President Obama's speech to the Democratic National Convention was long on uplifting rhetoric but short on specifics for what he'll do if reelected to reignite the American economy.
Yet today's jobs report provides a troubling reminder that the economy is still in bad shape. Employers added only 96,000 nonfarm jobs in August. True, the unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent from July's 8.3 percent, but the size of the workforce continued to drop, according to a Labor Department report Friday.
Unfortunately for the President -- and the rest of us -- jobs gains have averaged only 94,000 over the last three months. That's down from an average of 95,000 in the second quarter. And well below the average gain of 225,000 in the first quarter of the year. And compared to last year, the trend is still in the wrong direction: a monthly average gain of 139,000 this year compared to last year's average monthly gain of 153,000.
Look, I desperately want Obama to win. But the one thing his speech last night lacked was the one thing that was the most important for him to offer -- a plan for how to get the economy out of the doldrums.
Last week Mitt Romney offered only the standard Republican bromides: cut taxes on the rich, cut spending on programs everyone else depends on, and deregulate. They didn't work for George W. Bush and there's no reason to expect they'll work again.
But the president could have offered more than the rejoinder he did -- suggesting, even in broad strokes, what he'll do in his second term to get the economy moving again. At least he might have identified the scourge of inequality as a culprit, for example, pointing out, as he did last December, that the economy can't advance when so much income and wealth are concentrated at the top that the vast middle class doesn't have the purchasing power to get it back on track.
Undeniably, we have more jobs today than we did at the trough of the Great Recession in 2009. But the recovery has been anemic -- and it appears to be slowing. We're better off than we were then, but we're not as well off as we need to be by a long shot.
ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage," now available in paperback. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.
Follow Robert Reich on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RBReich
Instead of trying to fix the problem, he spent the better part of 2 years shoving health reform down our throats. Just wait until that kicks in, in 2014, should it no be repealed. Lets see how many true progressives stay with the program, when one of their family member or they themselves get a condition (cancer, etc) that the government won't pay for because of age, cost or other given reason or they have to wait in line 6 months due to doctor or budget shortages to get it taken care of. Socialism is the the people, not the socialist!
"The unemployment rate today is 4.1 percent for people with four years of college, 6.6 percent for those with two years, 8.8 percent for high school graduates, and 12.0 percent for dropouts."
This explains a LOT about the US state of affairs. And, it highlights the idiocy of the Republicans' war on education.
How about these for specifics from the Obama campaign.
Regulate entire industries out of existence.
Raise regulatory costs on every employer.
Spend money without a budget indefinitely.
Print so much money that food and energy costs are exploding.
Demonize and attack the nations employers.
Demonize and attack those that are successful.
And finally keep using phrases like, "You didn't build that"
Enough specifics for you Bob?
In fact, LMFAO@U
Supply and demand.
Infrastructure in the United States is a national disgrace. It's crumbling after decades of neglect. All of us, rich and poor, depend on America's infrastructure.
Unemployment in Construction is over 20%
Interest rates are NEAR zero.
You can't ASK for better terms to address this problem, yet it's not being addressed.
If not NOW............when?
One thing that IS "holding up better (jobs) growth right now" is the GOP's policy of obstructionism.
And another is that, despite promising "JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!" in the 2010 mid-terms, they produced ZERO jobs bills, while bringing forth 133 bills to limit women's Constitutional right to an abortion.
Since co-operation is anathema to the GOP, I'd say your post is a bit skewed.
This time, after a much deeper recession with a GDP drop of over 5%, it took only 8 months for jobs to turn positive. We didn't exceed the number of private jobs that existed when Bush took office until his second term. Despite the severity of the crisis and the constant Republican obstruction, we've already exceeded the number of jobs that existed when Obama took office.
But you still think that tax cuts are better at stimulating jobs than any kind of government stimulus.
you take the government, i'll take Apple. cool, genius?
Obama: 2007-9 recession: GDP fell over 5%. We started adding jobs back 8 months after the recession ended. Private sector jobs jumped over the number of jobs when Obama took office a few months back.
Unemployment has improved more on Obama's watch than it did on Bush's watch. In the 43rd month of his presidency, the unemployment rate was 1.2% more than it was when he took office. Under Obama, the unemployment rate is .3% more than it was after he took office.
Obama's Obamacare caused huge price increases to insurance policies
Obama's unwillingness to let company's bring money back to the US where they've already paid tax in the country the money has been earned leads to lest money to invest here
Obama's unwillingness to create trade policies that were beneficial provide a lack of opportunities to trade goods
Obama's protection of artificial wages through Unions make our workers uncompetitive