By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.com 

INDIANAPOLIS – The silence deafens.

Not long ago – just a few years ago, in fact – shouts from conservatives across the land filled the air. The federal government’s deficits were an ongoing crisis. The national debt was a disaster in waiting.

The threat was so serious that drastic measures were called for. Republicans in many states – including Indiana – said America needed a new constitutional convention. It was the sole way to save the day and the nation. Indiana even hosted a gathering for those calling for such a convention, one several Hoosier legislative leaders endorsed.

The problem, these doomsday prophets warned, was President Barack Obama’s health-care reforms. Those reforms were running such huge annual deficits that a smash-up was inevitable. The only way to avoid the cataclysm was to change the Constitution and tie the hands of both the president and Congress regarding the budget.

Then the election of 2016 happened.

Donald Trump lost the popular vote but pulled off the equivalent of an inside straight in the Electoral College to become president. Republicans also won the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.

The members of the GOP could set whatever budget priorities they chose, including trimming deficits and paying down the debt. They chose to make their top priority a massive tax cut that favored the very wealthy.

But the cries for a constitutional convention to deal with the debt and deficits dwindled, then died.

Was that because the problem went away?

Well, no.

In each of the three years, Donald Trump has been president, the deficit has been around $1.1 trillion. During the last four years of the Obama presidency – the years when the howls for the constitutional convention were the loudest – the federal budget deficits ranged from $438 billion to $679 billion. They declined in Obama’s second term when his healthcare reforms took effect.

These Trump deficits have occurred during a time of economic prosperity. As the president likes to boast, the stock market has set record after record. The job numbers indicate that the United States is operating close to what economists call full employment.

To be sure, the good news is not universal.

Wages for lower-income Americans haven’t kept pace with the growth of the economy. There’s also considerable evidence that part of the reason the job numbers are so good is that more and more people are working two or three jobs to keep their heads above water.

But, still, if things are going so well, there should be enough money available to bring the deficits down, right?

Again, no.

It appears to be a question of values.

Apparently, running up deficits to allow old people, children, sick people and poor people to buy luxuries such as insulin is wrong, wrong, wrong. Those people should be able to provide for themselves and their needs. If they can’t, well, tough.

But running up deficits to allow billionaires to engage in stock buybacks or to purchase that much-needed ninth home is okay. In fact, it’s better than okay. It’s great.

It appears that the deficits never were the issue.

Treating old people, children, sick people and poor people like, well, people was the problem.

Sometimes, one conservative friend or another of mine will shake his head and wonder why so many of their fellow Americans – particularly young Americans – are listening to “socialistic” proposals like those coming from Democratic presidential candidates such as Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.

Sanders and Warren can’t be that persuasive, they say.

They’re right.

On their own, Sanders and Warren aren’t that persuasive.

But, then, they’ve had a lot of help making their case from erstwhile conservative deficit hawks.

FOOTNOTE: John Krull is the director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

By Brandon Barger
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS—Businesses across the state are hiring under-qualified people or reassigning work duties to make up for the lack of applicants for their open jobs, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce has reported.

Those are the strategies businesses are using to adapt to the ongoing shortage of qualified applicants, the chamber reported as it released its 12^th annual employer workforce survey. The survey had responses from more than 1,000 businesses in 89 of the state’s 92 counties.

“We started it (the survey) because back then, and even more so now, workforce issues are increasingly important and challenging for employers so we wanted to get their opinions that would help us guide our programming,” said Kevin Brinegar, president and CEO of the Indiana Chamber.

Of the companies that responded to the survey, 49% reported that they had jobs that had been left unfilled.  This is down from a year ago when it was at 51% and was the number one challenge for companies.

However, Brinegar said that there were other factors that concerned the businesses that responded to the survey.

“We speculate that other things, like trade, tariffs, and foreign competition were the more important issues,” Brinegar said.

The chamber is also reporting that there is a decrease in companies reporting workforce or talent needs as a primary challenge. Last year, 33% of the responding companies reported that as a challenge compared to 12% this year.

Brinegar said that it was interesting to see the correlation between companies who didn’t report problems with talent needs and companies who did report that challenge.

Brinegar said that the businesses that didn’t report issues meeting their talent needs tended to be plugged into post-secondary educations for training and education, but “the ones who said that they were still challenged in finding the people that they need also responded that they didn’t use these programs.”

A quarter of the of companies said they are assigning duties and responsibilities internally compared to 18% a year ago and 23% are hiring underqualified applicants compared to only 11% two years earlier. Nearly three-quarters said they are open to hiring people with fewer skills and education and then train them on the job.

The survey also showed that 44% of companies are starting to look at skills other than education level when evaluating job applicants.

“I’m seeing resumes of college students, or recent college graduates who during their time in college have had not one but multiple internships or work and learn experiences,” Brinegar said.

The survey also found that employers cite bigger challenges with attracting employees than training or keeping them. Forty percent of employers believe applicants are not attracted to the community where the companies are located, which Brinegar said “underscores the quality of the place.”

Brinegar says that the future involves more automation of the lower, entry level jobs which means “a higher and higher demand for greater skills.”

The full survey results are available here.

Brandon Barger is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalists.