Photo by BGNES
Yeah, I was pretty pissed at the President yesterday, too. I mean, COME ON!! Really??!! ANOTHER thing your detractors can say you “caved” on?
And then two things (a news article and a clever comment) changed my perspective:
1. Yesterday, Obama effectively put Congress on notice that if Republicans are going to block job-creating progress, the White House is going to go over their heads and create those jobs anyway. The Atlantic reports:
Under Wednesday’s (Aug. 31) order, the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, and Transportation will each select up to three high-priority infrastructure projects that can be completed within the control and jurisdiction of the federal government. The effort is labeled as a “common-sense approach” to spurring job growth “in the near term.” In practical terms, that means speeding up the permitting and waiver processes for green-building or highway projects to get the government out of the way.
Okay, so there’s the spine. He’s ready to summarily dismiss the otherwise expected assistance of Congress in creating jobs, knowing full well that Republicans have no desire to help Obama get re-elected by helping to create jobs and turn the economy around. They’d much rather just keep piling on tax breaks for the rich and talking about how bad the economy is under Obama for everyone else.
2. And then a fairly clever associate of mine shed some light on the mystery of the Joint Session of Congress scheduling debacle. She suggested that Obama must have expected that Boehner (who has walked away from the negotiating table, held the debt ceiling hostage, and refused previous invitations) might refuse the Joint Session appointment. Moreover, Obama’s seemingly stupid move yesterday might yield two advantages:
- First, the back-and-forth has created a stir of controversy over Obama’s big jobs speech – so it’s airing is likely to draw more interest than if the speech had been quietly penciled in by the typically recalcitrant John Boehner.
- Secondly, now that Obama is effectively the pre-game show for the NFL season opener, it’s likely that he’ll draw more middle America viewers than if he had aired during the Republican debate the previous night.
Keep in mind, folks, that the House of Representatives returns from recess on Sept. 7, the day originally requested by the WH. So Obama was not out of line to initially request that his speech coincide with one of the frequent GOP debates.
Don’t you think actually trying to grow the economy and create jobs is more important than listening to a bunch of disproven GOP nonsense about giving tax breaks to the wealthy in order to spur trickle-down job growth?
So, again, the President tried to put jobs first on the agenda and, again, the Republicans refused. Seems to be a recurring pattern.
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Assuming the President is not a Manchurian candidate (that’s the thing that really does give me the willies), he’s been playing an extremely long game.Now, of course the bought-and-paid-for Congressional majority will pursue every possible avenue to prevent any federal action to increase jobs. They’ll point out private employment gains for August (utterly pathetic) and public employee losses and claim that they made all these jobs. I wonder how many of the public sector jobs are going to have to be contracted out now? No doubt they’ll try to pin the Solyndra failure on him- it may have been a poor investment, but startups fail all the time; just like federal stimulus, there is a critical amount, AND A CRITICAL GRANT LIFE, that 2 years was insufficient to get manufacturing costs down another 60% doesn’t mean it couldn’t have happened in 2 more (yes, considerably adding overall funding requirements, but EVERYTHING’s a gamble). .5 billion wasn’t outright wasted either, as 1000 people did have jobs for the past 2 years who may have been otherwise unemployed, and much of the plant equipment costs can be recouped.
there is nothing barry can do to create jobs but to get out of the way!him and all the dem & reps .the problem is that we have set back watching football and what ever else and let the gov. get too big the bankers have got too big and the corporations have got to big they are buying political power by the truck loads. the supreme court ruled that corporations are people that is the biggest lie ever told.the founding fathers tried to keep this from happening but if you sit on your butts this is what will happen.the only way to stop this is to amend the constitution that people are people and corporations are an entity not people. as we know banks are corporations and here is what THOMAS JEFFERSON thought about them in 1802 in a letter to the secretary of the state ALBERT GALLATIN, JEFFERSON SAID,{IF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE EVER ALLOW PRIVATE BANKS TO CONTROL THE ISSUE OF THEIR MONEY,FIRST BY INFLATION AND THEN BY DEFLATION THE BANKS THAT GROWUP AROUND YHE BANKS,WILL DEPRIVE THE PEOPLE OF THEIR PROPERTY UNTIL THEIR KIDS WILL WAKEUP HOMELESS ON THE CONTINENT THEIR FOREFATHERS CONQUERD.} NOW WAKE UP SHEEPOPLES!
