<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Carl,<br>
Bernstein is a bad joke, but one that is certainly on us. Not
carrying water for the big O and can't say one way or the other
that the man might be in favor of a WPA personally, but...<br>
<br>
Those Republicans in the House might have just a teenzy-weenzy bit
more to do with the fact that we aren't blessed with a WPA Redux
than cherry-picking Bernstein might indicate.<br>
<br>
Bad as O is, he's not the source of all evil in the world...or
even in DC.<br>
<br>
Of course, I'm fairly certain that Romney will pull the carpet
from under my argument by announcing his own WPA program any day
now...<br>
<span class="moz-smiley-s3"><span> ;-) </span></span><br>
Mike<br>
<br>
On 9/7/2012 9:14 AM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:86153354-F8BF-4576-A0BF-3DD498D77ED7@shout.net"
type="cite">
<style type="text/css">
<!--
/* start of attachment style */
.ygrp-photo-title{
clear: both;
font-size: smaller;
height: 15px;
overflow: hidden;
text-align: center;
width: 75px;
}
div.ygrp-photo{
background-position: center;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-color: white;
border: 1px solid black;
height: 62px;
width: 62px;
}
div.photo-title
a,
div.photo-title a:active,
div.photo-title a:hover,
div.photo-title a:visited {
text-decoration: none;
}
div.attach-table div.attach-row {
clear: both;
}
div.attach-table div.attach-row div {
float: left;
/* margin: 2px;*/
}
p {
clear: both;
padding: 15px 0 3px 0;
overflow: hidden;
}
div.ygrp-file {
width: 30px;
valign: middle;
}
div.attach-table div.attach-row div div a {
text-decoration: none;
}
div.attach-table div.attach-row div div span {
font-weight: normal;
}
div.ygrp-file-title {
font-weight: bold;
}
/* end of attachment style */
-->
</style>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=ISO-8859-1">
<!-- |**|begin egp html banner|**| -->
<br>
<br>
<!-- |**|end egp html banner|**| -->
Jared Bernstein, former chief economist for Vice President Joe
Biden, wrote on May 30, 2011, "There will be no WPA-type programs
in our near future. There was no appetite for them in the Obama
admin in the midst of the worst recession since the Great
Depression and there's a lot less now. The reasons for that are
interesting and I'll speak to them another day. But it ain't
happening" <<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/shoulds-versus-coulds/">http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/shoulds-versus-coulds/</a>>.<br>
<br>
"...on a WPA program, Bernstein explicitly says it was the White
House, not Republicans, who had no appetite for direct, public job
creation during the first term. Bernstein says he made the
arguments about public works jobs inside the White House, but he
was clearly outvoted. He doesn't give the arguments made in
response, tantalizingly alluding to 'interesting' reasons that he
will 'speak to another day.' But he says very clearly that the
reason we did all of this hoops-jumping and nudging in the
stimulus package rather than just paying people to work at jobs
that needed to be done was a philosophical decision inside the
White House. In a sense we already knew this, but it's important
that a former White House insider re-emphasized it" <<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/05/30/jared-bernstein-lets-slip-interesting-info-about-wh-economic-views/">http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/05/30/jared-bernstein-lets-slip-interesting-info-about-wh-economic-views/</a>>.<br>
<br>
<div><br>
<div>Begin forwarded message:</div>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>The August jobs report was released this morning at 7:30:<br>
<br>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>"86,000
fewer Americans have a job today than when Obama took office
in January 2009 ... In August alone, another 580,000 people
left the workforce entirely ... While the top-line drop of
the unemployment rate may seem like a positive [8.2% to
8.1%], it is entirely driven by people leaving the
workforce. In August alone, 119,000 fewer Americans have a
job..." <<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://getliberty.org/fewer-americans-employed-now-than-when-obama-took-office/">http://getliberty.org/fewer-americans-employed-now-than-when-obama-took-office/</a>>.<br>
<br>
It's the responsibility of government to provide a decent
job at a living wage to every American who wants one. But
Obama has specifically rejected a New Deal-style Works
Progress Administration (even while he adopts the rhetoric
of a "New New Deal" - typically "faking left and driving
right").<br>
<br>
Obama's 1% sponsors abominate the notion of a WPA for the
simple reason that it would raise their labor costs. Fewer
people would have to take the terrible jobs and wages that
they offer to American workers if those workers could get a
decent job at a living wage. <br>
<br>
It would also move work in America toward production for use
rather than production for the profit of the very few. There
is immense work to be done that private capital isn't doing
- because they can't profit from it - from infrastructure to
teaching. A new WPA could remedy that.<br>
<br>
The original WPA even employed artists. <br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
</body>
</html>