Democrats Urge Obama To 'Go Big' With Jobs Package

NPR.org ^ | 2 Sept 2011 | Mara Liasson

[smokingfrog]

When a president asks for a prime-time slot to address a joint session of Congress, he is signaling to the country that he has something very important to say. Next Thursday, President Obama will once again try to make a hard political pivot to the issue of jobs.

Obama will confront two big problems when he stands in the well of the House next week. The first is political: the loss of voters' confidence in his handling of the economy. The second is the economy itself. A new estimate released by the White House on Thursday shows the economy growing at an anemic 1.7 percent and unemployment staying at 9 percent in 2012.

"He has to push forward a plausible, credible jobs package that will target that rate and start to finally bring it down," says Jared Bernstein, the former top economist for Vice President Joe Biden.

Obama previewed the speech Monday, saying he would be "laying out a series of steps that Congress can take immediately to put more money in the pockets of working families and middle-class families, to make it easier for small businesses to hire people, to put construction crews to work rebuilding our nation's roads and railways and airports, and all the other measures that can help to grow this economy."

The president's jobs package will almost certainly include measures for payroll tax relief, business tax credits for hiring and infrastructure projects. Bill Galston, a former aide to former President Clinton, says he thinks the president needs to go even bigger and lay out a growth agenda that includes a solution to the mortgage debt crisis and a long-term vision for fundamental tax reform.

[BobP]

Dismal U.S. jobs picture

Zero jobs in August. It's the great goose-egg economy. He really is President Zero. All economic and job reports are revised down within weeks, so we can assume there was actually a net loss of jobs and the unemployment rate went up. The economy is struggling against stiff headwinds. Blame it all on Hurricane Irene. The systematic wiping out of the middle-class continues. We haven't had zero job growth in 66 years. Long before Bush was President. But wait... hang on... there's another speech coming. The health care industry added 30,000 jobs in August.

 There once was an unknown man
 with a new Marxist plan
 I'll distribute your wealth
 and give you free health
 But the debt soon hit the fan

$2 trillion of QE and 860 billion flushed down the DC crapper - and it got us what?

A lot of new hiring by big government and food-stamp offices!

The bottom line is that the worse the data is, the more likely it is we get additional QE.

The Congressional Budget Office's economic outlook report of August 24, 2011, predicts worse than 8% unemployment until 2014. The entire recovery has been a recovery in name only.

And Jackwagon Barry's solution to all this will be to triple-down on his failed policies - more spending and more blaming.

Despite the 'quantitative easing' that pumped $2.3 trillion into the banking system, as well as sustained 0 percent interest rates, the economy hasn't recovered two years after the recession supposedly ended.

Hey Barry, cancel Obamacare for a start!

The 9.1% jobless rate would have been 16.2% if people who have given up looking for jobs and those working part time were counted. The economy’s 0.7 percent growth rate in the first half of 2011 was the slowest six months of growth since the recession officially ended in June 2009. And analysts say the economy should pick up steam from here. Huh?

Zer0's class-warfare tour of 2012 is under way. It's all the Rats have. Saul Alinsky would be so proud.

Use Republican opposition as a 2012 campaign theme when the GOP rejects his highways and mass transit spending for unions. And the libs will want to pay for it all by increasing taxes on the 'wealthy.'

Zer0 will frame it in the context that Americans see one side not willing to work with the other to move the country forward... Dems good, GOP bad. His 'mother of all recovery spending plans' would have saved or created millions of jobs if only Congress had accepted my proposal. The piss-stream media stooges will all chime in and agree about how we could have seen green shoots if only that evil Tea Party hadn't stopped Zer0's plan.

Then he'll lie about the economy. That's all he's got.

Or maybe another 'only on the bus for an hour a day' road trip!

We much resist! I say we much! He his is one and done.

The annihilation of the Democrat Party in 2012 is so close I can taste it.

[gigster]

I’m always waiting to see her eyes explode out of her head anytime she speaks.
What a Bimbo.

[Libloather]

how many times has he said he is going to pivot to jobs over past 3 years?!?!?

