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However, while the Trump administration refuses to aid hard-pressed institutions that employ around 25 million Americans, it has gone all-out to help the oil industry.

Trumps possible success in brokering a deal to cut global oil production I say possible because oil prices havent moved much, which suggests that markets arent impressed made headlines Monday. But I havent seen much commentary about just how strange it is for a U.S. president to be playing that role.

First, since when is it the presidents job to organize international cartels?

Second, why are higher oil prices in the U.S. national interest? Were not a major oil exporter in fact, we import more oil than we export. And if Trumps cartel were actually successful in raising oil prices back to what they were before the current price war, U.S. consumers would pay a heavy price, on the order of $200 billion a year.

So why is propping up oil prices a priority? Trump says that its about jobs. But U.S. oil and gas extraction employs only around 150,000 workers. Thats less than 1 percent of the number of jobs America has lost in the past three weeks. Its only around 0.1 percent of total U.S. employment. Its a rounding error compared with the jobs at risk in hospitals and local government, which Trump is refusing to help.

So what makes oil worthy of aid when hospitals arent?

One answer is that investors have sunk a lot of money into oil, even though few jobs were created. Net fixed assets in oil and gas extraction are around $1.8 trillion, almost twice the total for hospitals, despite far smaller employment. So maybe this isnt about protecting jobs, its about protecting capital.

And this capital happens to be very G.O.P.-friendly: The oil and gas sector makes big political contributions, almost 90 percent of them to Republicans. This is, by the way, in strong contrast to education, which accounts for a majority of state and local government jobs and gives most of its contributions to Democrats.

Finally, while America isnt a net oil exporter, Russia and Saudi Arabia are basically petrostates that export oil and almost nothing else. So propping up oil prices is a way for Trump to help his two favorite autocrats.

See more here:
Republicans Dont Want to Save Jobs - The New York Times