Let's make this very clear: Government does not now and will not ever create jobs. It isn't the nature of government to create jobs. What government creates is called "work".

What's the difference between "jobs" and "work"? The primary difference is that jobs are self-sustaining. Work is simply an economic black hole - you can pour money into work, but you never get a monetary return on your investment.

Why can't government create jobs? Because politicians are not interested in return on investment, at least not as far as dollars and cents. The only return a politician is concerned about is a return to the polls. The only question a politician asks when spending money is how many votes it will garner or lose them.

The evidence on this is very clear - just look at some of the alleged "jobs" created by the recent trillion-plus economic stimulus created: building roadway turtle crossings (are we charging the turtles to cross?), renovating state parks (which, last I checked, were free), swine odor research (how do we make that pay back?), etc. Almost none of the WORK government spends money on has any hope of a return on investment - except in votes. After all, nobody wants to run over turtles crossing the road, and everyone loves a state park, and who wants to smell swine? It's all very "nice", but it all amounts to public works projects that will never earn back what we spend on them.

Jobs, on the other hand, are self-sustaining. Private businesses almost never hire employees that have no hope of ever earning back what they are paid. Salespeople are expected to sell, construction workers are expected to build, and investment is expected to pay off - not in good will, but in actual dollars. If workers do not pay off, they are fired and someone has to work a little bit harder to make up for the loss. Only businesses can create jobs because businesses are concerned about making money - not earning votes.