Leadership Quote by Mitch Daniels

Daniels is doing something slippery and effective here: stripping government of agency while keeping it on the hook for outcomes. The line sounds like modesty, even realism, but it’s a power move in miniature. “Government does not create jobs” is less an empirical claim than a boundary-setting gesture, a way to narrow what counts as legitimate public action. Then he widens the lane again with “conditions,” a softer word that can mean almost anything: tax rates, regulation, infrastructure, education, immigration, trade policy, central banking. The phrase launders ideology into managerial common sense.

The intent is classic pro-market political positioning. Jobs are framed as the product of private initiative; government’s role is backstage, not onstage. That framing makes it easier to argue for deregulation or tax cuts without sounding like you’re favoring business over workers. If jobs fail to materialize, blame shifts conveniently: the state didn’t “create” them, it merely set the stage. If jobs do appear, the politician can still take credit for “conditions.” Heads I win, tails I’m not responsible.

The subtext also sidesteps the messy reality that government does, at times, directly create jobs: public schools, police and fire departments, road crews, lab researchers, and the large shadow ecosystem of contractors. Daniels isn’t unaware; he’s choosing a narrative that keeps the public sector conceptually small even when it’s economically huge.

Contextually, this fits the post-1980 conservative rhetoric that recasts governance as climate control rather than construction: tune the thermostat, don’t build the house. It’s persuasive because it feels pragmatic while quietly pre-loading the policy menu.