This morning, Barack Obama appeared on five different networks -- speaking about the economy, health care, and Afghanistan.
But in his exchange on CNN's State of the Union with John King, President Obama articulated a softness on the imperative of job creation that is disconcerting.
From a CNN report:
Obama even suggested that the national unemployment rate, which is hovering at just under 10 percent, could climb higher in the near future."I want to be clear, that probably the jobs picture is not going to improve considerably -- and it could even get a little bit worse -- over the next couple of months," the president told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King, "And we're probably not going to start seeing enough job creation to deal with the -- a rising population until some time next year."
Obama added that he thought the economy would be creating jobs throughout the end of 2009 -- but not enough to keep pace with population growth and to make up for steep losses in employment that occurred earlier this year.
"I think we'll be adding jobs, but you need 150,000 additional jobs each month just to keep pace with a growing population. So if we're only adding 50,000 jobs, that's a great reversal from losing 700,000 jobs [a month] early this year -- but, you know, it means that we've still got a ways to go."
In January and February of this year, the president committed himself to a jobs creation plan of approximately four million jobs in created or saved jobs by 2011. We are no where near on that course. In February, Paul Krugman warned that the so-called economic recovery plan tweaks were already reducing the job-creating element of the stimulus package by between 600,000 and 1.2 million jobs.
The economy is in lousy shape still -- though we are going to see robust third and fourth quarter upswings in the GDP -- but this is GDP growth without job growth ... and that is what economic advisers to Obama who are Wall Street-centric have scripted.
Lawrence Summers needs to get out of the White House more -- and get to something other than fancy DC parties where folks fawn over him. He needs to go to heavily impacted communities where foreclosures and joblessness are high and needs to deal with the fact that the reflation of Wall Street has come at the expense of generating balance in the lives of average Americans.
A GDP recovery, which we are going to get, is something that the President of the United States should be apologizing for and for which he should be holding his economic team accountable. An uptick in GDP without growth in employment should not be treated as positive news.
The outcome we are getting on a no-jobs recovery was a "policy choice" - and we need to make better choices from this point forward.
-- Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note
Follow Steve Clemons on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SCClemons
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Yes, of course it is the fault of the pro-creati
Silly me, I thought it might have something to do with trade agreements that have effectivel
Our President'
The President continues to preach the doctrine of more education as the panaccea that will somehow put right what is already broken. In the meantime, the corrupt bankers conspire and plan the final victory of unwonted wealth and plutocracy over a collapsed America. Public lectures about more education and government bureaucrac
Just and equitable policy towards consuming no more than we produce and rebuilding our manufactur
He hasnt put on a 20% tarrif on imported cars and car parts.
The economy will suck for years and years.
We need hemp legalized the new industry is what entreprene
The 2009 Report can be downloaded at http://www
The 1977 job tax credit program, which adopted a few of the incentives recommende
The tax incentives in the Human Investment Tax Credit program have been updated and can be debated and voted into law.
The House Ways and Means Committee is shirking it's duty if it does not consider this important legislatio
Another path to millions of new jobs is described in the article: 4 Steps to Revive the Auto Industry and the Economy. It will be found on the same Aesop Institute website. It reflects little known breakthrou
Later, advanced versions can turn cars into power plants, wirelessly selling power to the local utility when parked.
Imagine the impact of cars and trucks that can pay for themselves
Millions of well paid jobs can be expected to be generated by these revolution
Today, it's also very unlikely a one time tax credit will result in much job creation. Companies will, however, take the tax credit for workers they would have hired anyway. Right now many companies are still looking to cut existing staff on net, as evidenced by the PMI and other business surveys. Some hiring is being done now and will be done over the next months for the inventory rebuilding cycle. But other than that, hiring won't return until corporatio
The 2009 Program contains an economic analysis which takes into account what you believe and provides reasons why major new employment will result.
This healthy discussion should be taking place in the Ways and Means Committee and elsewhere in the Congress as well as the White House.
The entire document can be downloaded without charge at http://www
There is also a link on that website to the earlier program. Very few of the suggested incentives were incorporat
Job recovery will be low in large part because the constructi
You cannot just snap your fingers and create jobs.
This would be a tremendous help to low income diabetics and seniors who are often forced to compromise their health due to budget constraint
My husband and I live on $1100 a month (SSI) and SNAP food credit. Our rent is $550 a month. After we asked our social worker (twice) to increase our SNAP food credit, which was $102, we received a notice yesterday that our account will receive $101. I see this as a subtle threat, and now I'm too scared to consider returning to DHS again, for fear they'll reduce our SNAP credit even more out of spite. No, there's nothing anyone can do.
That is why I hope you'll consider the idea I presented above- it would at least help.
So should anyone wonder why we are in such trouble?
At the outset of the Great Depression in 1930 Keynes wrote an essay entitled “Economic Possibilit
jobs (& plants) that got shipped overseas (if it was profitable to do so
of course), then a dent would be put in the unemployme
regulation
liberals. (Case in point ... Michigan).
So, you see, they want a ransom. Profits are no longer good enough.
'Pay up and we'll return your economy! Otherwise, you'll never see it again.'
If the Multi-Nati
Maybe, these will backfire on these corporatio
Corporatio
Perhaps it is time that Obama and the Democratic Congress propose laws that would help grow good industrial jobs within the U.S.
Perhaps it is time that Obama and the Commerce Department propose laws that have the same sort of protection for American industry that European countries have for their industry (fair is fair).
Perhaps it is time that tax policies be changed to not just create profits with low tax rates, but encourage: investment
You'll note that Europe is recovering from the Great Recession must faster than the U.S. - especially states like Michigan and California
You're right, perhaps it is time we become more like Europe and see more small business, streets lined with shops, major open squares where people do local commerce. The local farmer's market idea on a grander scale selling more than just perishable
Something like the Middle Eastern Bazaars. That is how successful communitie