Please engage your brain before pounding away incoherently on a keyboard. The above was nearly incomprehensible.
the disrespect that this President has been confronted with is astounding and evidence that we as a society have devolved in the last ten years.
Not nearly incomprehensible, totally incomprehensible. A standard, it seems, for the right. Misspells, no understanding of grammar and punctuation, mindless, incomprehensible ranting.
I’m not sure Woody’s comment is incomprehensible or right-wing. Taking a stab, I think he is saying:
1) The President is powerless to create jobs in this environment where corporations control the creation of jobs (I disagree – it’s the Republicans who don’t want him to succeed, not necessarily some corporate hegemony; first 2 years they used the filibuster, and now they also use the House; install a progressive legislature and we restore prosperity),
2) We are too complacent, watching football, etc., instead of the government and the corporations,
3) The government, banks, and corporations are too big and too powerful (this seems contradictory: either the government is, or it isn’t, big enough to create jobs)
4) Corporations are too big and too powerful and the “corporations are people” decisions are a lie and a deadly attack on this country
5) Amend the Constitution to assert that people are people and corporations are not, and then control the banks. Or else.
Best wishes, –Mike Barkley, Democrat, Candidate for Congress new CA-10, http://www.mjbarkl.com/run.htm
Doug,
Actually, I think President Obama is a principled man who is trying to do his best for the majority of the American people. I have not always supported his decisions, and I have been disappointed at his lack of willingness to stand up for his positions at times. However, I have never once doubted that he always had the best interests of the majority of Americans at heart when making decisions.
This is what we should always expect to receive from our senators, representatives, and presidents. Unfortunately, there is a lot of talk out there, but a scant few politicians who are actually acting in the interest of the majority of Americans. The fact that the Republican Right has managed to cast itself as the party of the people is the result one of the best sales jobs in modern history. This marketing project has done more to dismantle the American Dream than any force in recent memory.
No doubt, he appears to “cave” at every turn, but I can’t help but believe that he’s giving them the rope to hang themselves with. Their “single tier” approach is certain to sink them amongst the intelligent voters. The other’s well,it doesn’t matter what you do.
“So, again, the President tried to put jobs first on the agenda and, again, the Republicans refused. Seems to be a recurring pattern.”
Very funny! He’s in his third year with repubs being in charge of 1/3 of the gov’t for less than a year and he’s only now interested in jobs. He had plenty of time to create jobs if it meant anything to him and the GOP could do nothing because the DEMS had a super majority. The only reason he’s making moves on jobs is he wants another term. If there wasn’t an election next year he still wouldn’t be concerned about jobs.
a ‘super majority’ would be a veto proof majority in the senate and Obama has never had that. During his first two years in office Republicans filibustered more than any previous congressional term in the history of our nation. It was a perfect example of governance by minority. The Republicans ran in 2010 on jobs but have not put forth one proposal to create jobs- while at the same time opposing any ideas put forth for job creation (even those previously endorsed by the Republican party). So do not now try to rewrite history to try to show Obama as anti-jobs.
Republicans run on the idea that government can not effectively create jobs. They stand continuously in the way of any idea that would demonstrate that concept as false.
You’re funny. You think none of us know how this works or what Obama has done. Think again.
Health care insurance reform – INSURANCE reform – included a HUGE overhaul in how Medicare has taken a HUGE bite out of the US budget. Passing that allowed him to reduce the deficit. Deal done. Now the GOP wants to RAISE the deficit and break the budget by repealing that. It took a full year of listening to the most inane and stupid arguments by Teatards before THEY finally hear the American people, and Obama signed that one.
The Teatards and GOP have blocked nearly every jobs bill, discussion or debate that Obama or the Dems have proposed. You know it and the rest of the country knows it.
So, your ‘he had plenty of time…’ nonsense is just political assertion about absolutely nothing. Typical of Teatard rhetoric.
I think there’s a lot more to President Obama than meets the eye, the more he does the more I like. I’m going to watch Obama’s Job speech when it’s aired if for no other reason than to say I watched it.
Quite a stretch. Obama let a bully beat him up…again. That’s what the general public sees; not the interpretation of a government order or the nuance of political manipulation.
Here’s another article that might be of interest you, if you haven’t already seen it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/why-president-obama-was-smart-to-reschedule-his-jobs-speech/2011/08/31/gIQAluDJtJ_blog.html