Obama & Americans To GOP: ‘We Can’t Wait’
As inured as I should be to Republican obstructionism at this point, it still boggles my mind that with 14 million Americans unemployed and the economy taking only baby steps toward a recovery, the GOP continues to block President Obama’s job creation bill despite its overwhelming popularity among voters.
With that in mind, the president sets out today on a three-day tour of Western states with a new mantra to replace the now shop-worn “Pass This Bill!” with “We Can’t Wait!” As in “We can’t wait for lawmakers to act.”
The new offensive will begin in Las Vegas, which is the poster city for the housing bust with the highest number of foreclosures per capita in the U.S. Obama will promote new rules for federally guaranteed mortgages so that more homeowners, those with little or no equity in their homes, can refinance and avert foreclosure.
Then on Denver tomorrow where the president will announce policy changes to ease college graduates’ repayment of federal loans.
The $447 billion jobs package includes expanded tax cuts for workers and employers and funding for infrastructure projects and state aid to keep teachers and emergency responders at work. But Republicans oppose the package and in particular provisions in it that would offset its costs with higher taxes on the wealthy.
Even if the bill fails, the Democrats still have a trump card: Exploiting Republican obstructionism during the 2012 campaign, which they hope will help offset the generally gloomy long-term economic outlook of many economists.
25 Responses to “Obama & Americans To GOP: ‘We Can’t Wait’”
The President is being portrayed as being unfair for pointing out Republican intransigence as to why he can’t get a relief bill through. Why is that?
You know, I really cannot see how our “system of government” is superior enough to pressure other nations into emulating us. Our government is failing us in a time of crisis for petty partisan reasons. All this “we are the greatest” stuff really is embarrassing because the world can easily see that we are ridiculous!
Why the heck are we going around the world pushing for our brand of “democracy” when we should be going around the world observing and learning from others why their systems work so well? I can only guess it is because; Even if we did publicly decide that another democratic system was better, we couldn’t change ours to fit it anyway. Locked into a stupid system of perpetual gridlock is NOT what the founding fathers had envisioned, but of this I can only assume.
What the hell are we doing?
Allen:
The Democrats by no means get a free pass on the gridlock issue, but it is ongoing Republican intransigence that is largely responsible.
Shaun,
Does it ever occur to you that “paying for” one year’s spending and tax cuts with 10 years worth of tax increases is a pretty bad idea?
As for the “overwhelming popularity” of the bill, are you particularly surprised? Giving people free stuff is always popular. The day Congress stops it might be the day we have a hope in hell of surviving the next few decades without a default (actual or inflationary).
The jobs bill is so popular but I would bet 80% of those who are in favor of it couldn’t tell you anything but that it has the word job in it. It looks to be spectacularly ineffective with an extremely high cost for what it does provide.
Yes we can!
Pass that bill!
We can’t wait!
What will be the next three word slogan? For some reason I keep picturing that Peyton Manning commercial “cut that meat”!
And Allen I don’t see Obama blaming things on the GOP as unfair, I just don’t think it plays well outside of his base.
As far as the overwhelming popularity of the bill, polls also showed most Americans did not want to raise the debt ceiling and do support a balanced budget. Governing on the basis of polls might get you re-elected but probably isn’t a good plan for the long haul.
SteveinCH
Creating jobs is not free stuff.
And what Absalon said.
I can understand some reluctance to pass Obama’s Jobs Bill. It is really inadequate to the challenge at hand. However, it is better than nothing.
The Republicans have offered nothing but old rehashed nostrums. The US has some long range financial problems to fix. It needs to reform entitlements and NOW it must be started so that the effects are felt gradually. Social Security can easily be fixed with removing to maximum payroll tax, making it harder to qualify for SSI and SSDI, annual certification of status(ir still living) and a gradual increase in retirement age to 68 and full taxation of benefits.
Medicare and medicaid are our real problems. I don’t know if Obamacare will really help the cost picture in a meaningful way. From my decades in charge of many segments of Prudential Healthcare I understand the incredible waste and inefficiency of private health insurance. I believe a single payer plan, like many other cost efficient countries use, is ultimately the only answer. This is what is needed to significantly change the economics of the delivery of health care. Doctors and hospitals need to be paid a salary (different salaries based on performance) but then we can stop wasting $300 billion annually cutting and sending out $50 and $100 etc claims and checks. In addition, supplemental health plans and tax free HSA’s should be outlawed so deductibles and co-insurance can do the job they were designed to do – cut utilization.
