President Obama's speech to Congress tonight reset the political battle lines and put Progressives back on the offensive.
The speech included provisions that Republicans in Congress may actually agree to pass -- like continuing the payroll tax holiday that if allowed to lapse would affect the paychecks of virtually every American worker. But it also made the case for bold initiatives to rebuild America's infrastructure and directly create jobs through a teacher corps and youth jobs program. These bolder proposals are critically necessary to jump start the economy, and Obama is betting -- correctly -- that if they fail to support them, Republicans will pay a political price next year.
What was needed was a package of proposals that were bold, projected urgency, and will create jobs now. The president delivered.
Obama explicitly rejected the dangerous, fallacious notion that the path to long-term economic growth runs through the valley of economic austerity.
He clearly defined the fundamental difference in values -- and economic philosophy -- between progressive Democrats and right wing Republicans.
The president provided the perfect counter point to Rick Perry's outrageous statement in the Republican debate, that the Obama economic record had proved once and for all that "Keynesianism was dead." Of course, just the opposite is true.
Any one who has taken a semester of Economics 101 knows that problem at the root recessions is too little economic demand to purchase the available supply of goods and services. Seeing their customer base shrink, businesses make fewer investments, and layoff more workers and the economy enters a downward -- deadly spiral.
What is needed to restore the economy to health is not "confidence" but customers. And the only economic actor that can provide those customers is the government. We must all collectively act through our government to restart the economy because if everyone is left to act in their own rational individual economic self interests they will make matters worse, not better. With less demand from customers, it is rational for businesses to hold on to their cash and lay off workers, but that only increases the number of people who are unemployed and unable to buy new products.
The 2009 stimulus bill halted the slid of the economy into depression. Without it we would have had another Great Depression. But it turns out the stimulus wasn't large enough to restart the engine of self-sustaining growth.
That's because we now know from new economic data that the Republican policies that lead to the melt down on Wall Street and triggered the recession, had inflicted even more damage on the economy than anyone knew at the time.
That means that to get us out of this economic swamp, the government must act to create more jobs now -- so that more people have money in their pockets and can buy more products and demonstrate to businesses that it makes economic sense to hire more workers and invest in more plants and equipment.
The notion that you can create more jobs by cutting government spending is not just another theory or point of view -- it is verifiably wrong. And in his speech the president made it clear that the Republican "emperor has no cloths."
When the Republicans prevented continued aid to state and local government, half a million teachers, firemen, health care workers, and cops were laid off -- its that simple.
If we were to cut the Social Security or Medicare benefits of middle class seniors they would have less money to buy things and that would mean that businesses hire less workers -- this is not hard.
As for the Republican's fixation on eliminating "regulatory burdens" and cutting taxes for wealthy "job creators" -- that is exactly the plan that lead to the deregulation of Wall Street and the crash -- and that generated exactly zero private sector job growth during the Bush years -- that's right zero. We've been there and tried that. It didn't work when Herbert Hoover tried it before the Great Depression and it didn't work when George Bush tried it before the Great Recession.
And of course in both cases that policy lead more and more of the fruits of our economy to go to the top two percent of Americans and less and less to the middle class. Today 400 families control as much wealth as 150 million Americans. That kind of gaping inequality creates the conditions that lead to economic stagnation, because when the income of everyday workers don't increase to keep pace with increases in worker productivity, it is mathematically impossible for workers to buy the new products they create.
Henry Ford understood that to be successful he had to pay his workers enough so that they, themselves, could by the cars they produced. Rick Perry and the Republicans don't get that simple fact. Luckily, President Obama does.
But this speech did more than clearly define the difference between progressive and right wing economic philosophy. It had huge political benefits for the president and Democrats.
First, Obama rejected the Republican view that there is nothing we can do to create new jobs but cut government spending and pray. He argued that we can take the future into our own hands -- that we are not just the victims of forces that are so big and so powerful that we are simply at their mercy. People don't want to be told they are helpless or that they must simply get used to the "new normal" and watch the American Dream go up in smoke. They want leadership, and Obama provided it.
Second, Obama recognizes the political fact that jobs trump short-term deficits. According to a July Gallup poll, concern over the economy and jobs top concern for the deficit by at 58% to 16% margin. The great deficit discussion -- Republican frame for debate that has dominated the summer -- completely missed the mark when it comes to the interests of most Americans.
Finally, Obama signaled the kind of campaign he will run in 2012. No incumbent president has won re-election in the last century when the economy was not either good -- or materially improving -- except for one. Harry Truman won in 1948 in the midst of bad economic news, by running against the "do-nothing Republican Congress."
Obama political adviser David Axelrod was quoted in the Washington Post as saying that "Obama will make clear that Republicans are to blame if they don't agree to the jobs measures... Harry Truman once said if you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat. And that's what the president is going to do."
That is exactly the kind of message that will simultaneously attract swing voters who want strong leadership to create jobs -- and at the same time re-inspire the progressive base.
Even if they want to go further than the president when it comes to the scale of a jobs program, progressives were elated that the President has sounded the call to battle on this critical issue -- that he has drawn an indelible contrast between the failed right wing economic policies of the past -- and progressive policies that will lead to widely shared long term economic growth.
If we take it, progressives and Democrats have the high political ground when it comes to the all important jobs debate. But that requires that we stand up proudly for our economic principles and contrast them sharply with the failed right wing economic policies of the past. Our principles provide solid political ground from which fight the battle of 2012. Obama's speech signaled that is precisely where he intends to make his stand.
Robert Creamer is a long-time political organizer and strategist, and author of the book: Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win, available on Amazon.com. He is a partner in Democracy Partners. Follow him on Twitter @rbcreamer.
