Wow! How far we have come in so short a time to this impasse.
I wrote in the days after Nov 2008 the hard stuff
was ahead. I had no idea how completely the faith in placing technocrats , using the corporate world had embraced and isolated Obama in a largely opaque bubble from the massive problems facing an America going down after decades of neglect and having lost its way.
I said then we needed to force BHO to do those things he needed to do on behalf of all of us. Only we can do it, get the needs across regardless of the D.C. insiders playing to keep the status quo intact despite all the danger signs. That (making big changes) works only if there is some willingness to do it there. (More on the jump)
He will only go as far as he is pushed.
And surprise, surprise it is his own Party, the Democratic Party and many unaffiliated that have to make the case to get serious about the scope and scale of the domestic problems we face. Why did buying shares of banks , the HC reform, the HAMP assistance to mortgage holders fail so extensively? Because the same people creating the problems are attempting a band aid patch to iron them out. No serious changes? then it is Not Going To Happen. From the Gulf disaster to the permanent wars the technocrat professionals are in charge, the careerists who make their life's work doing specialized service work. And in service to whom and for whom, exactly? That is a good question because BHO is the examplar of that technocratic specialist class. From politics, law, medicine, science, military technique to economics and finance especially corporate finance.
In our world, a much more sobering reality is ongoing and sadly so.
3 million foreclosures expected this year after 1.57 million in 08 and nearly 2 million in 09. Two million plus more coming in backlogged legal pipeline.
BHO. He has been a successful rapidly climbing the ladder politician but now this President's position is an enormous, impossible job for a superman let alone a decent gifted human being.
Saving GM as a global car company by axing nearly 1/3rd of its workers while spending $55 billion is what sort of a triumph exactly? but what happens to the 1/3rd of the workers after losing their ability to earn a decent living?
In a job market where there are 5 1/2 to 15 workers chasing 1 job and that job may not even be comparable in many ways to the lost job.
Today a commentator (on radio show) from Summit Financial admitted that out of the 10 million jobs lost in the last three years, only 2% have come back in comparable form. The rest are gone and there is no hurry or need in the present to bring workers back. There were 39,000 jobs created this November, also the biggest corporate layoffs in 8 months (NPR). The expectations were 160 to 180 thousand new jobs. Big jolt about the drop.
What will you do about that, BHO?
The pundit class demands the plans Obama had, the goals he had should be scaled back or be shelved. The win of 63 republican seats away from Democrats means HCR is supposedly in danger of repeal, climate change legislation and action is paused or suspended, the START treaty is in danger, the social safety net is under attack to reduce the deficit, and on and on the dreary litany of unpleasant consequences grows.
The economy is struggling, so Republicans once again offer the Hoover solutions of 1928 to 1930 like deporting Mexicans (half million were sent back to "help Americans get employed"). Now there is a push for more punitive measures under the guise of immigration reform. That did quite a bit in an era of 25% unemployment nationally. Not! Trade restrictions, bank credit tightening, all the wrong things were tried before.
"New" wrong things are suggested by the Deficit Reduction Commission (AKA Catfood commission)like raising the employables retiring age while there is a dearth of jobs for young and old alike.
The hostility of the new republicans to new technologies, to green technology to disbelief in climate change, to still believe in a fantasy world as if the world was 4,000 years old and space travel is still Hollywood stagecraft and not a real scientific engineering and technical feat....these are the future guardians and guarantors of a growing America? Don't think so. My bipartisanship ends when I have to see my neighbors and relatives suffer and struggle as this economy shrinks, as the government withdraws its safety net and the opposition cheers every setback and injury as an excellent thing for them regaining braying rights and the ability to do even worse.
I want President Obama to succeed to help our people that need saving, to launch and build a new infrastructure for energy and transport inside America to allow the new economy of the 21st Century a place and a chance to grow. That means less expensive AND cleaner renewable and non fossil fuel energy has to be a national urgency and priority right now. Not something to do sometime, much later in the future when all the cheap oil and all the cheap gas is finally sucked out. We have had promises from the liars and cheats in the oil industry before about "independence" and new technologies. How can he do it in a fickle Senate and a downright hostile Congress? I think he might get another chance after this year rolls by with possibly the second dip, definitely stagnation and more layoffs. Even the repubs will get nervous as their state runs into a deepening crisis.
BHO has to get out the bully pulpit and warn them that inaction, meaningless gestures like tax cuts for billionaires and millionaires didn't work in the 1930's, and they aren't working now.
We have had seven years of a double tax cut, Bush's 2001, then 2003. We had 44 months of job losses and finally a jobless for the most part recovery. We got the worst economic performance we have ever had in over 150 years- 8 years where there were barely 1.2 million jobs of all kinds added, a tiny bit more than 120,000 jobs per year. In an economy that had nearly 300 million people and more than 140 million employed. Checked against that that 1.2 million is dreadful, (and now we have 308 million and LESS jobs) not merely weak or anemic.
What future will we have giving billions of $$$ incentives to the same polluting fossil industries to help drive their prices much higher and strangle businesses right here at home on the choking off by expensive fuel costs?
My point about one more chance: We need a council of unemployed, about to be unemployed, "obsolete" Americans unemployed for years doing a two day teach in at the White House. Telling them all about the disaster in jobs, they won't get better with the legacy of inaction we have, and educate the WH team what worked before and how it should be applied in today's climate January 2011.
Apparently two years have gone by and there is still wishful thinking this will get better by itself over time. Nuts! We have rust belt cities that have been languishing for thirty years or more. We are about to get a wave of new ones with similar permanently closed out and extinguished for business features. Let's talk to the President and pierce the bubble.