Some spokesidiot said Hussein has been concerned about jobs since "day one". Heard it just yesterday.

[Nonstatist]

Mara and the other lefties want him to present something that is DOA, so he can demagogue around for the next 15 months , spewing vitrol and class warfare. Hopey and Changey !

[truthguy]

“Go big” for rats is codespeak for “spend more”

Obama has no clue about economics, the role of government, or even American history/culture. He is becoming inconsequential in the debate about how to fix the economy and the only bullet in his gun is deficit spending.
<
I won’t watch because it does not matter. Seriously, this guy will never understand. It’s not in his DNA.

Yes, an excellent post and I could have written it myself only you beat me to it. At this point the only thing Obama can do is to double down on stupidity. He's got nothing else to go with. For him to do the right thing could be to contradict everything he has believed his whole adult life. He's lost. And the people who voted for him should feel pretty stupid by now. But will they be? I doubt it. They are just as stupid as he is.

[oldbrowser]

"which means that the president not only has no choice but to state his own position clearly and in unvarnished terms, but also that he can only gain from that."

At this point, his results have made his position clear to everyone. He now has to explain himself to the owners of this country, the people.

Blaming bad luck or someone else is not going work. Coming up with "new ideas" at this late stage is not going to work either.

[Darkwolf377]

What Krugman has been saying—the problem is we didn’t spend enough!

How about cutting NPR? The left already has MSNBC for free.

[Darkwolf377]

Man, you were right about the comments section. I love seeing these same folks who hated Bush and hoped he failed for 8 years suddenly getting all righteous saying Republicans like to see a poor economy.

And of course, they HAVE to say that those who oppose Obama hate him because he’s black. Why? Because that way they are not merely commenting on partisan politics—they are fighting racism! Never mind that I’ve not once encountered someone who cares one bit about his race (and as we see here, I am highly critical of any conservatives). That doesn’t matter to them because They Just Know.

[EnglishCon]

Odd, I thought “go big” was code for “you want to supersize that order?”

[Artie]

“Doing the same thing again is a pivot? I guess they mean a 360 pivot.”

That is from the latin for “pivot man in a circle jerk.”

[Western Phil]

“He has to push forward a plausible, credible jobs package that will target that rate and start to finally bring it down,”

Maybe he is working on a package to reduce taxes, excessive government regulations, the minimum wage, etc.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“jobs package”

Better known as, “union dues is down, so I need to tap my reserves”

[Oldeconomybuyer]

The former Soviet Union had a ‘go big’ jobs program that lasted 50 years. It collapsed, and it’s taken them 20 years to unravel it.

[trebb]

The president's jobs package will almost certainly include measures for payroll tax relief

Yes - the good old "payroll tax relief". It only gives the illusion of more money because you have yo pay it all back, lump sum, at the end of the year. I had to start witholding a substantial amount from my military retirement pay to avoid penalties for owing Uncle Sugar too much at filing time...

Any bets that will be the most effective "relief" plan - one that gives workers a false impression of well-being and insulates the leeches?

[lowbridge]

"laying out a series of steps that Congress can take immediately to put more money in the pockets

Tax and spend again.

[wayoverontheright]

1-Rescind Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, and Sarbanes-Oxley.

2-Codify in law the exoneration of carbon dioxide.

3-Eliminate the minimum wage.

4-Lower cap gains to zero, eliminate taxes on dividends, permanently.

5-Eliminate the departments of education, commerce, agriculture, the EPA.

6-Rescind CAFE, de-fund the NLRB.

7-Sit back and watch the economy, and tax revenues explode.

[jakerobins]

Go Big! (That’s what I’m afraid of) When a leftist says go big that means trouble.....Time for the ObamaCore? Obama going to nationalize large industries to free up the money they are greedily holding on to??

[EBH]

The government doesn’t create jobs and it only takes wealth away....

Until wealth creation is encouraged instead of destroyed there will be no jobs.

[Right Wing Assault]

You’ll be gone.

Yeah, but so will we.

[central_va]

8-Add a 10% import tariff for all manufactured goods. (slave labor tax)