I know there are some who do not understand economics, but put it like this, with the unemployment rate at 9.2%, the recent GDP Report horrific, and the U.S. economy approaching a stall it does not make any sense to cut anything in this environment. Cutting services equates cutting jobs. Period. Does this make any sense to anyone out here? Friday we have to brace for the unemployment numbers and no one is expecting these numbers to make you jump up and down and think we are on the way to a recovery. Again, for us to make up for all the job loss we need over 250K jobs created monthly for well over a year or two. Well, what was last month's job creation number? 18K? We got a long way to go.
Here from Rachel Maddow and notice Speaker John Boehner gloating that he got 98% of what he wanted, but Wall Street surely did not jump up and down over this deal, it went down 266 points.
Rachel Maddow itemizes all of the things President Obama has done that would look good for Republicans, favor them, you know the bipartisan thingy, but again they continue to undermine him. Just listening to this portion makes one's head shake in shame.
President Obama must pivot to jobs, he has been absent from the discussion for too long. People are hurting out here. Many have been unemployed for more than a year, the 99ers are like invisible to Washington, D.C. and President Obama must deal with this because that is what 2012 is about. For the good things President Obama has done, no one cares about it, what they get is the unemployment rate, joblessness, scared of losing a job, etc. And I won't even talk about the housing market which has been such a drag on this economy and the failure for the Obama Administration to actually have a program to help these home owners. Banks now have so many homes in foreclosure, a friend of mine's who works for Bank of America told me it is like just throwing these houses in a pile. It is that bad out here and President Obama has been M.I.A. on the ground for many Americans.
Another point, the message. His mini newser was still filled with the phrases of "we must do more", "the most wealthiest must pay their fair share", and the problem with this is that when you say that a deal must have tax cuts and tax revenues but cave, why should folks continue to listen to you? That is a big problem. From Hardball and Ron Reagan goes off:
Well, we did give into hostage taking and give the props to the Tea Party. Why? They stuck together, pushed their caucus and establishment and watched President Obama blink. That is what happened. You can't sugar coat it or put lipstick on a pig, but in the end it is what it is.
The next phase? The only phase should be about JOBS. But now President Obama plays with a very weakened hand. We heard him repeat Republican talking points on tax cuts (and yes, he should know better), a hope and dream of an infrastructure bank (which I totally would love to see but won't happen) and trade deals which the Republicans will surely love. In other words, there is very little he can do, he squandered the time he had to do anything and he has to run on his economic record next year and it is dismal.
Can Barack Obama win re-election? Absolutely. If the GOP trumps their purity hand and give us a bat shit Republican nominee. We must pray that happens.