Robert Reich: The economy is stalling while Democrats remain silent when we need bold leadership

[Better Believe It]

Robert Reich: The economy is stalling. Democrats/Obama must present a bold jobs plan............


The Swamp of Washington and the Morass of the Economy
By Robert Reich
June 12, 2011

This morning I was on ABC’s “This Week,” debating jobs and the economy with Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama. Shelby restated the standard Republican playbook of spending cuts and tax cuts (except for one instant when he inadvertently conceded America emerged from the Great Depression only when government spent big time mobilizing the nation for World War II).

But what struck me most was the similarity between Shelby’s overall attitude and that of the Democrats I talked with — a kind of shrug of the shoulders, a sense that it’s really not all that bad out there, and that nothing can be done anyway. (In the green room, before going on, Shelby told me employment in northern Alabama was actually fairly good and the problem was near the coast.)

Americans are scared, with reason. We’re in a vicious cycle in which lower wages and net job losses and high debt are causing consumers to cut their spending — which is causing businesses to cut back on hiring and reduce pay. There’s no way out of this morass without bold leadership from Washington to rekindle consumer demand.

If the Democrats remain silent, the vacuum will be filled by the Republican snake oil of federal spending cuts and cut taxes on big corporations and the wealthy. Democrats — starting with the President — must have the courage and conviction to tell the nation the recovery is stalling, and what must be done.

Read the full article at:

http://robertreich.org/

[Lasher]

1. Reich has been prolific lately, and good on him.

What he's saying needs to be said. And yet, he is a voice, crying in the wilderness. He says, and correctly so, that the White House needs to take the lead and practice some good old fashioned demand-side economics. So what do we get? More of the economic neoliberalism that got us into this trouble in the first place, like cutting the employer's portion of payroll taxes.

[tridim]

2. Obama told the nation exactly that today.

I bet Reich didn't watch.

I like Reich for the most part, but maybe he should run for office instead of complaining all the time.

[Angry Dragon]

3. And what did the President say he was going to do about it??

[tridim]

5. You should watch it yourself.. Obama Pushes Jobs Plan in North Carolina

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ--dHXccG0&feature=player_embedded

[markpkessinger]

7. Oh, right -- "job training" for jobs that don't exist n/t

[Enthusiast]

16. This jobs retraining bullshit

has never worked. It is window dressing. Without consumer demand there will be no drop in unemployment.

We need STIMULUS! And I don't mean reduced employer payroll taxes.

[markpkessinger]

21. I agree 100% n/t

[Hawkowl]

23. Obama is clueless

He seems confused, and a bit dazed at the rise at unemployment. I think he actually believed extending Bush tax cuts was "stimulus". Idiot.

[girl gone mad]

10. He offers no solutions.

Just more bullshit about worker retraining.

Retraining does not create jobs.

[customerserviceguy]

15. "Retraining does not create jobs"

It does, but only in the education industry. Maybe in the student loan industry, too.

[LooseWilly]

25. That clip made me literally LOL... it's vague and consists of things he's mostly not-done so far...

things which he might well have been able to do something about if he'd been willing to risk the ire of the Republican votes that he seems to be pursuing as his administration moves rightward and forces the GOP to do likewise.

He's been talking about renewable resource jobs forever, and I've seen nothing substantive. He's done nothing to enable any increase... or even a maintenance of the status quo in job retraining, as education budgets are slashed nationwide and adjunct professors are dismissed from community colleges and four-year university tuitions climb more steeply that the Himalayas—because of state and local budget cuts partially precipitated by federal funding cuts. And his administration has even shied away from stimulus spending and turned to tax-cut initiatives...

Obama's little campaign spin evinces absolutely nothing new and does nothing to undermine the essential argument being put forth by Reich.

Not-Quite-Epic Fail.

[Lasher]

4. I asked him to run in the Democratic Primary.

He told me he wasn't going to give up his day job.

[tridim]

6. That's a disappointing answer.

Yet typically Reich.

[Lasher]

11. Yes, but I'm glad he took the time to respond to a nobody like me.

Regardless, there is value in his current role as spoiler against the juggernaut. He is saying things that urgently need said, as I mentioned, and such a commodity is in short supply.

[Marr]

24. Yeah, Campaign Obama is back and saying nice things. Call me when POTUS Obama fires

his Wall Street staff.

