[Peace-discuss] [OccupyCU] Closer Than You Think: Top 15 Things Romney and Obama Agree On

[C. G. Estabrook]

Come on, Mike.  The statement may be slightly hyperbolic, but it's an accurate description of what the Obama administration is (not) doing. 

(1) The first sentence is true if in need of specification, such as 

(a) "Chronic unemployment highest since Great Depression" <http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18563_162-20069136.html>; and

(b) "Longest Period of High Unemployment Since Great Depression" <http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/02/16/cbo-longest-period-of-high-unemployment-since-great-depression>.

(2) The last sentence expresses the conscious decision of the Obama administration not to create WPA-like government jobs as an alternative to jobs controlled by private business:

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" <http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/shoulds-versus-coulds/>.

"...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" <http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/05/30/jared-bernstein-lets-slip-interesting-info-about-wh-economic-views/>.

--CGE

On Sep 2, 2012, at 10:00 PM, Michael Weissman <mbwmbwmbw at gmail.com> wrote:

> Damian- things are bad enough if you describe them accurately. Making stuff up doesn't help. This list is half truths. Let's start with the first item.
> 
>  
> 15
> 
> Although unemployment is the highest it's been since the Great Depression, the federal government should NOT enact any sort of WPA-style program to put millions of people back to work. Under Democrat Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s, Depression-era unemployment was tackled head on by direct federal hiring to dig subways, build roads, schools, parks, sewers, recreational facilities and public buildings. Oblivious of this history, Democrat Barack Obama maintains that only the private sector can or should create jobs.
> 
> 
> Neither the first sentence nor the last sentence there is true. First, check any standard plot of unemployment vs. time. Second, Obama pushed through the major stimulus which included lots of funding for direct public jobs (teachers,...), public-created private jobs (hiring contractors to build bridges...) and, generally bad tax breaks, needed to get the bill through the Senate, due to almost unanimous R opposition. The D's are pushing fairly big (still way too small) new stimulus bills, again a mixture of direct funding of state jobs and building things by hiring contractors. Can't get anything through the R House.
> 
> A discussion about what is to be done is really hard at best, but worthless if it's not based on real data.
> 
> One could go through the other points, but after this start why bother.
> 
> 
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