By Eric Bolling
Co-host, “Happy Hour,” FOX Business Network/Host, “The Strategy Room,” FOXNews.com

President-elect Obama: One trillion jobs created will cost only $3 million, maybe $3.5 million, maybe $4 million.

President-elect Barack Obama finishes speaking about the economy, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009, at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. (AP)

Wait a minute… was it that much, or was it 3 million jobs will be created for nearly a trillion dollars? Or was it 3 million jobs created “or saved” for nearly a trillion dollars? –Hold on, I am pretty sure last Saturday it became four million jobs created or saved for nearly a trillion dollars.

I am getting a bit confused… The number of jobs that will be created has changed several times but one thing is certain, it has already increased by 33% in just over a week.

What America needs is productivity. We need jobs that come as a result of free enterprise, free markets and capitalism, not free money.

I have listened to almost every word publicly spoken from the podium of the office of the President-elect since November. I spend a lot of time talking about the stimulus plan and its effect on the economy on “Happy Hour,” “The Strategy Room” and “Bulls and Bears. ” I have taken extensive notes on what President-elect Obama says when he speaks and I am sure he has changed these numbers several times.

I have noticed something else. The Obama administration has changed the way they describe these jobs.

They have changed the wording from jobs “created” to jobs “created and saved.” This new semantic switcheroonie allows Obama, Rahm and the rest of the crew to count anything better than the recent numbers of job losses as a win for them.

The number of jobs lost in the last several months has been staggering. In 2008 our economy lost 2.6 million jobs that’s the most since the end of World War II! At 524,000 jobs lost in December alone, Obama can use this outlier as his watermark. As the economy comes out of the current recession, job losses will slow. At some point they may even stop and reverse thanks in no part to the Obama stimulus plan or the nearly 1 trillion dollars spent on it. When recessions end, and they all have so far, job losses slow down –That’s just simple Econ 101.

When he outlined his economic stimulus plan in his recent radio address (also seen on YouTube), Obama said, “the No. 1 goal of my plan is to create [Note: no mention of "saving" jobs] 3 million new jobs, more than 80 percent of them in the private sector.”

Since then the job creation number has swelled to four million. If the president-elect is correct, the remaining 20% will be government jobs, or 800,000 jobs! What if the economy turns around and job losses slow? Under the Obama stimulus plan, those government jobs might still total 800,000 and the rest may come from the “saved” jobs.

And Now, a Word About Government Jobs

Have ya been to the post office lately or the DMV? How do you feel about waiting in bumper to bumper traffic for 40 minutes and finally getting to the source? Ever been held up by a road crew with a guy jack hammering and six crew members standing around sipping coffee? Have you ever sat in line waiting for one bank teller to help you wondering while three others over there are just chatting with each other? (Here’s a trick. If you ever need anything that involves a government employee to help you, try this. Find out exactly what time the facility closes and get there 5 minutes before closing. You will be amazed how fast the lines move when it gets close to closing time and there are still customers aka taxpayers on line.)

Bottom line: It matters little what number Obama throws out there –3 million, 4 million jobs created, saved, created and saved. Heck, he may as well have promised a trillion jobs, one for each dollar we print and spend.

What America needs is productivity. We need jobs that come as a result of free enterprise, free markets and capitalism, not free money. I happened to jot down the following quote as Obama spoke about the economy last week at George Mason University. Toward the end of his speech, he said, “We need to put money into the pockets of Americans.” What does Obama mean when he aims to “put money into the pockets”? Shouldn’t we focus on creating opportunity for Americans to earn money, start and grow businesses, build equity in homes, work, earn, live? There are ways better ways to build a solid economic foundation rather than sponsoring an unmotivated, unproductive work force that has little incentive to create and innovate.