The last two paragraphs of Bob Herbert's op-ed column Fire and Imagination column are:
Now, with so much money already spent and Republicans expected to gain seats in the Congressional elections, the president finds himself with a much weaker hand, even if he were inclined to play it boldly.
What that will mean in the real world of ordinary Americans is that even if there is a fretful recovery from the Great Recession, millions will be left out of it. Hope has morphed into widespread gloom as widespread economic suffering becomes the new normal in America.
Based on how people react to my diaries arguing that we need to do more to create jobs, educate our children and ourselves, and create jobs, I am concerned that the US and the world is about to suffer Another Economic Collapse. No matter what many may believe Reducing deficit spending is not the answer - See Ireland. We need to see reality or as Bob Herbert so elegantly states:
The problem with the U.S. economy today, as it was during the Great Depression, is the absence of sufficient demand for goods and services. Consumers, struggling with sky-high unemployment and staggering debt loads, are tapped out. The economy cannot be made healthy again, and there is no chance of doing anything substantial about budget deficits, as long as so many millions of people are left with essentially no purchasing power. Jobs are the only real answer.
While Bob Herbert argues that the opportunity may have passed to create jobs, I argue that we democrats need to push legislation to create jobs now. A few billion to stop the loss of jobs is not the answer. We need to push now, not tomorrow, but now for a trillion dollars this and next year to create new jobs. This should be our primary issue going into the election. I am pissed that there is an August break. Congress should be called back today and work until a big job creation bill is passed.
Yes we democrats need to stop worrying about the November election and start worrying about the "general welfare" as stated in the preamble of the US Constitution. Anything less and all we are counting on is republican stupidity. Yes there is plenty republican stupidity, but we must not let that stupidity run the nation. The only way to prevent that stupidity from running the nation is for we democrats to care about the people. Not just care about unemployment benefits, but care about real jobs.