Saturday is the one year anniversary of President Obama presenting his “American Jobs Act” to Congress, which economists say would have added 2 million jobs, and about half of those almost immediately. The bill failed because every single GOP senator voted against it, and House Republicans refused to even vote on it.
Congress will soon have another chance to pass the bill, but pundits aren't optimistic. In light of Friday’s uninspiring jobs report, Rev. Al Sharpton asked PoliticsNation viewers, “Who are the real job killers?”
Mitt Romney has repeatedly asserted that he’ll be a better job creator than Obama, and Paul Ryan said the tepid jobs report is a result of “failed leadership in Washington and bad fiscal policy.”
Rev. Sharpton found the statement interesting, saying Ryan is part of that failed leadership in the House. He asked Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis where we’d be right now if Congress had passed the “American Jobs Act” a year ago.
She said America’s unemployment situation would be different, and offered a nod of blame to the Tea Party:
“It would have been a million jobs added. Obviously, right now with the rate of unemployment ticked down, we could have had it lower if we could’ve put a million people back to work in infrastructure jobs, construction, but also putting teachers back to work, firefighters…it’s a proposal that Republicans had previously supported. So what we would like to say is that we want the public to notify their members of Congress. The gridlock and obstructionists have been the members of Congress, the new members that have overtaken that party. And we need to say, look, it’s not about what party you’re a part of, it’s about helping our constituents, our grassroots people, people that live in our communities.”
Rev. Sharpton asked Solis, a former member of Congress, why Americans aren’t more outraged by lawmakers actively blocking job-creating changes from being accomplished. She didn’t know, but offered this advice:
“The best thing I can say to you, as the President has told us, is that people need to get the word out. People need to contact their members of Congress and the Senate, because that’s the best persuasive evidence that we have. Contact your members. These proposals aren’t just from Obama, they’re also from Republicans; they make sense. So let’s put these people back to work.”
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I am amazed that the Republican's constituents are not outraged about the horrible work they have done in Congress. All Republicans are not rich. In fact, I know many of them in our city are receiving unemployment checks, food stamps, and welfare checks. The JOBS Bill has been hanging in the air for over a year, but the Republican obstructionists do not care, even for their own constituents.
Hopefully these constituents will wake up and throw these blood sucking, greedy bastards out of office. We do not need to go back. We need to move FORWARD.
OBAMA 2012!!!
I hear you, but the problem has been that the current Republican party has time and again refused to do ANYTHING to move the economy forward, including passing a jobs bill, if it means success for this President. Every American has to ask herself, what kind of party really has your best interests at heart when they can't put aside politics for one minute and seriously pass a job bill? Sure, they can have philosophical differences with the Pres., but they should be able to work together to get this done if they really cared about putting people to work. But they don't. We've heard Mitch McConnell say many times that their only priority was defeating the President! With so many people out of work, it's pretty clear the Republicans are NOT on the side of the American people.
i totally agree! i bet the lower paid republicans think their lot would be better under romney. unless one earns much more than a 6 figure salary mr. romney would throw them under the bus just like he has done or wants to do to the rest of us. lmao
he is USING you!!
Wow, the Democrats are really scraping the bottom of the barrel here. OBAMA HAS FAILED!!!! This is a TERRIBLE jobs report, maybe that is the reason for Obama's crappy speech.
Maria must not know to read....read the article ag
ain....the GOP congress is blocking this...they care more about defeating Obama, than they care about the American people. Wake up
THE GOP HAS FAILED!!!!!
THE GOP HAS FAILED!!!!!!!
Maria..it is the REPUBLICANS and not Obama who have failed to pass a jobs bill...did you not read the article or hear the information on the video?
C'mon, Maria's a Repub. the whole "get that Kenyan, Muslim, murdering, rapist, foreigner, socialist, black man out of office" transcends any real facts in the conservative mind.
wake up sweetheart, if repubs really cared for you we wouldn't b having this discussion
Yea, he is a sad case!
do you know where you can see the jobs bill I heard the Republicans were for it until the President presented it.
Maria, in case you've been living in a hole for the past 3 years, here are two things that MIGHT bring you up to speed: First: Second: If you STILL think the the lack of jobs is Obama's fault, you need to back away from the crap-storm that is Faux Gnus.
Our congress persons need to be more like Gabriel Gifford, who always put her constiuents first. Those that don't do this need to be replaced!
How is Obama prepared to work around all these obstructionist pigs to get anything done?
I'd like to see the Glass Steagall Act restored, since McCain is so quick to "claim" he's for financial fairness maybe he can get him on board, he did join forces with progressive Russ Feingold, trying to get dark money out of politicis his old buddy American traitor Mitch Mcconnell blocked every bill requiring full disclosure...
If I may add with every-ones respect they should let all republicans go, and mostly the ones like john b, and the rest who don't care about the American people.
You know it's really amazing that more Republicant's are so bent on hatred of the President that they aren't even offended that Congress would make things harder on them and the rest of America. It's easy to blame the President but for those who didn't pay attention in their High School Government class, the President can't appropriate one nickle in funds, only Congress. So the next time you want to say the President hasn't done anything or the low jobs numbers are his fault, blame the people who have the power to fund bills....Congress. Wow...Saturday will be a full year that Congress has sat on the President's Jobs Bill he gave to them to vote on....SMDH
6 out of 7 jobs are in the private sector. Most of the job proposals are for public sector jobs. Let's get off the plantation and stop talking about public sector jobs programs.
All the Traps and Roadblocks that the Gop set up, wind up backfiring on them, so will this!! Vote Dem 2012!!!
The Keynesian Economic Solution for Unemployment is a temporary measured amount of Deficit Spending. Obama's Deficit Spending as a percentage of GDP is ten times higher than Kennedy's and over the entire length of his time in office. Apparently more Keynesian Aggregated Demand Management is not the solution for Growing the American Economy. People don't realize that any Federal Government Official who has to be confirmed by the Senate has a Constitutional Duty to serve the Country that supersedes loyalty to the President. According to the Constitution all Spending and Taxing legislation has to originate in the House of Representatives. If the Secretary of Labor really was qualified for her job she would have know that the Continuing Resolutions did not even come close to the mix of Spending, Taxing, and Deficit reforms necessary for the Economic Growth to Employ all the people who wanted to work. Work is the sine qua non of how Capitalism rationally distributes purchasing power to households according to how much each contribute to the value of the economic output produced. That is why Congress passed the Employment Act of 1947. Therefore she had a Constitutional Duty to insist that the President allow the House of Representatives to initiate the Legislation, to lead the Democrats in the Senate to pass the bills and then to sign them into Law and Faithfully Enforce Them. If Hilda Solis was a committed advocate for Labor she would have also insisted on pro Economic Growth Public Policies with respect to Immigration, Energy, Environmental Regulation, and Financial Market Reform. Blaming Republicans not passing Obama's America Jobs Act for 23 million people looking for work just makes her look like a sorry sad sack of an excuse for an Officer of the Government of the United States of America. In addition to the 23 million people not working, in four years Obama paid somebodies Six Trillion Dollars they did not deserve, diverted productive resources from valuable employment to worthless employment and left our children and grandchildren to pay with interest well over Six Trillion for which they will get nothing of value in return. The very definition of Economic Justice is having and doing one's own. In practice this mean receiving money in value the equivalent of what you produce and paying money in value the full equivalent of what you buy. This Debt overhang is also a major impediment to Growth because it corrupts the moral principle underlying the monetary incentives for work, the voluntary exchange of equivalent value and the inviolable ownership of private property. Which just happen to be what makes capitalism work better than any other system and is also a textbook of what Progressive Economic Policies can do to wreck an economy. Alvin Hansen in 1930 identified the weakness of Capitalism. It over produces and there are rational principled way to address this problem without ignoring the Constitution and destroying the Economy.
I get the feeling what you are claiming is that the house republicans should always get what they want..even if it harms this nation. Lets not forget that there are more than just republicans in the house..which represent more than just the republican party. There are democrates in this country also..they have a right to also be heard in the house...and also have their own words heard. So far in the past 4 years that has not been the case in the house...it has been either their way (republican) or no way. I was under the impression that those elected were working for us all, not the few who hand out lobbyist money to get what they want. Actually there are no politicans in washington in congress really working for those that elected them...if there were...all of the trade deals passed would have actually be equal in what they said..but that is not the xase in any of them. You can bet that lobbyist and big business had a huge hand in each of those deals. All republicans seem to forget that this nation was loosing thousands of jobs under Bush and the republican policy's....
Thank for your reply and giving me an opportunity to expand. I tried to say too much. Christians would say I am an atheist so I am not invoking the punishment of god but I still want to use a biblical quote. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." My great grandfather died in a Confederate prisoner of war camp. Until I read Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address I did not know that the woe also comes to the people who tolerate evil. I just want you to contemplate what the offense Lincoln was referring to that Progressives are also guilty of and that we tolerate. "It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces."
The very definition of Economic Justice is having and doing one's own. In practice this means receiving money in value the equivalent of what you produce and paying money in value the full equivalent of what you buy. This is the only morally justified incentive to work for others in a community of free men. I was just pointing out that paying somebodies Six Trillion Dollars for producing nothing of value and taxing somebodies in the future who get nothing of value in return violated the moral principles underlying the monetary incentives for work, the voluntary exchange of equivalent value and the inviolable ownership of private property. Economics is a Moral Science, and Capitalism is productive because it is moral. Everybody in order to receive something of value in a voluntary exchange has to produce something of value. But Progressive redistribution of wealth schemes undermine the very incentive to create anything of value for others. This perversion of the morally justified incentives penalizes effort and rewards sloth. Since some of that Six Trillion Dollars was to overpay somebodies to work hard for producing nothing of value and some unemployed were paid to produce nothing of value the real cost to society was the Six Trillion Dollars worth of value those 23 million workers could have produced in the private sector. I just assumed everybody knew the effect that debt overhang had on growth and I was just noting the present economic consequences of deviating from the underlying moral principles of Capitalism. What we are experiencing now is just a small taste of the woe we are going to suffer if the civil society allows these Progressive violations of the moral logic of Capitalism to continue. In 1938 Alvin Hansen observed that Americans wanted to save more than businesses wanted to invest. The obvious moral solution is to let workers buy income tax free, spend tax free, inflation protected bonds from Federal and State Governments. The money accumulated would retain the value of when it was earned and be part of the estate gifted to children or willed to children upon death. This would also eliminate the need for so called Social Insurance Ponzi schemes like Social Security and Medicare. Lincoln also said: "In the (Founders') enlightened belief, nothing stamped with the Divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on, and degraded, and imbruted by its fellows. They erected a beacon to guide their children and children's children. ....they knew the tendency of prosperity to breed tyrants, and so they established these great self-evident truths, that when in the distant future some man, some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine that none but rich men, or none but white men, were entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity might look up again to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to renew the battle which their fathers began....so that no man would thereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the great principles on which the temple of liberty was built..." Ameritopia p21 I just don't like those 23 million people looking for work being trodden on, and degraded, and imbruted by a government that was elected by their fellows. And believe me the 4000 extra IRS workers being hired to collect penalties for Obamacare means the government is gearing up to torment us even more. Our Founding Father's provided the citizens of America with the Constitution to protect us from statists. When our children and grand children are living more like North Koreans than Americans they will never be able to forgive us for our failure of stewardship of the Blessings of Liberty from our ancestors because election after election we keep voting for politicians who ignored the Constitution. What I have invoked here are Conservative and Classical Liberal Values. I just which that American Citizens and Politicians, Republicans and Democrats believed and lived with these American Values.
Wow, Maria. Sorry you feel that way. It's easy to point fingers, particularly if, to paraphrase our Republican friends, facts don't really matter. If you were interested in facts, you'd know that since the President came into office the Republicans' only agenda has been to not cooperate and compromise, which is essential for the political process to work. Go back and listen to their speeches. They have consistently refused to do ANYTHING to move the economy forward, including passing a jobs bill, if it means success for this President. We've heard Mitch McConnell say many times that their only priority was defeating the President! With so many people out of work, it's pretty clear the Republicans are NOT on the side of the American people. If you really believe the President has failed, it is largely due to obstructionist tactics of our friends across the aisle.
To Dallas, They had a total Dem government and didn't get much done. That's why the Repubs got elected the next go around. When you have a party in total controll for 2 full years and don't get the things done you want to, something is very, very wrong. Maybe because all they focused on was the health care bill. Remember, we had to pass it before we could know what was in it. If what you say is true, then why does Obama keep blaming Bush for everything. He doesn't mention congress, just Bush. Your argument is flawed.
Facts matter, except to Republicans One reason the tea party gained seats in 2010 is they used the false argument that Ryan is using, that Obama took money from Medicare to fund Obama care and we know it was savings from over payments to Insurers and a change in compensation to Doctors and hospitals for unnecessary procedures. This extended the life of Medicare for 8 years. It did not affect the benefits to seniors.
Kimberly, Someone HAS to put the brakes on spending!! Obama doesn't realize that we are BROKE. Where is the money going to come from to fund the jobs bill. I think the dems are living in fantasy land when the spending just keeps going. I would love to live in fantasy land where you spend, and spend, and spend and don't worry about tomorrow. Obviously the government can't do it. Everything the government runs contains so much waste and corruption. The private sector can't afford to run things like that. If a private business fails, tough. When the government fails, they just throw good money after bad. We need to get government out of the way and unleash the private sector to get back to work. We need to grow our gdp and then, and only then will the government coffers begin to fill again.
Okay jes33, where WAS Paul Ryan 2000-2008? He voted FOR everything that Bush asked him to. Mr. Ryan did not express any concern about the deficit until President Obama was elected and then he started in. I thought, didn't we do this before??? So the Republicans just let the deficit go up and up and up until we get a Democratic president and then they scream. What worked under Clinton would work again but the Republicans will have none of it, ESPECIALLY with President Obama!
And another thing. All of you who keep claiming President Obama had a majority for the first two years need to read about filibusters and how they require a super majority!
May not look like it but Obama actually cut spending. The deficit increase most likely due to interest payments on deficits run up by 3 republican presidents.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/05/24/who-is-the-smallest-government-spender-since-eisenhower-would-you-believe-its-barack-obama/
Nice graft that makes the point.
I can not be so nice. After all, they were not nice to the American people at all...How dare they want to attach all kind of dumb choice issues to job bills knowing they won't pass. They rather do the whole country in, because they want to be in charge to rob the country of as much money and power that they can. They look like evil maniacal selfish elitist who now have all the money and want it to be every man for his-self. I'll be damned if we go for that!!!!
Jill, It IS every man for himself. Unless you are on welfare and the government dole. Those of us who work every day, sometimes at 2 jobs, pay our bills, buy houses within our means, save for college, do without all of the gadgets that so many think they are entitled to have etc. You know, I don't feel sorry for people that were caught in the housing crisis. That happened because the dems forced banks to make loans to people who couldn't afford as big of a house as they bought. We lived in an apartment, saved money and are weathering this downturn in the economy just fine. The American people have also lived beyond their means and now want the government to bail them out. I was astounded to hear that people get free cell phones at the tax payer expense. What the heck. We don't have ipads, fancy cell phones etc. at our house. People make choices, and when they are bad, there SHOULD be consequences. Not so anymore if Obama is reelected. The top 2% are supposed to take care of all of us that make poor decisions? Also, businesses do fail. Not every business makes it. Unfortunately, people lose jobs. But it is businesses and corporations that hire also. I am amazed at all the people who want to bash corporations. We cannot do without them. If we all eventually work for the government or take government handouts, where will the tax dollars come from? We will be begging for the companies to come back.
Yes we are individuals who are responsible for our own welfare. But when the tax system for the past 30 years have been breaks for people and companies and businesses of higher tax brackets, with the middle class wages almost completely stagnate. There would need to be a change in the way that we have allowed for laws (Bush tax cuts for the rich) to continue without evaluation. Corporations are not people. The job makers are blackmailing the citizens for more tax breaks, trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip. That is why they are trying to try to buy offices now, to keep their cheating tax laws.
I disagree, Jill, Corporations are people. They are made of people and cannot function without people. I am not concerned with donations from corporations. Hollywood bought Obama's office in 2008. Hollywooders do no good for anyone. All they do is "pretend" and provide a little entertainment. Corporations create drugs to fight disease, food, transportation, and on and on and on. I resent Hollywood dictating who is in office more than corporations. I don't demonize the oil company who provides us with our energy needs. We have some of the least expensive gas of any of the industrialized nations. Our food is the cheapest and safest. All due to the horrible corporate institutions. I don't see why corporations are so demonized. They make our country what it is today. We have been the largest force of innovation in the world and are on a downward spiral. We need someone to step and change direction, and Obama is not that person.
A) Hollywood did not buy my vote.
B) Just because there are people in corporations doesn't mean corporations are people! People have hearts and souls. A corporation does not. The only thing corporations care about are the bottom line and their investors, not the people who work for them.
While watching the Alex Witt show this morning. I was disturbed by her almost insisting that it was the president's fault the job growth was low...Really Alex and the American people..This president has had to endure more hate than any other president in history (especially from the GOP), but still he has managed to and is still getting this country back on track..Giving the American people hope..What I'm most thankful for is that 96,000 jobs, were not lost; This country was headed for the worst depression in history..My question is, why, why are people so willing to bad mouth this president on everything that he does? Why can't we give credit where credit is due? He deserves a little gratitude, he is an honest and trust worthy man! My grandmother was a strong and God fearing woman (may she r.i.p.) She taught me to never trust a liar! We all know Mitt Romney is a liar! He lies on president Obama every time he opens his mouth! PEACE! May God Bless the USA and the world!
Alex, and others that are afraid to take a stand for justice. I know the GOP and their backers are powerful people (some not so powerful just not willing to move forward) they have all the money and can destroy us or our jobs, because they have done it before, but all I have to say to them is this be careful how you treat people, we all reap what we sow, no matter who we are...Their is someone more powerful than you with all your money; when it is time to be judged it (money) will not help you..Hate not only destroys you, but everyone around you! PEACE! May God Bless the USA and the world...
Mwilliams, How is it that you think Obama does not deserve criticism, but it is OK to call Romney a liar, murderer, tax cheat etc. with no shred of proof. Double standard? You can not prove what might or might not have happened to the recession without Obama's intervention. It is easy to see what his intervention HAS done. It has proven to be the longest recovery in history. We only have proof of what his actions have done. So that is proof that what he is doing is not exactly turning things around. Why support someone who continues such slow growth? And as for justice, what justice are you speaking of? Slow job growth, Ever increasing debt, Owing foreign countries more than we can ever repay, Running social security and medicare into the ground? What justice?
The longest recorvery in history????? Do you remember 2008??? Had you ever seen bank afer bank after bank ....... close? Had you ever seen the stock maket plumet? Had you ever seen this country loosing 750,000+ jobs/ month? All of that was before President Obama was inaugurated.
I saw it and you can not etch-a-sketch that away. Yes President Reagan got a recovery pretty fast. He never saw anything like what we had in 2008
to Bird watcher, Yes I do remember, I am not going to look up the years, but I think it was the 80's when the savings and loan industry went bust along with around 1600 banks. It was started with a huge oil bust, which we hope to never see again. ( So we need to stay off the oil companies backs. )Yes bank after bank and savings and loan after savings and loan went under. Very bad. Lots of properties for sale. I remember huge housing complexes at various stages of completion sitting empty and being for sale by savings and loans due to foreclosures. Everywhere. Construction business was dead and done for. The government and banks put out lists of properties to buy, and they were in every section of the country. Part of the fix was deregulation of savings and loans and other things, and then things began to get better. Government got out of the way.
I heard on the radio last night that in the first 3 years after the Reagan recovery began the economy created 9.8 million jobs. 3 years after the Obama recovery began only 2.6 million jobs have been created. Obama's best is not good enough. See comments 10.0 and 10.2 above. Jes33 has been factually, economically,morally and practically correct.
has anyone forgot the term "corporate greed"? or perhaps government for the one percentile? do upper middle class americans really believe that the one per cent will allow them to benefit from the romney theory? i do not believe that will happen, after all, you upper middle class people are only his tools and i believe that just like the rest of us you will be discarded as well.
i agree, put the brakes on spending--give us back our subsidies corporations!!
What do you actually believe Obama has or will "give" you. Is that what you want? Every entitlement program to take care of you and yours? I hope they rein in the spending so that my kids and grandkids have jobs. I hope the corporations continue to grow and to hire so that everyone can get a job that wants one. I think fewer and fewer want one. It is too easy to just stay home and rake in the entitlements. Just because we have helped a few companies with tax dollars doesn't mean that all corporations are dependent. I would have let the failing companies and corporations go ahead and fail. GM isn't just setting the world on fire. There are economists and other experts that believe that we will recoup very little of that money. But....GM is still alive according to Biden. But at what cost?
When the automobile companies were saved it also saved all of the jobs in the companies that supply the materials and parts for the cars. If the people have jobs they don't depend on the government and they can take care of their families and they pay taxes.
You would rather give the money to the wealthiest? And in subsidies to the corporations who are recording huge profits? You would rather put all of those people out of work and send American jobs overseas?
Who said anything about giving the money to the wealthiest? We have yet to see if it was worth it. Some businesses are destined to fail because of poor management or because they have outlived their time. I don't know that government should pick the corporations that should survive, and which ones fail. So far, many of their picks haven't been so good, with the most publicized being Solyndra. Government shouldn't be in the business of saving companies. Is it going to save everyone who gets in a bind? It sure looks like it. I can't believe that it is all of a sudden the government's responsibility to make sure that no one loses their house. If you buy more than you can pay for, then it is your fault. Helping someone that has been laid off is one thing. Helping someone who just wanted a bigger, nicer house is another. The bankruptcy laws are ridiculous too. Anyone who goes bankrupt due to over spending for things they WANT shouldn't happen. Bankruptcy should be saved for dire emergencies like catastrophic illnesses or a businesses failure, not personal greed and luxuries. I worked with a woman who spent money like there was no tomorrow and declared bankruptcy. She was so excited that she no longer owed anybody. She continued her kids private music lessons, had her nails done weekly etc. And now after her bankruptcy, everyone who does business with the businesses that she duped is paying more to cover the losses to her. Our whole society has gone this direction and the government is saving everybody and everything. So sad. I see way more than corporations causing problems with greed. American citizens have a lot of greed also. Greed to get as much money from the government as they can. The American people have gotten way out of line in thinking that the government should fix their screw ups. The dems even want to make birth control an issue controlled and supplied by the government. All I can say is WOW!!!
Those homes that were on TV foreclosing are far nicer than mine. But I am still able to afford mine. May not be able to much longer though, because someday they will have no choice but to reach even further in my pocket to pay down the national debt. That and I haven't seen a raise in 5 years while things keep going up.
I don't covet what the wealthier have, or expect them to pay a higher percentage, because that isn't 'fair' to them. It is not them taking my money, it is entitlements to people who send their kids to college with grants, while I couldn't mine. It is people who vote because there is something 'free', which let me tell you, isn't free. Somebody is paying for it. Wealthy people have made it possible for me to go to the store and buy things, have hired members of my family giving them a good wage, and have contributed to the community. They already pay the lion's share of taxes. It isn't right to spend more and presuming then it's fair to make them pay for it after the fact.
I wish there could be something done about this sedition - the greed is amazing...
Solis is just another loser appointee that Obama planted as a pay-off. What do you expect? Obama - One & Done.
We cannot rid ourselves soon enough.
Nearly all those jobs are paid for by taxpayers. I'm tired of being forced into a debt I cannot pay for everyone's benefit but mine. I'm lower middle class btw and I have enough sense to know that no matter how much richer people pay, I will also have to pay, and on top of costs added to items to purchase. This administration has added thousands to the payroll already. We have to have PRIVATE SECTOR jobs. These cannot be dictated by Washington bureaucracy. These can only be created by making sure the US has a financial environment that makes it happen. You can't force people to hire. You can only force them out of business.
twosides2it, well said!