President Obama Must Choose Jobs Over Deficit Reduction
Posted by Michael A. Kamperman on October 26, 2009
The number one issue in America is jobs. The number two issue in America is jobs. The number three issue in America is jobs. Yet somehow the Whitehouse remains tone-deaf to the cries and lamentations of the American people. The President is much more interested in minimalism when it comes to any job creation efforts than he is in risking raising the deficit higher than it already is. However, if you’re the world’s biggest currency manipulator named China and you complain about the U.S. printing money the President is all ears. If you run around saying we are stealing from our grandchildren by increasing the national debt the President is easily cowered. But if you are some poor Joe or Jane without a job the President is willing to give you a few more weeks of unemployment benefits, and not much else. He is certainly not willing to create a job for you.
A friend of mine lost his job as an architect one year ago. His unemployment benefits just ran out. Because of the commercial real estate bust no architectural firm is hiring. Its not that he can’t compete for a job, there are no jobs to compete for. What good will a few more weeks of unemployment insurance do him in the big scheme of things? When those checks run out there will still be no jobs available for him.
What the President needs to do is provide the change we can believe in that he campaigned on. Rhetoric and flowery speeches will not put food on the American workers table. We need action. The President should come forward with a two year one trillion dollar infrastructure bill that would repair or replace roads, bridges, federal government buildings, national parks, and schools in poor districts. The President should also remind the Fed that unemployment is their most important mandate right now, not inflation. He should have a meeting with Ben Bernanke and tell him if he doesn’t up the quantitative easing program at the next meeting he will pull his nomination for a second term. Basically, we need for the President to become proactive on the jobs front and take charge. Finally, he should fire all of his economic and political advisers that are counseling him to worry more about the deficit than about jobs. It is simply stunning how President Obama has surrounded himself with the same type of liquidationist advisers that President Hoover surrounded himself with during our last debt-induced deflationary depression. President Obama, you will not be able to re-create 10 million missing jobs on the cheap.
