I’ve noticed a conservative bent to Sam Youngman’s reporting for The Hill, but he’s definitely repeating the common wisdom. In his eyes, the president isn’t serious about passing a jobs bill, he’s just using it as a weapon to beat over the Republicans’ heads. Anyone can see that this bill, and pretty much any conceivable alternative bill, cannot get 60 votes in the Senate or pass through the Boehner-led House. The Republican Party doesn’t want to reduce unemployment. They want to increase it. They don’t want to demonstrate that Congress can work together to solve problems. They want to prove that Congress is broken and that the federal government is worthless.
This has been the Republican plan since November of 2008. And, so far, it has worked for them. It didn’t prevent an avalanche of progressive legislation in 2009-2010, but it made that legislation hard to digest on the left and downright toxic on the right. Since the 2010 midterms, the Republicans have effective veto power over everything, and they’re using that veto.
Yet, the president isn’t doing this all for show. He’s trying to put pressure on Congress to do something about joblessness. It’s only a political question because the opposition refuses to do anything to help people find jobs. How long are they going to persist in refusing to act?
Senior administration officials have warned reporters for the last month that Obama will be pushing the jobs bill long after the press has grown bored of hearing about it.
It will be at that point, the thinking goes, that Americans will have heard about it, embraced it and joined the president in calling for its passage.
The drumbeat is to pass the Jobs Bill. Everyone says it can’t pass. The president thinks Congress should pass the bill right now and put 2 million people back to work. He’s going to keep saying that and saying that, and, really, why shouldn’t he? People want action on jobs and the Republicans want a bad economy for political reasons. If enough people come to understand this, they’ll either force their representatives to act or replace them next November. If they don’t come to understand this, they’ll throw out the Democrats for being ineffective.
Where do you stand?
I was at the meeting for Occupy Philly last night, and it turns out one of my buddies from the Coalition to Save the Libraries is a facilitator. We got a few minutes to catch up, and he repeated the “they’re all the same” canard. As much as I disagree with you on so many topics, I told him that protesting in the street MUST be complemented by calling our ineffective legislators. “Yes, it’s all a big game,” I told him, “but if you refuse to play, the right wingers win by default.”
He got it (which is more than i can say about most of the people commenting here about #OWS), and remarked “it’s more about grabbing the dice back without asking nicely, and saying ‘now it’s my turn, you already took three.'”
Has anyone brought up the idea of staging a sit-in at Casey’s office, since last I heard he was one of the Democratic asshats in the Senate whining like a 3 yr old?
I don’t know. All I know is when I call his office goes staright to voicemail.
I think they are sick of my “i was right” calls.
Bob, btw, voted to give the banks a no-strings-attached bailout, and then acted surprised when they continued their bad practices.
Obama Gains vs. GOP on Jobs as Congress Hits a New Low
It would have been nice to have seen this in January, but better late than never.
I am ready to blister my republican representative in a letter to the editor of every news paper in my district. We need to blame the republicans and make the case that a divided government will not get this economy moving again. A government unified under the Republicans will do huge damage to our country and what is left of our society. The time to choose is coming and it is time to fire up. Lets retire representative Butthead and get this economy moving again.
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/185573-union-chief-implores-liberal-activists-to-get-obamas-b
ack-on-jobs
of course POTUS should press on.
period
Will be heading to Van Jones’ rally as soon as my boss leaves. š
Did you see where Biden had no idea Jones used to work for the administration and likened him to the tea party of the left?
Biden’s the best.
Wasn’t Biden known as “the Senator from Citibank”?
So, what is Obama supposed to do now? Politically on the stump this plays well for him. But in real life, the bill is DOA. Does he once again have to give away the store to get something-anything-passed? As we know, polls can be taken, folks can rally, we can call and write our reps-to no avail. He could stand firm and blast the rethgs as he is doing now, hoping they will back off-NOT. he can arm twist the dems who aren’t on board-the usual suspects Nelson Landrieu etc.
I just don’t know what he can do. Or what he will try to do. Perhaps this is all a political ploy on his part because he’s in the campaign mode now for the next year. He’s gotta whole lot of work to be to get back the base.
Aren’t you part of the base? Are you on board?
But the jobs bill isn’t like the other recent showdowns, because it’s not a situation where the Republicans can demand outrageous concessions just to keep the lights on. It’s not the same kind of hostage situation, so there’s no need to give anything away. (Of course, there’s another budget showdown on the near horizon.)
With the jobs bill we have a situation where the government at least isn’t going to shut down for a few more weeks, so what are they going to do about the economy? And the Republicans have sort of boiled it all down to where the two parties have very simple and diametrically opposed answers to that question: The Democrats say the government should do something about the economy, and the Republicans say it should do nothing.