Follow Robert Creamer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rbcreamer
Howard Fineman: Obama Puts Passion Into Jobs Speech Rarely Seen In His Presidency
Alan Schroeder: Rick Perry, Human Piñata
John Stanley and David Loy: Buddhism and the End of Economic Growth
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
His wife is Jan Schakowsky, D-IL.
'nuff said.
you will quickly learn all you need to know about him.
The present Republican party is a danger to world peace.
Tea Party led republicans cannot be expected to have a responsible attitude towards either America or the world.
For them to be an alternative to Obama, they would have to throw away their right wing.
Is that too much to ask?
And, what about those people who don't have a job? Is a cut in the witholding tax going to help them? How -- they don't have a paycheck to withold anything from! Put people to work, then the tax saving will help. Too, if the Federal Government sends money to the states, they will use it to pay their bills (Illinois is three months to a year behind on it's bills). If it is earmarked for teachers, it will only help a very small number of families -- not enough to make any difference.
If we spend money on so-called inferstructure upgrades, yes, that will put people to work -- but when? Improvments and repairs work right now, but new construction: tomorrow.
The poll he quotes runs contary to a number of other polls reported in the news. They all show that the deficit worries people the most.
Let's quit playing politics and concentrate on the very real problems we face!
It’s a PayGo Infrastructure Bank.
The legislation also requires that projects have dedicated repayment sources (page 43):
(3) DEDICATED REVENUE SOURCES.—The Federal credit instrument shall be repayable, in whole or in part, from tolls, user fees, or other dedicated revenue sources that also secure the infrastructure project obligations.
Our nation was founded and grew strong on the basis of our shared public infrastructure. It’s a shame that the American Infrastructure Financing Authority will be the agency in which ownership of public assets becomes private.
http://blogs.reuters.com/muniland/2011/09/10/the-infrastructure-privatization-bank/
1. Eliminate ALL subsidies, tax cuts except for those who create, invest in, expand and keep their businesses in the US, hiring only American citizens (and legal residents, not H-1 visa holders).
2. Require banks (especially those who got TARP) to resume prudent lending to credit-worthy businesses and individuals, rather than diverting deposits towards reckless speculation.
3. Cancel all "free" but unfair trade agreements, and implement a quid-pro-quo policy with every trading partner, so their tariffs, quotas, restrictions on our exports are met with the same on their imports to us.
4. Consider all our major trading partners (Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea, China, the EU) all have universal, single-payer health care, which costs their businesses 1/3 to 1/4 what US businesses pay for employee benefits.
5. Implement a flat 10% tax on ALL gross earnings/income, eliminating deductions, loopholes, exemptions-exceptions-exclusions. This would create a proportionately fair and far more simpler method of filing-paying for taxes, and generate more revenues.
6. Drastically reduce military spending: close all non-strategic bases; re-instate the draft, eliminating the need for $100-K mercenaries; open all contracts to competitive bidding (not "no-bid," "cost-plus" awards) so we get what we pay for and a better value.
deficit spend to prosperity. Intelligent government spending to jump start a depressed economy
has value, however, it is impossible to consider stimulus 1 nor its son stimulus 2 intelligent.
As to stimulus 1 being too small: I posit that $700B TARP, $350B repayment of TARP that
was quickly respent, $864B stimulus, $200B to Fan/Fred, $200B to AIG, homeowners, autos,
$2-3 TRILLION printed by the Fed, in addition to the 24% increase in annual on budget spending
is gargantuan by any measure. As to "lack of demand" as the culprit: it is not possible to jump start an economy while simultaneously drowning business with reams of expensive, duplicative, oppressive, Putinesque government regulations, demonizing business and threatening higher taxes. Obama's misguided agenda has frozen job growth which is primarily responsible for the lack of demand. Geo Bush bears no responsibility for Obama's failures and contrary to current
propaganda Obama got the entirety of his agenda through by way of Congress, the agencies, or executive order. Total tax reform is necessary for recovery, not more of Obama's targeted favors
to his base.
It blatantly failed to address corporate tax policies, the number one thing that's driving unemployment here in this country. It failed to put forth any ideas, sanctions or incentives to stop the massive bleeding of jobs out of this country to other countries due to unfair trade agreements that have put the ordinary American worker in an untenable position.
Take for instance the pending changes to the Trade Adjustment Assistance bill have been sitting for months, dead in the water, due to the White House itself exploiting procedural rules and failing to submit the bill to Congress.
That TAA bill would do a LOT to help ordinary American workers who have been affected by outsourcing / offshoring to RE-TRAIN for other industries and skills.
It would allow a big bunch of companies to EXPORT American-made products to other countries, and thereby create more jobs HERE.
And yet, there you are: the White House deliberately, cynically, sitting pat on the bill.
Convicted felon.
Writing bad checks and tax evasion.
Even his wife couldn't save him.
Ultra-Lib Democrat Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky.
He didn't propose any changes to our failed trade policy. No changes to H-1b work visas. And no changes to our open border and illegal labor problem.
-An infrastructure bank composed of an independent board (meaning their selection is totally removed from the democratic process) tasked with spreading federal seed money to start and fund infrastructure projects that will ultimately be turned over to the private sector for profit.
-Tax incentives for small employers which don't address demand.
And who could forget, the proposal to fund the package with cuts to Medicare. Short of immediate actions to stimulate mass hiring- single payer, green jobs funding or a direct hiring program, just to name a few- we're headed for years of persistently high unemployment. Yet Obama has just put forward a plan to throw older workers- those unlikely to find work again under current circumstances- to the wolves, for the sake of putting forward a package that by and large fails to focus on the root cause of our economic woes.
In other words, the jobs plan is more or less a hollowed piece of crap, sure to be negated by further budget cuts, designed to pass an extremely conservative Congress and be used as proof the administration tried to do something. That's saying one heckuva lot.
It's way past time for America to stop them.