Top Democrats Throw Cold Water On Obama Jobs Plan

Roll Call:

House Democratic leaders are already writing off President Barack Obama's $50 billion infrastructure proposal, saying that GOP opposition will likely doom any major bills on tap before the November elections.

Read the whole story: Roll Call

Comments

[OldTulsan]

02:29 AM on 09/11/2010

The reason for offshoring manufacturing is that manufacturing workers in India and Communist China make ~3% of U.S. workers; e.g.:

http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2010/05/art1full.pdf
Labor costs in India’s organized manufacturing sector

The Obama administration plans to abolish the BLS's International Labor Comparison Program

http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/10/0212/BLS.html
Obama Puts BLS's International Labor Comparison Program On Chopping Block

See page 11 of this White House document:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2011/assets/trs.pdf
Terminations, Reductions, and Savings...

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Federal+government+is+accountable+to+only+itself-a0234418864
Federal government is accountable to only itself. - Free Online Library

"...The ILC is the only government data program that tracks manufacturing labor compensation rates across countries. It is the program which disclosed that Mexico's manufacturing workers have salaries ($2.92 per hour) that amount to 12 percent of manufacturing worker salaries in the United States ($25.27), a figure that includes wages, taxes, benefits and health care. The program is the only one in the world that accurately compares all aspects of labor compensation. It recently conducted an assessment of China's manufacturing worker compensation, which was $0.81 per hour (2.7 percent of the average hourly compensation costs of manufacturing employees in the United States). More recently, it found that total compensation per manufacturing worker in India averaged $0.91 per hour..."

So much for ransparency

[RW11]

06:13 AM on 09/11/2010

Re manufacturing, the gross value of US industrial production in 2009 (in the depths of the recession) was $3.1tr (2005 dollars). This compares to $2.3tr (2005 dollars) in 1990, $1.8tr (2005 dollars) in 1980 and $1.5tr (2005 dollars) in 1972.

So the gross value of production in real terms is about 35% higher than in 1990, about 72% higher than 1980 and about double that in 1972.

Real manufacturing output as a share of real GDP has not declined significantly since 1950 (when it was around 16%) - see figure 3 at http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=5078&type=0.

EPI even admitted (in 2004) that "manufacturing's share has actually been quite stable over the past 25 years" - see figure 1 at http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/briefingpa pers_bp149/

According to CRS: "From 1970 to 2000 the cumulative increase in manufacturing real output was 144%. That translates to an annual average rate of growth of 3.0%, only slightly slower than the 3.1% pace of the overall economy. This is not the picture of a sector that was in significant economic decline ... What has largely been in decline in manufacturing for the last 40 years is what consumers need to spend to purchase those goods". See http://www.policyarchive.org/handle/10207/bitstreams/2016.pdf

[RW11]

06:14 AM on 09/11/2010

ILC will tell you that "China has lost millions of manufacturing workers since the mid-1990s", and that the number of manufacturing workers in China in 2006 was about 14m below its peak (reached in 1996).

Is that what Obama is trying to hide?

See http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2005/07/art2full.pdf and http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2009/04/art3full.pdf

[OldTulsan]

11:09 AM on 09/11/2010

No, those results have already been published; they were published in 2006 and 2009.

They state that the state-run industries were the ones laying off millions of workers, as they became privatized.

The U.S. government wants to make sure that there are no future results.

Manufacturing includes R&D and supply chain jobs, as well as those making the products.

Perhaps you should contact Richard McCormick, publisher of Manufacturing & Technology News, to inform him that there's nothing to worry about.

His email address is on this article:

http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/newss/ceooutsourcing830.html
Accelerating Trade Imbalance In Manufacturing: A Central G-20 Challenge In Seoul

"Multinational CEOs Say Outsourcing Has Gone Too Far ..."

[SocialDemocracy]

05:48 PM on 09/08/2010

"House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that Democrats are looking at Obama’s proposal to pass “additional legislation to invest in infrastructure,” but he warned, “It will be very difficult to get a very broad agenda through ... because Republicans’ obstructionism has, in effect, not allowed us to do some of the job-creating actions that we want.”

These clowns can't believe that people by this stuff. The Democrats have 255 House members and 57 Sentate members and they don't have the guts to fight for a modest roads improvement bill during a deep recession? The House Majority Leader and his cohorts are afraid to lead; therefore, they will not likely remain in the majority.

Reagan dismantled what was left of the New Deal and the Great Society programs with a Democratic House and a narrow majority in the Senate from 1981-1987. I don't think he was a great communicator, I think he was a buffoon, but unlike Obama and the Majority Leader, he did not shy away from a fight and he knew how to enlist the electorate in support of his agenda, reactionary as it was.

[RightinWA]

10:44 AM on 09/08/2010

This is simply a 50 BILLION dollar donation to the unions......

[mfelder]

10:18 PM on 09/08/2010

What is this hatred for the American worker. Unions represents the people, not big business.

[Hwrd Sprague]

09:36 AM on 09/08/2010

NEWSFLASH They aren't "jobs" plans that Obama is peddling; they are SPENDING plans

[StephCaster]

10:01 AM on 09/08/2010

Yes, target government spending creates jobs directly. It also puts money in consumers hands to stimulate demand, and jump start the economy. Every month of Republican sabotage and obstruction adds 2-3 months to the long struggle to undo the structural damage the Bush/Congressional Republic/Bluedogs have done to our economy.

