The Square Off Over Jobs

[jaxx]

Editorial
The Square Off Over Jobs
Published: July 6, 2012

<..> On the campaign trail, President Obama has explained correctly that recoveries from financial crashes are tortured affairs and that it was an achievement to get the economy growing again a mere six months after he took office. For that, he credits the 2009 stimulus he pushed through Congress, a point well supported by public- and private-sector economic analyses. It’s also worth noting that job growth in the current recovery has actually outpaced the job growth following the Bush-era recession in 2001. The recovery is not unusually weak; what is atypical is the length and severity of the recession that Mr. Obama inherited.

Mitt Romney is having none of that. His campaign has centered on what he calls Mr. Obama’s “failed economic record.” This from a man who says the stimulus was a failure and the rescue of the auto industry a mistake, whose prescription for stabilizing the housing market is to let it crash, whose plan for health care is to repeal the health reform law, and who clings to discredited policies, like more tax cuts for the rich and less regulation for the banks. Mr. Romney’s proposals would take the nation back to the conditions that inflated the bubble and led to the bust.

<..> What he is not responsible for is the continued Republican obstructionism, even in the face of a weakening economy. Last fall, Mr. Obama returned to job creation, with a proposed package that would have created up to 1.9 million jobs, including aid to states to hire teachers and other public employees, investments in infrastructure and tax breaks for new hiring.

Republicans in Congress blocked the package and have balked at other plans from the administration ever since. Wed as they are to the notion that the weak economy is their best shot at victory in November, there is virtually no chance for change in the months ahead. And that means more jobs reports like the one for June.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/07/opinio....html?_r=1

The NYT calling the repubs obstructionists. Nobody can deny that they have done all they can to weaken the economy.

[pappy]

It wasn't just that they said no to Obama's efforts. They didn't come up with any viable plans of their own. Not putting forth more than lip service on the economy was strictly a political calculation aimed squarely at the Democrats and Obama. The calculation is that their lip service would confuse the issue enough that voters would lay all the blame on Obama and the Democrats and absolve Republicans.

The strategy may yet work as the "superpacs" begin their assault but I'm betting that enough has been done to relieve peoples fears and make them start to being hopeful again. The Democrats are the ones that are giving voice to hope over fear while Romney talks gloom and doom. My money continues to be on Obama and the Dems.

[jaxx]

(07-07-2012 10:06 AM)pappy Wrote:  It wasn't just that they said no to Obama's efforts. They didn't come up with any viable plans of their own. Not putting forth more than lip service on the economy was strictly a political calculation aimed squarely at the Democrats and Obama. The calculation is that their lip service would confuse the issue enough that voters would lay all the blame on Obama and the Democrats and absolve Republicans.

The strategy may yet work as the "superpacs" begin their assault but I'm betting that enough has been done to relieve peoples fears and make them start to being hopeful again. The Democrats are the ones that are giving voice to hope over fear while Romney talks gloom and doom. My money continues to be on Obama and the Dems.

Viable is the word. Boehner will whine that they have passed a bunch of jobs bill that are dead in the senate. They're dead for a reason, everyone of them is poison to the economy and the people with taking away the social safety net or gouging the middle class with taxes while protecting the rich.