Once again trying to put lipstick on a pig of a deal he made with the Republicans, President Obama said:
As for now, I believe this bipartisan plan is the right thing to do. It’s the right thing to do for jobs. It’s the right thing to do for the middle class. It is the right thing to do for business. And it’s the right thing to do for our economy. It offers us an opportunity that we need to seize.
Except that there is almost nothing in the plan to create jobs. There's a huge budget-busting gift to the wealthy and funding for the unemployment benefits of those whose haven't run out, but that funding runs for just 13 months while the gift to the wealthy runs two years, which means that a year from now we will play this game again. Does anyone doubt that the result will be the president yet again giving the Republicans more of their agenda for but another funding extension for those whose unemployment benefits still have yet to run out?
Meanwhile, despite the budget-busting gift to the wealthy, the fallout from the president's absurdly misguided and mistimed Catfood Commission will continue to poison the political atmosphere as we continue the hypocritical game of pretending the deficit is an imminent crisis, just not so imminent as to make the case against irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthy. And with tax cuts for the wealthy off the table as a means of addressing the deficit, we all know what will be: Social Security. And you can be certain that when the spending cap hits, next year, a new deal will be cut, and you can be all but certain of what it will entail.
Of course the president also added this:
Now, under this agreement, unemployment insurance will also be extended for another 13 months, which will be welcome relief for 2 million Americans who are facing the prospect of having this lifeline yanked away from them right in the middle of the holiday season.
Which sounds great, until you realize that this deal doesn't do anything at all for the 2 million Americans whose unemployment benefits have expired. But even worse is that this deal does almost nothing for the underlying problem: There are no jobs! Businesses aren't hiring, and only the government can reawaken the jobs market. And lest anyone try to sell the snake oil that tax cuts will lead to significant job growth, all we have to do is revisit recent history: President Clinton raised taxes, without a single Republican vote, and the result was a booming economy and near full employment; Bush cut taxes and had the worst track record on jobs ever. But instead of following Clinton's lead, instead of following FDR's lead from the Great Depression, Obama instead is following Bush's lead.
So, to recap: Rather than revive the economy with a real stimulus, we are instead but extending unemployment benefits for some, allowing them to end for others, giving a huge budget-busting gift to the wealthy, doing almost nothing about unemployment, leaving the door open to do this all over again in a year, while putting Social Security on the table. Can it get worse?