Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Former Labor Secretary: Obama Hopes to Distract the American People So We Forget About Grim Unemployment


I noted Monday that Obama is a pretend populist who says he's fighting for jobs ... when his policies actually increase unemployment.

Economics professor and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich - who presumably has good insider sources on job-related issues - agrees:

I'm told White House political operatives are against a bold jobs plan. They believe the only jobs plan that could get through Congress would be so watered down as to have almost no impact by Election Day. They also worry the public wouldn't understand how more government spending in the near term can be consistent with long-term deficit reduction. And they fear Republicans would use any such initiative to further bash Obama as a big spender.

So rather than fight for a bold jobs plan, the White House has apparently decided it's politically wiser to continue fighting about the deficit. The idea is to keep the public focused on the deficit drama -- to convince them their current economic woes have something to do with it, decry Washington's paralysis over fixing it, and then claim victory over whatever outcome emerges from the process recently negotiated to fix it. They hope all this will distract the public's attention from the President's failure to do anything about continuing high unemployment and economic anemia.

Cynical, indeed.

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2 comments:

  1. Fungus the Photo!August 11, 2011 at 2:13 AM

    Obama is a joke, but the cause was excess credit and now we have ZIRP, like Japan!

    You should study money more.

    Obama could solve this easily,but that would weaken the rich who run the place and give a billion to him. Why pay so much for such a poorly paying job? Corruption makes the USA a kleptocracy that has spun out of control.

    Enjoy the fruits of corruption!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Doctor CocktailAugust 11, 2011 at 10:01 AM

    There is a simple way to get Obama on the defensive.

    Push the Tea Party to impeach him. That will have 2-3 positive things if that happens.

    1. He'll be busy defending instead of cutting SSI, Medicare, Medicaid.

    2. It takes him off the 2012 track.

    3. And provides an opening for an alternative candidate for the primaries.

    ReplyDelete

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