[Bluebear]

26. +

[ljm2002]

8. Thanks for talking to them, Robert Reich...

...but I'm sure you know as well as I do that they aren't listening to you.

The ONLY voices the majority of people in Congress are listening to, are the voices of the elites who manage BIG purse strings. The rest of us can go pound sand. That's why they have no sense of urgency: from where they sit, things just aren't all that bad. Their REAL constituents are doing quite well in this pseudo-recovery, thank yew very much. The peasants just need to be patient, while they find the sweet spot where they trickle down the absolute minimum amount of sustenance they can, to avoid a hot revolution. Then the jobs will come back, because they will have equalized the peons of the world so they'll be able to make shoes here just as well as in Thailand, or wherever the hell they're making shoes these days.

Sadly this seems to be the attitude of Obama too. "No sense of urgency" indeed.

[madrchsod]

9. well anyone with a brain knows this...

meanwhile obama blathers about training engineers..

[nc4bo]

12. You Debbie Downers are a hot mess

You do realize that sweeping, massive Changes will begin some time in 2012, right?

Some time in the 1st or 2nd quarter of 2012 to be exact, great changes will be talked about. May even be good topics for re-election speeches, get folks all hyped up to vote or GOTV.

Sorry, it's June - we've only had 3 small jobs this year. Not even getting much knickknack stuff.

It be bad out here for some of us.

ETA - been seeing lots of commercials for some trade school advertising their new Construction Supervisor course. My brain just said :wtf:. This school must know something I don't, is overly optimistic that the economy will improve or they're in the business of taking people's hard earned money.

[customerserviceguy]

13. Ok, sounds good

but how do we "rekindle consumer demand"? Do we give more tax breaks, causing us to borrow more from the Chinese? Do we continue to cut FICA taxes, undermining the Social Security System? Do we give people tax credits and payouts for exchanging their clunkers? Do we give abused tax credits for buying homes for their kids?

Many people I know are trying like hell to pay off their debts, and that's if they have jobs to do so. Any fool can see that credit card interest is going to skyrocket, if the banks are charging in the 20-30% range for interest when they can borrow for only a few percentage points, what are they going to charge when the Federal funds rate is in double-digits?

What's the government 'solution' to people finally acting responsibly about spending?

[Enthusiast]

17. Public works......nt

[Broderick]

14. QE3 or 4 or 10

will not solve the problem.

GE paid NO taxes last year!!!!!!!

TAX the people of means fairly and quit killing the middle class!!!!!

[DCBob]

18. First thing we need is to raise the debt ceiling or nothing else matters..

If we hit the limit and begin to default.. this country is toast for a long long time.

[Enthusiast]

22. To get Republicans to raise the ceiling we should?

To accomplish this then, in your mind, we should go along with the Ryan budget plan?

Should the President stand his ground and refuse to make ANY cuts to medicare and social security. Or should the President seek to cooperate with the Republicans allowing medicare to be privatized? I'm just wondering what you personally would find acceptable.

[DCBob]

27. No Democrat will "go along" with the Ryan plan just to raise ceiling..

but there are some other areas that could be negotiated and agreed upon to give the Republicans a "way out" to appease their idiot teabagger base. I think even the Rethugs dont want to hit the debt ceiling -- mostly because it will ruin their investment portfolios -- but they also need to appear to have accomplished something in the negotiations to keep the rabid teabaggers happy.

[bvar22]

19. "Democrats — starting with the President — must have the courage and conviction"

Well then,
there is no hope.


Who will STAND and FIGHT for THIS American Majority?
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses!

[hifiguy]

20. Reich is one of the few who always gets it.

The economy is in the toilet because there is no demand.

There is no demand because of falling wages, union-busting, fear that more jobs will be lost or wages reduced even further. People aren't spending because they either have nothing to spend or are living in fear that they will be next on the chopping block. Therefore the vast majority are hanging on to every dime like grim death, and with more than a little justification.

Without demand in a consumer driven economy, there will be stagnation.

Therefore it is the proper role of government to stimulate demand, either by forcing the banksters to write down underwater homeowners, injecting money into the economy, getting some public works programs going, or preferably all three. And tax the parasites at the top that are so bloated with stolen money they are about to explode.

Reich gets this and has been screaming it from the rooftops for a couple of years now.

Exactly what about this is so hard to understand.

Apparently these simple truths are all well beyond the "smart guy" in the WH.