As Obama administration focuses on deficits instead of jobs, Democratic majority circles the drain

[Hannah Bell]

Quick thought experiment--which of the following two scenarios would put Democrats be in a better position for the 2010 midterm elections?

Shrinking deficits, with stagnating unemployment;

Shrinking unemployment, with stagnating deficits.

You would have to be living in a pretty walled-off, abstract world to think that voters care more about the deficit than unemployment...In order for Democrats to avoid a Republican landslide in 2010, creating jobs is far more important than reducing the deficit. This is especially the case given that unemployment is not expected to drop at all until next summer, at the earliest. If you think polling is worrying for Democrats now, and you would have good reason to think that it is, imagine what the polls will look like after another eight or nine months of 10% unemployment. Wipeout city.


Unfortunately, it looks like the Obama administration has had enough of dealing with a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. In 2010, the administration is looking to institute a job-slashing freeze--or even a significant reduction--of government spending. The plan is already in the works, as every government agency has been ordered to prepare for either a spending freeze, or for 5% spending cuts...

http://openleft.com/diary/16026/as-obama-administration-focuses-on-deficits-instead-of-jobs-democratic-majority-circles-the-drain

[ErinBerin84]

1. I have to say

I'm disturbed by the reporting that the State of the Union is going to be focused on "shrinking the deficit"...ugh.

[Hannah Bell]

2. you & me both. it means imf-style "structural adjustment" & full-out

attack on social security.

i'm seriously questioning who's actually in charge.

[AllentownJake]

3. Barack Hoover Obama

Honestly, his economic team is slightly better than Bush's....and I mean very slightly.

[Hannah Bell]

5. comment section: i hadn't thought of this:

"Obama's knee-jerk neoliberalism isn't just jeopardizing the Democratic majority; it's endangering the credibility of progressivism as a whole. Even as Obama leaves the left behind for "centrism" (as defined by beltway elites), he's still perceived as a liberal Democrat, and his self-inflicted failures will be seen as failures of "liberalism", when in fact they will be failures of a LACK of liberalism."

most people i know (they're not so politically sophisticated) consider obama very left. i hadn't considered that a failure to deal with jobs could be read as a failure of "left" policies, but it's plausible it could,now that i think about it.

[Union Yes]

4. There will be hundreds of Billions $ available for more warpiggin though.

[Hannah Bell]

6. kik