I’d say that puts Obama and the Democrats and supporters of the jobs bill in a pretty strong position. At the very least, it’s worth fighting this battle.
good points, and also the rethugs ran on job creation and what have they done? nothing (oh, they’re throwing $ at defending DOMA, my bad). in theory it’s a bipartisan issue.
one problem w. Nelson is unemployment is not that bad in NE, no leverage. but Snowe?
good points, and also the rethugs ran on job creation and what have they done? nothing (oh, they’re throwing $ at defending DOMA, my bad). in theory it’s a bipartisan issue.
one problem w. Nelson is unemployment is not that bad in NE, no leverage. but Snowe?
why give up ahead of time? just think if Nelson Mandela had that attitude
Yes, it’s all a political ploy. The bill’s chances of actually creating jobs is zero. The tax cuts do nothing and the road crews already have all the work they can do. You aren’t going to take a 50 year old accounts receivable clerk and set him into a bulldozer tomorrow. And he’ll never stand up shoveling asphalt all day.
But as a political ploy, it’s pretty good. The Republicans can’t pass it because the Tea Party would go berserk, and it’s got JOBS in the title, so the President can go on the stump to say that the Republicans are stopping jobs from being created.
What’s actually harmful to jobs is Obama’s legislation to extend free trade zones to Korea et al. Supposedly the Koreans are thirsting to buy Chevy’s instead of Hyundai’s and to buy all manner of goods from us instead of China, WHICH IS JUST NEXT DOOR! I wonder what lobbyist wrote that little gem.
Actually, pretty much every economic forecasting outfit that’s looked at the American Jobs Act has concluded it would likely create 1-2 million jobs in the next year. In most of the country, construction workers (including those who work on bridges and roads) are unemployed at rates higher than the state and national average.
True, the 50 year old A/R clerk working in some state agency isn’t going to operate a bulldozer. On the other hand, the part of the AJA that funnels money to state governments could keep that clerk from being laid off.
The AJA is (in my view) typical Obama for the following reasons:
*it aims to achieve a progressive end (putting people back to work);
*it is agnostic as to means (using Republican-endorsed policies);
*if Republicans agree, the resulting policy is good for American and the resulting politics are good for Obama;
*if Republicans don’t agree, they look good to their (27%) base but look bad to almost everyone else.
the road crews already have all the work they can do
This isn’t even close to true. There is a huge amount of idle capacity, both in terms of labor and equipment/materials, in the construction industry.
Construction industry I can believe. Road repair, no. All over Illinois roads are torn up like I’ve never seen. Missouri and Oklahoma also have large amounts of road construction. I haven’t been anywhere else this year.
Massive amounts of gasoline are being wasted by delays caused by tearing up roads that had only minor defects.
BTW, you do know that Ray LaHood is yet another Republican in this supposedly Democratic administration?
…the president isn’t serious about passing a jobs bill, he’s just using it as a weapon to beat over the Republicans’ heads.
I don’t see why it has to be one or the other. In this case the policy and the politics are identical. Why, after all, is Obama looking for a weapon to beat over the Republicans’ heads? So he can get reelected and get things done like passing the jobs bill. Conversely, the more serious he is about passing the bill, the more effective a weapon it will be.
So he can get reelected, period. It’s a goal in its own right.
To be fair, it’s the goal of the overwhelming majority of politicians. Any other goal consists of wondering how they will look in the history books. Once in a while, you find someone who actually cares about people, and then it’s usually “the right people”, not blue collar scum like me.
Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts was on TV today demanding that Congress vote on the jobs bill — the entire bill. Now, not someday, not never.
Republican Senator Scott Brown.
Perhaps he hears the footsteps of Elizabeth Warren coming up behind him; perhaps he’s merely playing to an electorate he needs to win over to hold onto his seat in 2012; perhaps he feels safe saying this because he doesn’t think it will really happen.
But Republican Senator Brown has called for an up-or-down vote on the bill.
I’d say strategically directed pressure just might could shake the bill loose from the do-nothing death grip.
No, he’s saying that because he knows that many Dems will vote against the bill due to the removal of oil subsidies. It will look like a win for him, if he votes yes and it fails anyways due to Dems defecting.
“He’s not serious about passing the jobs bill.” That’s a funny way to put it. It’s a good bill and President Obama would be more than delighted to pass it. Unfortunately it is the Republicans that are not serious about passing anything. So, it shouldn’t be a total loss, as long as they are determined to screw over this country, he will make the republicans squirm for the next 13 months. Politics at its finest, politics as a morality play with the Republicans acting the role they scripted for themselves. So who’s not serious about passing the jobs bill?