[wdw505]

11:23 AM on 09/08/2010

so obstruction until nov doesn't do much harm......cool

[jerzygurl]

07:53 AM on 09/08/2010

No problem, the Bank of China told Obama the $50 Billion loan offer was good till Dec 31st.

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

03:36 AM on 09/08/2010

Please stop referring to these guys as "top Dems" or democrats. Generally, if they do not support the President's agenda, they are some degree, "lower".

[SirSlappy]

07:09 AM on 09/08/2010

Yes. Up with the Poliboro of Yes men. Down with independent thinkers.

Who would follow Obama anywhere? He is trudging to his defeat.

[coolaid8]

09:22 AM on 09/08/2010

Unfortunately, we are all following him to a horrible place where no economy has ever gone before.

[efffox]

02:31 AM on 09/08/2010

Shouldn't the headline read "REPUBLICANS throw cold water on Obama's jobs plan"?

[rosiebond007]

02:11 AM on 09/08/2010

The Democrats should get in line behind the President.

You NEVER hear the Republicans waver on support - the Democrats make themselves look so weak.

[efffox]

02:32 AM on 09/08/2010

Or independent thinkers who don't just walk lock-step with the leaders and do what's best for their constituents? Or you could be right!

[mfelder]

10:21 PM on 09/08/2010

The democrats don't deserve to win. They don't know how to handle power. The Republicans say boo and the democrats cut and run.

[CraigRobertPaul]

01:57 AM on 09/08/2010

SUPPORT THE PRESIDENT pass the damn bill jerks. Maybe Obama will be better off with a Republican congress at least he knows were he stands. I am tired of America being held hostage by the Republican party and the meanest and dumbest people in America. Only in America can so many willfully forget our own history. Even as little as 2 years ago. Oh well here is to Jeb in 2012.

[behavingbadly]

07:44 AM on 09/08/2010

you have a good but sad point

[AOGutierrez]

11:24 AM on 09/08/2010

"I am tired of America being held hostage by the Republican party and the meanest and dumbest people in America."

Amen

[SLOMO66]

01:17 AM on 09/08/2010

I don't understand how anyone can be so weak.

we know that the republicans run on lies, how can you be so scared of something that is inherently not true?

the top democrats say that the reps will block it. THEN MAKE THEM DO IT.

[rosiebond007]

02:06 AM on 09/08/2010

GOOD POST - GET ON WITH IT DEMS.

SUPPORT THE PRESIDENT

[AOGutierrez]

11:25 AM on 09/08/2010

Exactly! Make them do it during an election.

[cbates]

01:10 AM on 09/08/2010

Boy, you guys take any opportunity to write something negative about the President. The article is nothing like what your title indicates. It is a good thing that the person who may have read to the original got the truth. The meat of the article was is the proposal is a good one and will be taken up definitely after the election. The concept is foreign to you all and it is called governing without concern for what the election might bring. Or, the President would hope we the public would see the value in looking forward beyond the short term politics.

[behavingbadly]

07:48 AM on 09/08/2010

short term seems to have become the ONLY term.

[farmilyman]

12:30 AM on 09/08/2010

Bunch of wusses. No wonder they can't fire up the base.

[synthfiend]

11:32 PM on 09/07/2010

Democrats: The party of standing in a circle and shooting at each other so they can look even more inept than their republican counterparts. And the america will incur the full wrath of the republicans who represent the armed and dumb because these democrat doorknobs refuse to work with the president or with each other for that matter

[mashtoe]

12:35 AM on 09/08/2010

Your mistake is in assuming the Democrats are any different from the Rethugs. There is no difference on the key issues. Both support offshoring. Both support free trade with slave labor China, NAFTA, WTO, and banking deregulation. And both supported TARP.

[castlerider]

11:01 PM on 09/07/2010

Our guy continues to not have a clue on how to really fight, does he?

He can SO use this.... A perfect reason why he should get with his party and demand teamwork, letting them know he's prepared to fight and ask them "Are you with me? I'm ready to fight, are you with me, or NOT?"

Take any issue like this one, having to do with important budget procedures, run them through reconciliation, slam them through, and sign 'em into law.... THERE'S STILL TIME!

My favorite's Campaign Finance Reform, which'd need budgetary assistance for elections.... Especially after Citizens United... Would leave pundits and Politicos catching their collective breaths..!!. For weeks!To hell with these unpatriotic swill that only want to stand in the way, and scream whenever he tries to lead. Mock them. Taunt them. Ridicule them for their favorite line "Crammed down our throats" until it's rattled to the irrlevancy it deserves.

THAT'S what the American people expect. Some real get nasty all-you-need fighting to WIN.

I guarantee if he would fight like that, Dem's approvals would jump 20% in a FORTNIGHT!”

[AOGutierrez]

11:28 AM on 09/08/2010

You might be right.

[BocaMom]

10:37 PM on 09/07/2010

It's scary. The White House doesn't have a clue on to fix the economy and put 20 million Americans bak to work.

[SPQR1052]

04:39 AM on 09/08/2010

The White House, this or any before it, does not create jobs the private sector does. The key element is consumer and business "confidence." This administration and DEM cacaus sorely lacks cajones in pushing back against the RETHUG insurgents and their obstructionism.

[Tropiholic]

06:17 AM on 09/08/2010

from braindead raygun, all the way to bush, it's tough to fix decades of gop bunggling in 2 years, get real