politician will make: “[the jobs crisis] is terrible, but sometimes we have to recognize that there are limits to what the government can do.”

To many College students, Daniels represents a rare breed of conservatism. He presents real solutions to long-term problems without getting bogged down in culture wars that the 18-25 cohort largely rejects.

While Daniels’ lived up to his reputation, speaking about concrete policy proposals, as a college student I worry about a job in 2014, not a government check in 2054, especially since I'm not planning on getting any government checks at all anyway. Regulatory, entitlement, and tax reform have little to offer us in the short term.

I admire his honesty, but is this really the Republican Party’s attitude toward massive, crushing unemployment? Can nothing be done for laid-off workers and future workers (like myself) whose only crime will be timing their graduations badly? It was a scant ten years ago that the first round of Bush tax cuts were essentially promoted as Keynesian-style stimulus. Before that, Milton Friedman’s monetary theory was embraced by Conservatives as a more palatable way to affect economic conditions. Now, Friedman would be treated “pretty ugly” down in Texas and no GOP candidate would dare to mention aggregate demand.

I asked another student what she thought about the answer. “At least he takes the debt seriously. The Democrats pretend it doesn’t exist” she said. True, but what does it say about the Republican Party when one of its most serious leaders doubts whether a policy response to the most immediate crisis facing the country is even possible?