President Obama and Jobs

Dear Friends,

What this country really needs right now is jobs.  In The New York Times today there were no articles in the first section about jobs.  How can that be?  The reason is quite simple.  The Republicans only solution to the lack of jobs is to lower taxes.  Trickle down economics has never worked so they don't want to talk about that to the mainstream media.  The Democrats have adopted the Republican narrative that we need to reduce the Federal deficit immediately.  Once you have adopted that narrative, you have taken away the best way to increase jobs which is increased government spending particularly on badly needed infrastructure repairs and maintenance.

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains the problem with the economy in 2 minutes and 15 seconds and does a great job.  If you have not seen the clip here it is.


Mr. Reich concludes that we need a strong middle class in order to have a robust economy.  The only way to have a strong middle class is to create jobs.  The only way to create long term sustainable jobs is to create long term sustainable demand.  But you cannot create demand if people have no money and people will only have money if they have jobs. 

As you can see there is a circular problem here.  The only way to break the cycle is for the government to spend money which stimulates the economy.  The most effective and the least inflation producing way for the government to stimulate the economy so that jobs and demand are created is through infrastructure spending - lots of construction jobs and lots of jobs making the machinery that is needed for the construction.  I should note that a construction job for a domestic construction site is a job right here in the United States.  Since the infrastructure of the United States has been neglected for so many years, there is an almost never ending supply of projects that we need done.  Once the jobs have been created through the government spending, then the middle class will create demand because they will want things and new houses and remodeling old houses, etc. 

I should also point out that once the economy is moving again and people have jobs, tax revenue will go up (unless we are so stupid as to give more tax breaks to the rich), and we can begin to address the deficit.  The solution is not rocket science, but it requires the Democrats starting with the President to advocate for stimulus of the economy by the government.  So far President Obama and the Democrats have failed to stand up for the values that have made the Democratic Party great in the past and for the proven methods of spurring economic growth.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal