Washington Doesn't Get It: We Need More Jobs - Dan Froomkin\HuffPo

[WillyT]

Washington Doesn't Get It: We Need More Jobs
Dan Froomkin
First Posted: 10- 2-09 01:09 PM | Updated: 10- 2-09 02:08 PM

<snip>

Nowhere is the massive disconnect between Washington D.C. and the rest of the country more striking than when it comes to the issue of jobs.

Inside Washington, it is almost universally considered a foregone conclusion that unemployment will remain near, at, or even above 10 percent -- not just for months, but for years to come. (The unemployment rate in September, we just found out this morning, ticked up yet again, to 9.8 percent.) As White House economic guru Larry Summers dispassionately told reporters last month (while otherwise taking credit for turning the economy around), "The level of unemployment is unacceptably high and will on all forecasts remain unacceptably high for a number of, for a number of years."

This situation creates no sense of urgency in Washington. Ask Summers what he's going to do about it, for instance, and he hems and haws about recovery act programs that have yet to take full effect. To our political elite, jobs are simply nowhere near as critical an issue as the other economic indicators, the stock market, or the financial health of the nation's top bankers.

Outside the Beltway, however, it's a different story. According to a new poll by Hart Research Associates for the Economic Policy Institute, unemployment and the lack of jobs "remains the dominant problem on the economic agenda for voters across party lines." In fact, it's not even close. Asked to name the most important economic problem facing the country, registered voters cited unemployment twice as often as they mentioned the deficit or even the cost of health care; and four times as much as the housing crisis or problems with the banking system.

A whopping 83 percent see unemployment as either a fairly big or very big problem; and 81 percent say the Obama administration hasn't done enough to deal with it.

And there just aren't a whole lot of things that more than 80 percent of Americans agree about.

Not coincidentally, large majorities of voters also see the government's economic policies as helping banks and Wall Street -- while few see themselves or average working families in general as benefiting.

So why isn't political Washington fully engaged in addressing the unemployment problem? For the same reasons it can't seem to get much of anything done these days: most notably the abject lack of boldness from the Democrats and persistent obstructionism from the Republicans.

<snip>

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/02/washington-doesnt-get-it_n_307882.html

Yep...

[gateley]

1. Both Biden and Obama have said that very thing. In fact today I saw a clip

of Biden saying that regardless of what the numbers show, it's only when people get back to work that we can feel we've really turned the corner.

Obama said until every person who wants/needs a job can get one, his job isn't done.

[Craftsman]

3. Instead of running off to Denmark why has he not been here working on Jobs?

I know people who need work heck of a lot more then the bread an circuses of the Olympics.

[MiniMe]

4. You don't think that getting the Olympics would create jobs?

It would, especially construction jobs.

[Craftsman]

8. The Olympics usually cost more money then it makes

[doc03]

5. If he would have been successful bringing the Olympics to

Chicago it would have put many people to work. If he would have succeeded it would have been well worth the trip, you can't win em all. If W wasn't in Crawford half of his term maybe we wouldn't be in such a mess to start with. On September 11, 2001 Bush was on a month long vacation in Crawford. If Obama takes a trip to Denmark to try and bring the Olympics to the USA he gets criticized.

[Craftsman]

9. In Chicago maybe, but what about the rest of us?

His time was better spent elsewhere like on health care.

[doc03]

11. Just what could he have done today for health care? n/t

He has been everywhere on the media for weeks now and all he managed to do is get criticized for being overexposed.

[Craftsman]

12. Speaking out for a public option, calling out publicly blue dogs

to go on record as supporting it just to name 2

[doc03]

14. The mistake he made if any was to leave it up to

those jackasses in Congress to come up with a plan.

[Craftsman]

16. That is part of it.

[gateley]

22. He can't do aboard Air Force One what he would be doing in the Oval Office

re: jobs?

When people say "he should be focusing on THIS", I wonder if they think he should lock the door, sit down, "work on it" and not re-emerge until the problem is solved. How realistic is that.

How do you know he WASN'T working on jobs, plus a myriad of other things, even while he was traveling to Copenhagen. He met with General McChrystal regarding Afghanistan -- or should he not have done that, instead be back in DC working on jobs??

He can multi-task. Calm down.

[sendero]

2. Don't worry...

.. you see, it's different this time. We're going to have a JOBLESS recovery.

See, just like we don't need to have any real corporate profits to have a blazing stock market, and a bank can have a negative balance sheet but still claim it made profits, we don't need any jobs to have a "recovery".

Of course, the "recovery" will only be a recovery for a small percentage of the populace, but hey the world is not perfect now is it.

[redqueen]

6. K&R

[doc03]

7. Just how does the President create jobs? n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. By preventing systemic failure via bank failures...

supporting manufacturing by increasing car sales, and providing billion in economic stimulus such as infrastructure projects.

[doc03]

13. How many trillions were handed out to

Wall Street to stop a financial collapse? He bailed out GM and Chrysler or we would have lost them and many more thousands of jobs. How do you increase car sales? We are spending billions in economic stimulus for infrastructure projects today.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. Cash for clunkers.

Froomkin sucks goat ass.

[doc03]

18. Cash for clunkers was nothing but a short term

sales gimmick it just advanced a few future sales and was basically a total failure and waste of money.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

19. Jesus fucking Christ.

[doc03]

20. Most of the car sales went to foreign manufacturers

the thing was managed horribly, dealers still haven't received payment. The program favored the people that were irresponsible enough to buy gas guzzlers in the first place. I bought a car that got 30 MPG about six years ago I couldn't get squat. They disabled perfectly good drive trains so now it will make replacement parts on vehicles such as the Ford Explorer extinct. I saw cars sitting on lots marked do not sell that could have been driven for years by some person in need. It was stupid ill conceived feel good program that took some taxpayers money and gave it to others.

[girl gone mad]

24. That isn't much of a counterargument.

As we've seen from sales figures posted today, Cash For Clunkers only pulled demand forward.

[iceman66]

17. Health care reform is a huge step toward getting the economy back on track,

because the current corrupt system sucks up so many dollars that otherwise could be spent more productively, and puts American business at a competetive disadvantage.

A logical next step would be infrastructure investment, like the high-speed rail system that Obama mentioned a while back.

[kenny blankenship]

21. Because they are still hooked on the Reagan Koolaid that's why.

Putting money in the hands of the rich via "supply side" policy is all they fucking know, and the events of the last year and a half have not yet persuaded them to kick the supply side koolaid addiction. Most of the "deciders" in DC are craven pols who are too stupid in the first place, too short term oriented in the second place, and too far gone in both being owned by banksters and also in their own slothful mental habits to question the economic theories and political arrangements that led to the downfall of the United States.

The great majority of ordinary Americans will suffer for it and the disconnect will grow and grow until these voiceless people decide they've had enough of being ruled by financial elites.

[bvar22]

23. Washington DOES "get it"....

They just don't care.
Both Parties protect the Ownership Class.
As long as the Corporate Bottom Line (cheap labor) is doing good....
everything is Peachy.

[Warren DeMontague]

25. My ideal job would be involve saying the name "Froomkin" all day long.

Froomkin, Froomkin, Froomkin.

It almost sounds like an Irish expletive.

Get Your Froomkin Car off my lawn!

[Thickasabrick]

26. kick nt