Obama Jilts the Jobless

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/obama_jilts_the_jobless_20110412/

In his eagerness to compromise with the Republican right, President Barack Obama has forgotten the still-suffering victims of the recession: the long-term unemployed who range from the poorest Americans to those barely holding on to their place in the middle class.

Any mention of them was absent from the celebration of last weekend’s stopgap budget deal, with its $38 million in cuts, except for a brief acknowledgement by Obama on Saturday that “some of the cuts we agreed to will be painful—programs people rely on will be cut back; needed infrastructure projects will be delayed.”

In the current budget debate, only a few are speaking up strongly for the disenfranchised. One is Democratic Rep. George Miller of California, who said: “The American people have been told the agreement contains both ‘historic’ and ‘painful’ cuts. The question will be painful for whom. Poor and middle class families have already received more than their fair share of pain in this economy while the wealthy and special interests have paid no price.”

The March unemployment figures show who will feel the pain. While the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a modest growth in jobs, the national unemployment rate was 8.8 percent. And the number of long-term unemployed—those seeking work for 27 weeks or more—remained the same, as did the total of those classified as “discouraged workers,” people who have given up on finding a job.

Much more at the link --

[dkf]

1. We will have job growth when the corps are happy. Sad but true.

All Obama can do is not freak them out.