So, Mr. President, where are the jobs?
ByRepublicans concerned about the Obama administration’s big spending on economic stimulus, energy and health care are asking, "Where are the jobs?"
"The president and Democrats in Congress claim this spending binge is necessary to put Americans back to work," House Republican leader John Boehner said Saturday in the Republican radio and Internet address. "They promised unemployment would not rise above 8 percent if their trillion-dollar stimulus was passed.
"But our nation has lost nearly 3 million jobs this year. Unemployment has soared above 9 percent. And now the president admits that unemployment will soon reach double digits.
"After all of this spending, after all of this borrowing from China, the Middle East, our children and our grandchildren, where are the jobs?" Boehner said.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said early this week that the president expects the nation will reach 10 percent unemployment within the next few months. In January, President Barack Obama’s economic team predicted unemployment would rise no higher than 8 percent with the help of $787 billion in new government spending. The unemployment rate in May reached a 25-year high of 9.4 percent. Obama aides have said that the economy took a turn for the worse since their initial forecast.
Boehner has seized on the administration’s revised forecast.
He predicted Democratic proposals on health care, stimulus and energy would all be bad for the economy.
He said Republicans have proposed improvements to health care and economic stimulus that are less intrusive and expensive than Obama’s plans. And he criticized Democratic efforts to pass an energy bill that he described as "a national energy tax," which passed the House Friday. He singled out proposed health care changes as a job killer.
"It’s about to get worse for middle-class families and small businesses," he said. "Democrats are pushing a government takeover of our health care system that will cost at least a trillion dollars."
"The president has repeatedly claimed that Americans will be able to keep their doctors under the Democrats’ plan," Boehner said, adding he’s seen government reports that indicate millions will lose their current health coverage and millions more will lose their jobs if the Democratic plan is adopted.
Obama argues that health care changes will help the economy and scoffs at predictions that his plans to offer a public plan as an alternative will harm the private insurance industry. He says it’s not logical that private industry provides the best quality health care but can’t compete with a public plan.
Boehner said Democrats should abandon their determination to pass measures without GOP cooperation. "We hope our Democrat colleagues will abandon their failed go-it-alone approach and work with us to make these reforms a reality," he said.
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Like Boehner was SO concerned with jobs fro the American People when the Repugnicans were in charge. The hypocracy of this man is raised to an art form.
As they say around the Texas Legislature, if you
can’t drink their whiskey, screw their women, take their money, and vote against ‘em anyway, you don’t belong in office.-Molly Ivins
They’re still offshore. But don’t worry, they won’t be lonely. There’s more on the way.
$9 trillion would have paid off every mortgage in the United States and instantly freed up hundreds to thousands of dollars for every household. Instant cash into the system in most every hand.
We’ve spent or guaranteed over $13 trillion on banks, insurance, and car companies and we’ve got squat to show for it but a continued slumping and soon depression. What a bargain!
I’m so glad we didn’t create a welfare state. Thank heavens for Republicans and Democrats, but especially for those private bankers at the Federal Reserve for protecting us from the ultimate evil of people being out of debt and able to afford items with cash.
Well Mr. BOEHNER, if the recovery plan that passed bore any resemblance to the plan that made that claim, you might have had a valid argument.
Instead, Obama accepted misguided advice and tried to appear bipartisan appealing to the party that put us in this horrible economic position. Instead of devoting 60% of recovery fund to states, they altered the plan to devote less than 20%.
Massive state deficits from lost tax receipts ensued and state agency layoffs followed as a result. California is a prime example of this chain of events.
BTW, the plan Boehner quotes, also includes some language on the uncertainties of the forecast:
1) The forecast for the path the economy would take without the stimulus plan indicated a best case scenario with an unemployment peak of 9°. A footnote indicated that many economists argued 11° unemployment was the more likely scenario.
2) Based on the uncertainties listed above, the stimulus plan results would also change accordingly – peaking at nearly 10%. Again that was based on 60% dispersion to state coffers.
As usual with Republican Party distortions: False premise, false conclusion!
Change the subject all you want, but the question remains:
Where are the jobs?
I love how one party can screw up for 10 years then when another party takes control…the same party kicks, screams, and yells out blaming the incoming party for not fixing all of the problems in 10 months.
Our party system is in shambles and all U.S. citizens are still buying Republicans vs. Democrats and Conservatives vs. Liberals. Please, folks…gezzz, pull your heads out of your lower posterior. Its all about the “POWER PARTY”….and all current parties are just a sub-party to it.
Anybody ever run a small business (less than 10 employees) that falls near the brink of distinction and tries to recover from its internal problems? Now…think of our country being a giant business with 300 million employees.
Yeah, but they still have their respective roles to play. The system needs fuel, and there’s no shortage of that these days. Just turn on the TV.
What are the respective roles of Republicans?
• Condemn adultery while having adulterous affairs.
• Condemn homosexuality while engaging in same.
• Argue the sanctity of marriage by pointing out that unfaithfulness and disloyalty don’t destroy marriage, gay marriage does.
• Call themselves right-to-lifers while supporting and encouraging war, the death penalty and the murder of doctors performing lawful procedures.
Republicans are quite adept in their roles as hypocritical buffoons.
I really prefer not to engage in these emotional “wedge issue” debates because they are a distraction and a diversion, not to mention the fact that they should have no place in national politics.
Not that you aren’t correct, but both parties are guilty of keeping these issues alive for the next election. And I don’t think that the Republican party advocates or endorses murdering abortion doctors.
I would hope that by now we were smart enough to realize that these issues are nothing more than marketing campaigns for the respective parties, and nothing more.
They’ve been arguing these issues for decades, yet nothing is ever resolved. Perhaps you should ask yourself why that is.
I’ll tell you why. It’s to keep the democrats voting for Democrats and republicans voting for Republicans. It’s to keep us fighting over emotional pablum while they rape and pillage this country.
Hay John, Im STILL gainfully employed, and so are all of my Poker buddies.
Maybe it was just the low skill-set worker bees and/or the dead weights of middle management who lost their jobs……YA THINK?
Such an elitist comment…I’m sorry to say that the so-called low-wage worker bee is the backbone of our economy. They make everything else possible.
What would you eat without these people? What would you wear?
Look down your nose if you’d like, but whatcha gonna eat?