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Saturday, July 11, 2009

President Obama: Americans need jobs, jobs, jobs

Listen up. Today, The Daddy is feeling Bob Herbert and his column suggesting that Obama should do a second stimulus package focusing on jobs. The Daddy agrees. But we should also be fair in our criticism or feedback about the Obama administration's economic recovery plan.

Originally, the Obama administration tried to provide up to a 100 billion more in initiat
ives that would have provided jobs, but it was criticized by Republicans like Senators Lindsey Graham and McConnell as too expensive and providing too little tax cuts, which is their political answer to just about everything under the son. So the final version was really a "bi-partisan" plan, a compromise between well-intentioned democrats and recalcitrant Republicans who seem to want the Obama administration to fail anyway.

That notwithstanding, the Obama adinis
tration-- instead of waiting for the so-called stimulus to work-- should redirect monies from the first recovery plan to initiatives that would provide jobs, all kinds of jobs. As has been stated on this post, monies focused on handling the foreclosure mess and creating jobs (putting money in the hands of workers) is the best way to get the economy back on track, as opposed to focusing on putting money into banks and insurance companies like AIG.

As Herbert states, all additional funding from now on should be about getting people jobs. Here is the article:
******************
The Human Equation
by Bob Herbert
July 11, 2009



Bob Herbert

Vice President Joe Biden told us this week that the Obama administra
tion “misread how bad the economy was” in the immediate aftermath of the inauguration.

Bob Herbert

Puh-leeze. Mr. Biden and President Obama won the election because the economy was cratering so badly there were fears we might be entering another depression. No one understood that better than the two of them. Mr. Obama tried to clean up the vice president’s remarks by saying his team hadn’t misread what was happening, but rather “we had incomplete information.”

That doesn’t hold water, either. The president has got the second coming of the best and the brightest working for him down there in Washington (think of Larry Summers as the latter-day Robert McNamara), and they’re crunching numbers every which way they can. They’ve got more than enough data. They understand the theories and the formulas as well as anyone. But they’re not coming up with the right answers because they’re missing the same thing that McNamara and his fellow technocrats were missing back in the 1960s: the human equation.

The crisis staring America in its face and threatening to bring it to its knees is unemployment. Joblessness. Why it is taking so long — seemingly forever — for our government officials to recognize the scope of this crisis and confront it directly is beyond me.

There are now five unemployed workers for every job opening in the U.S. The official unemployment rate is 9.5 percent, but that doesn’t begin to tell the true story of the economic suffering. The roof is caving in on struggling American families that have already seen the value of their homes and retirement accounts put to the torch.

At the present rate, upwards of seven million homes can be expected to fall into foreclosure this year and next. Welfare rolls are rising, according to a survey by The Wall Street Journal. The National Employment Law Project has pointed out that hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers will begin losing their jobless benefits, just about the only thing keeping them above water, by the end of the summer.

Virtually all of the job growth since the start of the 21st century (which was nothing to crow about) has vanished. If you include the men and women who are now working part time but would like to work full time, and those who have become so discouraged that they’ve stopped actively searching for work, you’ll find that 16.5 percent of Americans are jobless or underemployed. Nearly everyone who is fortunate enough to have a job has a spouse or a parent or an in-law or a close friend who is desperate for employment.

Anyone who believes that the Obama stimulus package will turn this jobs crisis around is deluded. It was too small, too weakened by tax cuts and not nearly focused enough on creating jobs. It’s like trying to turn a battleship around with a canoe. Even if it were working perfectly, the stimulus would not come close to stemming the cascade of joblessness unleashed by this megarecession.

For the full story, click here:

8 comments:

Vigilante said...

Saw the story. Amen, amen, amen.

rainywalker said...

daddyBstrong,
The government has pumped all these billions and trillions into getting people jobs and I'm reserving judgement for now. Where are the jobs from all this money spent? Is it going to eventually get to the people that need it or into some fat cats pocket. We may need another package. But does that make sense when the first one isn't working yet? I really want this to help the poor and out of work but it just isn't happening here in Colorado. Is the money filtering down in Minnesota?

Anonymous said...

Read the column first thing in the morning. We need more jobs, yet the GOP doesn't get it. Trickle down economics doesn't work and that's what tax cuts are.

I hope if there's a second stimulus it's the one Obama promised --and the Democrats ram it down the GOP's throat.

Mac Daddy Tribute Blog said...

Rainy: The money from the stimulus has shown to be working in the sense that it has helped people in law enforcement, firefighters and others who provide basic services in metropolitan areas to keep their jobs. There are plans to use funding for expanding railroads and construction. I could be wrong, but these types of projects take a long time to get rolling. I imagine this is also true in other cities too. You may recall that the Obama administration budgeted for putting billions into fixing up schools, a project that could have put poor and out of work people to work immediately, but Republicans trounced that in one of those committees...It seems that every so-called bi-partisan bill or plan comes out too weak to be worth a damn.

Mac Daddy Tribute Blog said...

Robster: I've long-since tired of Obama playing footsy with Republicans who hate his guts and want him to fail. The seem to hate all programs designed to help the poor and working class to keep their homes, get a job or stay afloat in this miserable economy. I don't think they have a clue how tough it is for poor and working people out here. As you no doubt know, even people who once were living relatively well are now barely hanging on. I don't think Republicans can see that.

Sista GP said...

Where is the count of jobs where salaries have been reduced? Where hours have been cut? where more work or longer hours for same pay?
Living expenses increase, food, utilities, fuel, but income stagnant.
These situations are not counted in Unemployment percentages.
Another situation is where employers are treating they employees like crap because they know folks won't quit or if they do, they can easily find someone else.

patti t said...

The need to save and revive jobs certainly needs to be and remain a high priority over the next year. Everyday I hear of another friend, or friend/relative of a friend, that has recently been laid off or fired or about to exhaust their unemployment benefits. I do know that some stimulus dollars have effectively saved some jobs as the daddy mentions and I know my organization has applied for recovery act/stimulus dollars aimed at helping nonprofits keep or bring back lost jobs. But it's just scratching the surface of what's needed. I read that Obama is looking at steering some dollars to saving small business and that's great if it really gets to small businesses that really need it and are from and located in communities that will struggle even more if these businesses lay off their last employee(s) and shut down. Let's be clear about one thing...Congress is not doing its job and until Republicans believe that the country will hold them accountable for failing to do what's right and Democrats are willing to stand up for what's right, Obama can only do so much.

CareyCarey said...

Anytime you give a person money and do not tell them exactly how to spend it, there is going to be a problem. Intentions are one thing, but reality is another. When I use my debit or credit card, I want to see a reciept -- like right now!

I can remember my mother giving me money to put in the church basket. Well, there was a candy store between our home and the church.

I don't know the earmarks on the stimulus money but I can't help but think much of it is being spent to clean-up mess --past mess, and not used to creat jobs.

Like other postees, I don't like statistics -- they lie. Unemployment numbers have no faces. I'd sure like to see the breakdown. I'd like to know who's unemployed (job, race, pay rate, old, young, new employee, college graduate, years on job, repeat unemployed etc,). Then ...THEN we'd clearly see if these "new jobs" will ever fit on the right feet! Until that happens, big bank will always swallow the little bank (oldschool term). Old money has a deep disdain for new money and will do everything in it's power to protect it's neighborbor "rights" ...ask any Republican.

How are we going to fix a problem if we don't know the real problem?

SMH, on a side note,what the hell is an approval rating. Nobody has ever asked me what I think about the whole damn deal. What about you MacDaddy. Has anyone knocked on your door and asked you to host a meeting of the minds with you and your family?