Obama outlines plan to create jobs
November 22, 2008 - 8:15am.
President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday outlined his plan to create 2.5 million jobs in coming years to rebuild roads and bridges and modernize schools while developing alternative energy sources and more efficient cars.
"These aren't just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis; these are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long," Obama said in the weekly Democratic radio address. The economic recovery plan being developed by his staff aims to create 2.5 million jobs by January 2011, and he wants to get it through Congress quickly and sign it soon after taking office.
He called the plan "big enough to meet the challenges we face" and said that it will jump-start job creation but also "lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy."
Aides said the economic plan outlined Saturday went further that the president-elect has gone before.
A trio of crises — housing, credit and financial — have badly damaged the economy, and financial analysts have projected the country's economic hardships will continue through much of 2009.
Obama acknowledged Saturday that evidence is growing the country is "facing an economic crisis of historic proportions." He noted turmoil on Wall Street, a decrease in new home purchases, growing jobless claims and the menacing problem of deflation.
He said he was pleased Congress passed an extension of unemployment benefits this week, but added, "We must do more to put people back to work and get our economy moving again."
Figures out this week showed new claims for jobless aid had reached a 16-year high. "If we don't act swiftly and boldly, most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year," Obama said.
He cautioned, "There are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it's likely to get worse before it gets better." But Obama said Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, "is our chance to begin anew."
Obama said getting congressional approval for his broad economic plan will not be easy.
"I will need and seek support from Republicans and Democrats, and I'll be welcome to ideas and suggestions from both sides of the aisle," he said. "But what is not negotiable is the need for immediate action."
Across the country, Americans "are lying awake at night wondering if next week's paycheck will cover next month's bills," people are showing up at work to clear out their desks and retirees are watching their life savings disappear, Obama said.
On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to 542,000. That marked the highest level since July 1992 and provided fresh evidence of a rapidly weakening job market that is expected to get even worse next year.
In this country's darkest hours, the American people have risen above their divisions to solve their problems, he said.
"We have acted boldly, bravely, and above all, together," Obama said. "That is the chance our new beginning now offers us, and that is the challenge we must rise to in the days to come. It is time to act. As the next president of the United States, I will."
___
On the Net:
Video link to Obama's address: http://www.change.gov
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press
Technorati Tags: - Login or register to post comments
- Printer friendly version
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Magnoliacom
Newsvine
Furl
Google
Yahoo
Technorati
There's only so many
There's only so many McDonalds' a country can support. Government doesn't have the power to create jobs anyway, unless they're government jobs, which means higher taxes for bloated bureaucratic salaries.
Government can only foster an atmosphere for growth and investment. Our debt-driven consumer "economy" is a house of cards teetering on collapse. Ignoring the fundamentals of a strong economy - strong currency, low taxes, educated work force, etc, will get us nowhere but deeper in debt.
Far better to spend money on
Far better to spend money on our country's infrastructure than on bailouts. This will give people jobs now and support growth in the future.
I wonder, Griff, if the
I wonder, Griff, if the government doesn't have the power to create jobs, are they not creating jobs for Iraqis? Our money is pouring into the Middle East to the neglect of covering our own debts. I've often thought that the collapse of our economy might have been thought out by our own government leaders to put at least 60% of our employment coming directly from the federal government.
We saw this after the great depression that put many of our Americans on the government payroll. It was that, or watch them starve holding their own children.
It is very sad when we realize the government's oversight in the mortgage mess brought about the loans on homes, businesses, banks and many who had their retirement funds invested in shaky circumstances.
America needs decent utility grids and highways as well as the dams and jettys. Our schools are deteriorating building-wise and certainly academically. These jobs could put many to work. Look at the cost of keeping our soldiers in Iraq until 2012 or longer. Look at the cost of caring for the wounded soldiers and their families for years. While we are rebuilding our infrastructure we might have to built thousands of prisons as our people will not let their families starve and they will do what other citizens do when faced with hunger, they will take from others.
Has President elect Obama discussed cutting back on spending by the government? This budget for redecorating the white house has been abused by every new President. We need more than a freeze on spending but a complete stop to duplicate parts of the government.
It bothers me to look forward to poverty and unemployment when our government lives like the Roman Senate. The government should stop all social issues and wasted money on faith based grants. All grants should be reevaluated unless they can prove that these grants will bring in more money in the long run. How many of the government people (new and old) have ever made a payroll or cut back costs?
I hate to admit it but unless we give health care a strong priority, our citizens won't be fit to work. People need to be told what to do, what to eat and drink and in return they will be willing to live as caged dumb animals.
There are no solutions coming from either side and no excuses for the last 20 years of bad government. Our American people are not only dumbed down but drugged from childhood. Families are exploding in anger and our schools are killing fields. Can these fools actually dare say they are Christians?
Are there no solutions for any of this mess? I consider you a reasonable man along with many here; but I keep asking for solution debates.
Malcolm
Our jobs have gone because
Our jobs have gone because our wonderful government enacted legislation such as NAFTA (spearheaded by none other then Rahm Emmanuel) and GATT, which created the incentives for corporations to move offshore.
Furthermore, those that are concerned with our environment should consider that most of our jobs went to countries with no environmental standards whatsoever, not to mention labor standards.
So on one hand, we have a pleading for strict environmental standards here, leading to higher costs for products made here, while we are happy to buy those things from other countries and turn a blind eye.
Yes, we need to take care of our infrastructure, but that money comes from taxes. With less and less people working, coupled with wage stagnation for those that are (neither my wife nor I have received a raise in alomst three years), we seem to miss the obvious fact that we can't afford these things when people aren't working.
Unless, of course, we borrow or print the money, which leads to inflation and more debt. None of these will ever be solved unless we get people back to work and making respectable wages.
This was kind of a short and wandering response, but I am pressed for time and not exactly sober (it is Saturday), but I will close by saying that I'm not used to being referred to by others here as being reasonable, so thanks!
Maybe we'll have this discussion in the near future.
Um, excuse me, but I watched
Um, excuse me, but I watched a replay of his speech. He didn't outline a plan. He said he has a plan to make a plan. His big news was that he has asked his economic advisers to create a plan. It would have been news maybe if he had asked his advisers not to create a plan. Or maybe if he had a plan. But, no, he has a plan to make a plan.
Whoop dee do.
I remember clearly that
I remember clearly that Perot was so horrified of the NAFTA GATT plan that President Bush 41 presented that he (Perot) gathered a lot of people to stop this assault on our American products. We all remember that loud sucking sound from Mexico....do we not? President Bush 41 lost his reelection based on his destructive agenda of a one world order including NAFTA GATT. All Clinton had to do was continue what Bush 41 started and Perot fought against. I remember when CHB posters laughed at the Perot Campaign.
Let's put the blame where it originated. We can spend the next 8 years pointing fingers at who did what to whom and nothing will change.
Warren, the obvious fix is exactly what FDR proposed and whether we like it or not, it saved many lives.
I honestly believe that too many Americans have lost their desire to learn a trade that would take care of their homes and families. Many who do, find their jobs allocated by their unions. There is no doubt that many of the corporations have moved off shore due to the pressure from the unions. The demand for an over-bloated health care system may be the icing on the cake and sinks the boat.
Few of us in my age group had any health insurance as children. We had family doctors who sewed us up and fixed our broken bones. The costs were payable when we never owned a new car or took fancy trips. We never had toys that cost more than $.50 or needed batteries.
The culture today in America is not promoting individual concepts and too many of our kids don't even think a highschool diploma is necessasry.
President elect Obama has only one option and that is to make government jobs immediately. At least he knows what needs to be done as he has seen the destruction of our basic infrastructures.
My choice would have been to locate private corporations to make these improvements and put them out for bid and add the costs to the federal budget. This is what a responsible leader of the free world would do. Our leaders have been asleep working on their own personal and financial agendas. Had Senator McCain been elected, it would be Halliburton who would be contracted to fix America and at 4 times the actual cost.
Americans are hungry and frightened of poverty and something should be done immediately!
We have seen the evil and greed of 8 years of Conservative leadership and I hope the American people will stop the assault of these members of the religious right and get back to fixing what they have broken and then return to the laws within the Constitution. This does not mean to let millions of Americans starve or be found living on the streets.
Malcolm