Democrats: When will they learn?
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama announced Thursday that he'll host a White House summit next month on fighting the chronic joblessness that continues to be a drag on a struggling economy.
"We are open to any demonstrably good idea to supplement the steps we've already taken to put America back to work," Obama said before taking off for a trip to Asia, where U.S. and global business prospects will be among the key issues under discussion.
Speaking at the White House, the president called a report showing fewer claims for jobless benefits "a hopeful sign." But with millions of Americans out of work, Obama said the government has "an obligation to consider every additional responsible step we can" to get people back to work.
While Obama may have good intentions and is just trying to show Americans that he knows that people are still hurting and that he really does care about those people, I think he made a mistake announcing this plan to hold a forum on jobs in December.
This is just what the Republican Party was waiting to hear. To them, this is an admission by Obama and the Democrats that their Recovery and Reinvestment Act didn't do the job they had promised it would.
What makes this even worse is, Obama announced it just as they are finally coming closer to voting for a final bill for health care reform.
Can't you just see the ads now?
"How can we believe the Democrat's claim they know how to cut the cost of our health care, when just 10 months ago they also claimed they would save or create 3.5 million jobs, but now we're told they need to hold a special "Jobs Forum" because too many people still need jobs?
I predicted previously that the jobs would return in the spring and summer of 2010. I continue to believe they will, economists are also predicting this. Jobs are always the last to return after a 'normal' recession. This recession, everybody knows, was the worst we've had since the Great Depression. Of course, it's going to take a bit longer to get the jobs back. The recession began in late 2007 according to experts. It's only logical that the jobs are just now starting to slowly appear again.
Instead of holding 'steady' with their plans they made in February, the Democrats are caving once again to the pressures laid on them by the Republican Party. By even hinting that the jobs market might not be what they had hoped for by this time, they are hurting their chances politically and putting more 'fear' into the hearts of Americans.
When will they learn?
When do we stop caring about what the Republicans will say? What Fox News will burble? What the media will hash this into? Obama's foes censure him for wearing socks. For breathing air and breaking wind. If he snores or moves his lips while reading, they'll call for his exile. Attacking joblessness must start now. Shiftless peasants like me are sizing up our national government as the handmaiden of the plutocratic elite - who don't give fresh, sticky dump about the unemployed. It's up to our public servants to turn around that perception. Bravo, Obama! Your Goldman Sach mafia will take care of the big boys. How about something for the rest of us? It's a democracy, after all.
For now...
November 13, 2009 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here! Here!
Or should it be...Hear! Hear!
WTF! Well said, SFC!
November 13, 2009 7:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's nothing in the healthcare legislation about cutting costs. And yes, this is an admission that unemployment is still in terrible shape, despite the hundreds of billions of "stimulative" spending.
It's got nothing to do with Fox vs MSNBC or Dems vs Reps. It's just the plain facts we are facing.
November 13, 2009 9:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Millionaires come in many colors. There "is" honor among thieves. They take care of their own!
November 13, 2009 10:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Were we talking about millionaires? Did I miss something? Not sure what millionaires have to do with what we were talking about.
November 13, 2009 11:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
All these forums and councils (on health care, jobs, Afghanistan) are sending a message that Obama doesn't really know what to do and has to ask others . . . he should seek advice, but he should do more of it in private, then go public with clear ideas about how to proceed. All Obama is doing now is undermining his image as a leader. He's headed for Carterville, I'm afraid . . .
November 14, 2009 9:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
But, Obama is NOT a leader. That is the problem. A real solution would be to fire Summers, Geithner and let Bernanke retire, rather than re-appointing him. Get rid of the Wall Street sycophants. Bring in a new team to implement an FDR-like solution (Jamie Galbraith could lead the team). Put the banking system thru FDIC bankruptcy, start mobilizing an effort to save the remnants of our industrial-machine tool sector (what's left of it), to build up basic infrastructure in rail, energy, health, water management, etc. Push through Medicare for all. This would create millions of jobs in the real physical economy, as opposed to the current policy which lets the zombie banks build their new bubbles which will burst again soon, bringing down what's left of Main Street in a total systemic collapse.
There cannot be a recovery without this. Real unemployment is over 20% and will not be reduced by bailing out the banks. All the capital is now flowing to the mega banks and mega corporations. Small and medium sized concerns are being starved to death - and they are the ones who will create the jobs in any recovery. We need a dirigist policy of directed credits for long-term investments in infrastructure and re-industrialization. Outlaw and starve out the speculators instead - break their power now or we will all be low wage serfs to them. And what's left of national sovereignty will be gone.
November 14, 2009 11:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
The answer is they won't learn as long as Obama is in charge. This is his all too predicatable pattern of "leadership". They have their heads up their ass as usual!
At the same time the neo-Republicans running the White House who say they are Democrats and are offering the nation a rotten health insurance industry subsidy bill, are planning a spending freeze or even a 5% across the board budget cut for the federal government when what we need is a bigger and stronger stimulus to get the economy making jobs once again. This takes the lesson that FDR learned the hard way when he started cutting back on the New Deal and thus deepening the depression of the 30's and tosses it right out the window. What a bunch of fucking idiots! Anyone who has taken freshman econ can tell you this is the opposite of what the government needs to be doing. But the important thing to these cowards is to kow tow to the Republicans.
The unprecedented window of opportunity and all the hope that went with it earlier this year has been squandered by a crowd of cowardly corporate Democrats who are just as out of touch with the reality most Americans and the genuine economic emergency we are facing as Bush and Cheney were. It is an historic failure of leadership that we are seeing unfold before our very eyes. Democrats have abdicated the power given them in the elections in order to please their corporate paymasters. It is sickening.
November 14, 2009 10:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely right on. It is sickening and tragic. A slow-motion Shakespearian tragedy playing out before our eyes. A great moment is being squandered by tiny, tiny people. Obama is a narcissistic know-nothing. I had such high hopes in November, but our country seems incapable of producing any political leadership with the brains and balls to see what needs to be done and f'ing DO IT!
November 14, 2009 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink