Robert Reich: Keep stimulus money away from skilled workers and “white male contractors”

michellemalkin ^ | 1/22/09 | michellemalkin

[Sammy67]

I missed Clintonite moldy oldie-turned-Obama economic adviser Robert Reich’s testimony a few weeks ago on how the government should spend federal stimulus money. The Berkeley professor engaged in academic fantasy land talk about getting all the cash out to workers as quickly as possible — a pipe dream debunked by the CBO report I mentioned in my column yesterday.

Even more noteworthy, however, were the comments Reich made about which workers deserve the stimulus bucks most. Reich’s proposal exposes the lie that the Obama administration is actually interested in revitalizing basic infrastructure for the good of the economy. No, what Team Obama really wants is to ensure that the least skilled, least qualified workers get jobs based on their chromosomes and pigment.

Reich wrote on his blog:

The stimulus plan will create jobs repairing and upgrading the nation’s roads, bridges, ports, levees, water and sewage system, public-transit systems, electricity grid, and schools. And it will kick-start alternative, non-fossil based sources of energy (wind, solar, geothermal, and so on); new health-care information systems; and universal broadband Internet access.

It’s a two-fer: lots of new jobs, and investments in the nation’s future productivity.

But if there aren’t enough skilled professionals to do the jobs involving new technologies, the stimulus will just increase the wages of the professionals who already have the right skills rather than generate many new jobs in these fields. And if construction jobs go mainly to white males who already dominate the

[Old Time American]

Is this is how The One plans unify the country?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I just posted links to Youtube videos with Reich stating his comments at a congressional hearing...:

# # The Dawn Of A New Obama Age! Government Racism

Link at Flopping Aces...

[Wilhelm Tell]

I wonder if Reich understands how stupid he sounds. We all love driving over bridges built by unskilled and unqualified workers.

I know I always insist on driving over bridges designed by people who failed math, built by people who cannot read instructions or use tools. I think it is elitism to expect things to be designed and built well. And why go through all the trouble of building a bridge that will last 50 to 100 years, when you could build a bridge that falls apart as it is being put together. Think of the multiplier effect of building the same bridge an infinite number of times! That is real stimulus!

[Dosa26]

And why go through all the trouble of building a bridge that will last 50 to 100 years, when you could build a bridge that falls apart as it is being put together

You sir are brilliant, as is this policy. If it is built right, the construction job will be gone. No more stimulus. If it is always being built and falling apart at the same time it provides a life-time high paying job. If we can get people unskilled enough and incompetent enough...We could actually build the same project forever.

[Wilhelm Tell]

Re Mojos comments on unskilled workers building things -

Reading that, it just occurred to me that perhaps "unskilled workers" is code for illegal aliens. It fits. The Democrats keep the door open for illegals. The Dems create massive public works projects that employ mostly unskilled illegals. They hire 10 unskilled (alien) workers to do by hand what 1 skilled American worker could do using modern equipment. In a few years, certainly by 2012, grant the illegals citizenship and sign them up to vote Democrat!

You know the Democrats have to be planning something like this. All the blacks who thought Obama would open opportunities for them will soon find out that the public works projects will hire mostly unskilled workers who are here illegally. Skilled workers - black or white - will be turned away. The Dems now more than ever think they can take the blacks for granted. The thing to watch is how stimulus programs become something the Democrats use to recruit illegal aliens.

[cherry]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have the utmost respect for the building trades, and NO, not anyone can be "trained" to do it, like a monkey....

construction takes stamina and strength,a strong work ethic and common sense, as well as the actual skill to run machinery,do wiring,plumbing, etc.....

Reich sounds like a typical Rat who never did an honest days work in his life...if he did, he would know better....

[Chewbacca]

What Obama didn’t tell people is that his stimulus plan to give millions of people jobs works out to an hourly wage for each person of only $7/hr each.

No construction worker would ever work that cheap. If the Government is paying for the construction projects they are force by Law to pay Davis-Bacon wages.

[gleeaikin]

“give it to the most unskilled and stupid workers instead”

This is an exageration of what he said. He said contractors have to be nudged to provide training for unskilled labor, which should be about 20% of the workers needed by those receiving these contracts. He also specified that 2% should be allocated to training costs. If 78% of the workers hired for these stimulous jobs are going to be those of the existing unions and work force that sounds like a better deal than not having stimulous money for projects at all. Frankly that kind of training would give hope to the chronically unemployed and reduce the likelihood of riot and lawlessness. I will never forget how glad I was to get out of the city as the MLK rioting errupted in my neighborhood.

[Lancey Howard]

WILL THE REPUBLICANS have the guts to use Reich’s words in TV ads in 2010?
Or will they continue to be “McCain’s cowards”?

Can’t wait to see....
Meanwhile, my checkbook remains closed and at least two GOP solicitations per week get tossed in the trash, unopened.

[jarofants]

Let's ask Robert Reich if he need surgery would he rather have a candy stripper or a surgeon do the operation. If he was building a brick house would he rather have a butcher lay the bricks or a brick layer? Also construction companies that build bridges and roads have a dead line. Some get a bonus for coming in under certain time lines, and some have to pay fines when the work is not done in time.

[jarofants]

I guess we have an unskilled black president so I guess unskilled construction workers would do fine. NOT!!

[KeyLargo]

Reverse discrimination

Creating Equal:

My Fight Against Race Preferences (Hardcover)

by Ward Connerly (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ward Connerly, the champion of California’s controversial Proposition 209 outlawing racial preferences in state government, offers a compelling memoir and polemic with Creating Equal. Political figures don’t often write books worth reading, but Connerly can both turn a good phrase (liberals, he says, “need to believe that Rosa Parks is still stuck in the back of the bus, even though we live in a time when Oprah is on a billboard on the side of the bus”) and tell a good story (as when he describes tracking down his long-lost biological father in Louisiana). Connerly has generated strong reactions, many of them negative, ever since he burst on the scene as a University of California regent opposed to racial preferences in student admissions. Because he is black (or, more accurately, of mixed black, white, and Indian ancestry), Connerly was derisively labeled an “Uncle Tom” for his efforts. Conservatives will applaud Creating Equal, while many of Connerly’s sparring partners will recognize its thoughtfulness: “Affirmative action was the kissing cousin of welfare, a seemingly humane social gesture that was actually quite diabolical in its consequences—not only causing racial conflict because of its inequities, but also validating blacks’ fears of inferiority and reinforcing racial stereotypes.” Moreover, Connerly’s insider account of Proposition 209 (plus similar efforts in Houston and Washington state) will appeal to political junkies of all stripes. Regardless of their views on the philosophical content of Connerly’s crusade, readers will find Creating Equal to be a surprisingly good book. —John J. Miller —This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal
Connerly is one of the most maligned public figures in the United States; no one can say he is dishonest, duplicitous, or confused. His integrity fairly shines, and this causes his opponents the utmost discomfiture, for not only is he personally invulnerable, his basic argument is almost unanswerable: that Martin Luther King’s dream of judging people by character and not by the color of their skin should be the public policy of the day instead of race-based affirmative action or demeaning quota systems of any kind. As Connerly reads his autobiography, one senses that he has minimized the assaults he has endured. Bitterness is there, but mostly he sticks to his main purpose, to describe how he came to be and to outline the public policy ideas and events in which he has participated for many years. His early foray into California politics is described, particularly his relationship with former governor Pete Wilson and current San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, each of whom influenced him in different ways. As a reader, Connerly is effective; his performance is straightforward and uncomplicated. His voice mirrors his ideas. A vital bit of contemporary history for any public and general academic library. - Don Wismer, Cary Memorial Lib., Wayne, ME

“Affirmative action isn’t Connerly’s only target. In a quote appearing in the San Francisco Examiner, Connerly said that he wasn’t convinced ethnic studies reflected “a sound academic curriculum rather than the political correctness mind set.” In the same article he called for a review of “all of the infrastructure created back in the 1970s and ‘80s as a result of black nationalism and the black power movement.”

He has recently written a book, called “Creating Equal: My Fight Against Race Preferences,” which is both an autobiography and an argument for the elimination of affirmative action. The book is published by San Francisco-based Encounter Books, a new conservative publisher also funded by the Bradley Foundation.”

http://www.mediatransparency.org/personprofile.php?personID=13

[KeyLargo]

Thousands of white union construction tradesmen supported heavily and voted for the Messiah.

The jokes on them!

LOL

From their website:

“I’m a construction union organizer. I help workers succeed in the electrical construction industry by connecting skilled professionals with productive contractors. Through my website Union Organizer.com organizers find solutions to dramatically increase their level of performance without burning out. Check out my book Bigger Labor; A Crash Course for Construction Union Organizers available at www.biggerlabor.com My specialties are: Signing Contractors – Attracting Members – Gaining Market Share”

http://unionorganizer.blogspot.com/2008/11/union-workers-support-obama.html

[KeyLargo]

Notice the lone token white man pushed to the rear of the group.

Building and Construction Trades Department Endorses Obama

by Seth Michaels, Jun 19, 2008

The Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), a coalition of 13 unions, has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for president.

The BCTD’s Governing Board voted unanimously to endorse Obama yesterday, pledging to mobilize the unions’ 2.5 million members to elect Obama as the next president.

BCTD President Mark Ayres says the unions would educate their members about Obama’s pro-working family agenda and the need for change.

[KeyLargo]

Building and Construction Trades Department

Endorses Senator Barack Obama for President

Vote by Governing Board of Presidents is Unanimous…All 13 Affiliated Unions Vow Unprecedented Political Education and Mobilization Effort

http://www.buildingtrades.org/newsroom/?subsec=13&id=399

[Grampa Dave]

Explosive Video Reich, Obamas economic advisor no “White Male Construction Workers”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opxuUj6vFa4&feature=channel_page

[Grampa Dave]

The minority thugs in the Rat party have a road map of how to suck off these bailout funds to pay for a great life style for them, their friendly thugs and families.

The Loma Prieta Earthquake happened in the Bay Area in during the World Series of 1989.

