Caterpiller Announces Another 2,500 Job Cuts

Does anyone remember this statement from Obama in February:



At the very end, Obama said that Caterpillar could rehire some of those laid off employees if his stimulus package was passed. Well, Obama was right. Caterpillar will recall about 550 employees that it had previously laid off. The only problem with this is that they won't be rehired until the "end" of 2010. In the same breath, however, the company also announced another permanent cut of 2,500 more jobs (Click to See Full Story: "Caterpillar Cuts 2,500 Workers, Recalls Others"). So, I guess you could say there was another net loss of almost 2,000 jobs. Overall, Caterpillar has let go 34,000 workers during this recession.

(Please Note: Later, the CEO of Caterpillar said that he never told Obama that he would rehire anyone if the Stimulus Package was passed. Even so, no one should ever say "You Lie, Mr. President!" After all, Obama doesn't lie, he just "misstates". Unfortunately, he seems to"misstate" a lot, now, doesn't he? )

Isn't it amazing that one of the supposed heirs of the spending in the Stimulus Package has to keep laying employees off. This is despite all the purported infrastructure building that would need the very kind of heavy equipment that is made by Caterpillar.

However, if Obama knew anything about the heavy equipment industry or, even, business in general, he would have known that, in a recession, there is a lot of idle heavy equipment that is just laying around. Even with the Stimulus Package, it will only be idle equipment that will be put into use. Further, in the midst of this extreme economic downturn, no construction company is going to commit to any new equipment that costs thousands of dollars to buy. Additionally, there's no credit available to cover such massive purchases.

Every day we find out another piece of information that shows that Obama's Stimulus Package isn't working. This is just another example.