Going the wrong way

Just at a time when one would think that the goal of the government ought to be to promote hiring, President Obama takes another step to do the opposite. Yesterday, Obama signed an executive order that requires all federal agencies to take part in a new council which will develop an action plan to promote diversity among the federal employees. As of today, just under 40 percent of federal employees are minorities and about 45% are women. That means that minorities are overrepresented and women underrepresented if these figures are compared to the population as a whole. Does this mean that the federal government has been discriminating against women and in favor of minorities. I doubt it. So should there be thousands of hours spent for yet another committee to promote diversity? Should the American taxpayer pay for the millions it will cost to develop the rules and then to implement them? Should the hiring by the federal government be subjected to yet another set of rules which will slow hiring? None of this makes sense.

Let me rephrase what I said. None of this makes sense except if the goal is to please the liberal base and help Obama with his re-election. The move will hurt job growth in the country, not help it. But Obama will get to crow about how much he has done to promote diversity. Whoopee! Why worry about jobs for the unemployed when you can fight instead for diversity.