If we simply cut our $8000 per capita health spending to 50% greater than Europe, we could save about $600 billion a year. If over time we could get our health care costs down to Europe (they seem plenty healthy) we would not have a deficit in our Federal budget.
So by all means we have to cut our expenditures over time. However, cutting 1 trillion in government spending takes 6.5% out of our GDP. Can anyone spell depression? Our taxes as a percentage of GDP are already the lowest in 60 years so please lets not cut them anymore.
Cut regulations????? All I’ve heard republicans say is dump SOX, the EPA and the latest financial regulation. Sorry but that won’t produce jobs just a quicker trip to the next financial crisis and bailout.
I would really like to hear a Republican plan that specifically addresses job growth both in terms of numbers of jobs and stagnant wages.
Shaun,
The plan doesn’t create jobs…it gives away free stuff and hopes that the money thrown around will create jobs.
JDL,
You start by making an assumption that government can fix the problem. I think that’s quite a dangerous assumption.
But let me respond to some specifics. I absolutely agree on the primacy of Medicare and Medicaid but think you are looking past the cost drivers. The three primary cost drivers of the difference in spending between the US and other countries as I understand them are end of life care, HCP compensation, and med device and drug costs. A single payor system only works if it takes a real whack at those three cost drivers and to me you are vastly overestimating the ability of US governance to assume it will do so. Indeed the few tentative tries (mammograms and prostate testing) have fallen in the face of political opposition to the medical professionals.
Furthermore, there is no evidence of the implementation of a single payor system dramatically reducing systemic costs. Single payor isn’t the answer, addressing the cost drivers is. Sure single payor could address the cost drivers but, in the US context, it probably will not.
On the budget more broadly, I’m forced to point out again that a combination of current tax law (not current policy that includes several future tax increases) and spending growth capped at inflation plus population would balance the budget in a decade. No need for reductions in real per capita spending required. To argue that’s contractionary seems pretty silly to me. That said, I’d be happy to solve the problem faster with slightly higher taxes than current as long as I had any hope that spending would be kept under control.
Partisan, because there are only two parties. Partisan because there is no other choice and if there were it wouldn’t be viable anyway. Partisan because we are focused on what the two parties say we are focused on…or the media…Partisan because there are no parliamentary vehicles for ending gridlock. Like say, Switzerland.
Our system sucks Shaun. The daily minutia is irrelevant.
You must understand that in Steve’s world, the only thing you need to know is government bad, government evil. Private sector good. All you need to do to create jobs is gut federal regulations and cut taxes. The standard “Go Red Team” argument. Just look at the first paragraph of his response to jdledell for proof.
Axel,
3 million jobs (your number) for $860 billion dollars is $290,000 per job. Good deal? You be the judge.
Yes Jim, it is dangerous to think that government can solve every problem. There are many problems it can solve and many it can’t. The bulk of problems are areas where it can make a difference but the ROI of that is in question.
Creating jobs at 5x the multiple of salary is not, in my view, a good way to spend money.
You can argue the point or continue with the caricatures, as you like.
SteveinCH:
It is indeed simplistic to think that government can solve every problem, but it is the only entity that can solve unemployment because your GOP-friendly big businesses and their U.S. Chamber of Commerce helpmates are much more interested in raking in profits than creating jobs.
If not the government, who else? The tooth fairy?
Your simplistic approach to the jobs bill — and I will continue to call it that — and the math that you do is downright silly. The bill is multi-layered and to say it will cost $290,000 per job is inane.
SteveinCH – Why can many governments around the world reign in medical costs but, according to you, the US cannot. End of life health care around the world is not that much different than here, Britain being an exception. Sure we a few more hip and knee replacements etc but the main difference is our end of life care is more hospital than home based. Hospital based end of life care is incredibly expensive and is a money machine for the medical community.
In other countries people go into medicine as healers – not as entrepreneurs. There is a money difference in expectations. Here money is G-d – not the health of patients. Here the best doctors are the best marketers not necessarily the best physicians.
I’ll get back to the essential question. Why can Europe spend half of what we do on health care and statistically provide better care in terms of criteria set by WHO(longevity, infant mortality etc)Are you saying that the US is incompetent compared to the Europeans?
JDL,
The reason Europe can do what it does it that it is willing to price control HCP salaries and medical devices and drugs and, as you point out, to use palliative care at end of life as opposed to restorative care. If the US were willing to do the same, it might lower costs. I see no willingness to do any of that.
To say the words “single payor” as if they were a mantra doesn’t change the cost drivers. If you showed me a willingness on the part of important US policy makers and politicians to work on the cost drivers, it’s a good discussion. Every piece of evidence I’ve seen in the last couple of decades says no such willingness exists and therefore the payment system is irrelevant.
Shaun,
Please feel free to call it anything you like. I know that you think measuring return on investment is silly. The fact that you think it doesn’t make it so.
SteveinCH:
Yes, we’re at the point in the game when you are putting words in the poster’s mouth, in this case asserting that I think measuring return on investment “is silly.” You know perfectly well I wrote no such thing.
I need to ask a question:
Many posters write God without the whole word like, G-d in jdledell’s post.
What’s up with this? Is there a certain religion specific reason for this or do some just don’t like the word God? If I write the full word am I offending anybody? If I do this in public in the wrong part of town am I going to get mobbed? I just don’t understand what’s going on here.
Regarding health care costs and the difference between costs in the US and elsewhere, I can’t say much that I haven’t already said here: http://sovereignmind.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/why-does-health-care-cost-so-much-in-the-us/
Regarding the budget picture overall, I think what is dangerous is the misuse and misunderstanding of the term “deficit neutral.” There are many ways that something can be technically deficit neutral but still be detrimental to our long-term budget picture. The way relevant to this discussion is that it takes away one more tool that we have for reducing our deficit. If we are raising taxes on the rich for the next 10 years to pay for short-term stimulus, what are we going to do when that stimulus has run its course and we still have a budget hole? Raise taxes again? Maybe, but you can only go back to that so many times. It’s like when we paid for HCR by cutting/reducing waste in Medicare. Even assuming all of those cuts and efficiencies are achieved, that money should be used to make Medicare solvent, not pay for other things. “Deficit neutral” is like treading water when your boat has sunk. At some point you need to start swimming, and the longer you wait the harder it will be.
Regarding the jobs bill, it is obviously always intended to be a political football. It was never intended to pass, as illustrated by when Republicans called Democrats’ bluff and asked for a vote on it instead of the meaningless bill they were debating at the time. Obama would rather the bill not pass and then be able to blame the economy on Republicans, rather than pass and have no significant effect.
And yes, Republicans like the idea of having the economy stagnate for another year to increase their chances in 2012. We’re governed by juveniles all the way around. It will be that way until we realize we don’t have to settle for the lesser of two bad choices.
Allen – I was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home and it is custom in such an environment not to use the Hebrew words for G-d. Instead we always used substitute words like “adonai” which literally means Lord or HaShem (the Name).
This is custom in Jewish life but it is not part of Jewish law (Halacha). You won’t really be offending anyone to use G-d’s name but I’m too old to change a life long habit.
@Allen, it is a ritual of respect amongst many Jews to not write the full word, to reserve that word as sacred, and therefore to be protected. Sometimes when I’ve written an article addressing Jewish people, I use same, G-d. And it is just a sign of respect for people who hold Creator in that way. I’m glad you asked.
I’m not going to warn again. Ad hominems and trying to discuss one’s personal and negative imaginings about the writer, the site or other commenters, instead of the topic, isnt within TMV’s rules for commenters.
thanks,
archangel/ dr.e
Well Dr. E,
I’ll be off again much to the joy of the moderate group here. Nice of you to eliminate Axel’s post but if I’m not allowed to respond to Shaun without impugning him personally (which I did not), I’m not sure how the rules work. In addition, the author’s endorsement of Axel’s personal attack remains in the thread despite the fact that you edited posts in addition to removing them.
Further, Jim’s post which you chose to leave up is far more personally impugning than anything I wrote. Indeed, I impugned the moderate nature of the site but no poster individually and yet, despite that, the post was removed by you.
To the regular commenters, I had hoped to return to what can be good discussion. Returning to personal attacks and uneven moderation, not so much.
Best to all.
Jdledell’s first post gets to the heart of it imo. I think a great many Americans understand why this is so, but they aren’t the ones with the political clout… yet.
As for the G-d question, well… I respect the right of others to follow what they believe is sacred in this regard, but my own tendency is to go ahead and write god, with lower case letters. I don’t think god is offended by this, and if I’m wrong about that I reckon I’ll find out eventually.
Steve, don’t be so anxious to go rushing off. There has always been room for a variety of viewpoints here, and for a very long time TMV was dominated by some pretty far-right commenting. If your own POV is being taken to task, then you’re just like the rest of us.