It took forever to rebuild the bridge and access routes because the minority thugs swarmed over this honey pot for well over a decade.

It took a few months down in the LA area to repair severe freeway damage after their severe quake. The job was done ahead of schedule and under the bid with real construction people in 84 days.

The Bay Bridge story — safety last
Debra J. Saunders

Friday, August 27, 2004

IN 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake left a hole in the Bay Bridge. While the state got the bridge working within a month, engineers needed time to study how best to make the bridge safe before the next big quake. Fifteen years later, it still isn’t safe — thanks to pols who put pork and political correctness before safety.

In 1991, U.S.-led forces devastated Iraq’s infrastructure in the Persian Gulf War. By 1992, every bridge spanning the Tigris River was in service.

In 1994, the Northridge earthquake destroyed two freeway bridges. Southern Californians wanted their freeways running, pronto. Gov. Pete Wilson made sure they were functional within 84 days.

Meanwhile, back in the Bay Area, it took 13 years before the state began reconstruction of the eastern span of the Bay Bridge. The delay was, in part, due to the time it took for Caltrans to determine that it made more sense to build a new span than retrofit the old one and, in part, due to squabbles over who would pay for it.

In 1997, when then-Gov. Pete Wilson signed a measure pushed by state Sen. Quentin Kopp authorizing the new span, the projected cost was $1.3 billion. The new bridge was supposed to be completed in 2004 — this year.

Enter Willie Brown, then Da Mayor of San Francisco, who held up the project by withholding title to land on Treasure Island, the meeting point of the bridge’s western and eastern spans.

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown joined the stalling game, demanding that the new span design be tony enough for Oakland.

In 1998, the Mayors Brown, along with then-Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean, backed local advisory ballot measures calling for the state to consider running a transit line on the Bay Bridge — as if it made sense to eliminate traffic lanes on a gridlocked bridge.

“We’re saying ‘time out,’ we don’t need to rush,” explained the patient Dean.

Rush? Insert bitter laugh here.

Ever since 1997, if there was been a politically correct idea — a new design, another study, a $50 million-bike lane that would not go all the way to the city — that promised to drive up the cost of the bridge, local politicians embraced it.

Lo and behold, in 2001, the cost was up to $2.6 billion.

Now it is $5.1 billion.

No wonder Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is demanding that the Bay Area pay for the higher cost.

Area Democrats insist that it is the state’s responsibility to pay for state roads and bridges. When catastrophe strikes, the state should pay the freight for fixing the damages. They are right.

But Schwarzenegger is right to insist that locals pay for the costs incurred thanks to their very own elected officials.

Schwarzenegger also pushed for an audit that explains how the costs skyrocketed. To the extent the cost overruns are the doing of Caltrans, state taxpayers should be stuck with the tab. But the Bay Area can pay for its costly dithering.

Today, state pols will be haggling over who pays for the Bay Bridge’s big price tag. Senate President Pro Tem To Be Don Perata wants Schwarzenegger to agree to allow bids to go forward and work out who pays for it later. No matter who pays, it is vital that the Legislature pass a bill forthwith, and make that a bill that will be signed, or the construction that already has begun on the bridge could be stalled for another two years. Area voters don’t seem to mind that they have to drive over an unsafe bridge to go to work — but if there’s another quake, they won’t have trouble figuring out whom to blame.

And what is Perata protecting? He has bristled at the governor’s suggestion that voters be allowed to vote to funnel the recent $1 toll increase — the new toll is $3 — into the bridge construction rather than the projects for which it was earmarked. Building a safe bridge hasn’t been a top priority, but protecting transit projects somehow is.

As a result of these priorities, some Democrats are willing to push for a $5 toll. Bay Area commuters will be lucky if Schwarzenegger can negotiate a toll hike of only $4. So Bay Area commuters will pay dearly for the Oakland- inspired design, for Da Mayor’s delays and all the other political stunts that did nothing for safety.

Ever since Quentin Kopp was term-limited out of the state Senate, there has not been a single politician in the Bay Area who demanded the bridge be rebuilt safely and promptly. I won’t even address the issue of cost. Money, like safety, was no object for Bay Area politicians.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/27/EDG1O8EEGR1.DTL&type=printable

[Brad from Tennessee]

“. . . at least 20 percent of jobs to the long-term unemployed and to people with incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. And at least 2 percent of project funds should be allocated to such training. In addition, advantage should be . . .”

A recipe for the Tower of Babel.

[AlanGreenSpam]

In making these racist remarks, Robert Reich has shown himself to be a despicable human being. So much for the so-called “post-racial” administration.

Doesn’t he have a clue how he sounds when he speaks?

Don’t these people understand that any affirmative action policies are not only racist to the core, but they are actually WORSE than arbitrary racism by individuals. Why? Because these racists want to USE THE STATE TO IMPLEMENT RACIST POLICIES!!

Can you say fascism? Can you say “big brother?” ...

These people are so pathetically hypocritical. Don’t these liberals even think anymore??

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See link at post #62 for commentary on the Youtube video and a second brief video link at post #15 there... ...to a Staffer responding to a Republican in another hearing.