Left Margin

On Jobs & Deficit Obama Requires the Wind at His Back

By Carl Bloice, BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board
BC
September 22, 2011

http://www.blackcommentator.com/442/442_lm_obama_jobs_deficit.php

First the good news: The latest New York Times/CBS News
found that most people are familiar with the American
Jobs Act, President Obama's $447 billion proposal to
create jobs. According to the Times, "Almost half of
the public is confident the plan would create jobs and
improve the economy. A substantial majority of
Americans support the main proposals aimed at creating
jobs, including tax cuts for small businesses,
improvements in the nation's infrastructure and payroll
tax cuts for working Americans."

And, most people "strongly support his position that
creating jobs should be a higher priority than cutting
spending."

Some more good news: Citing what it called one of "a
few promising signs for Mr. Obama," Times/CBS poll
indicates, "Americans strongly support his position
that creating jobs should be a higher priority than
cutting spending. Democrats and independents agree on
that view, while Republicans do not. And across party
lines, Americans support his position that a deficit-
reduction plan should include a mix of tax increases
and spending cuts." Polling also indicates that most
liberals and independents support compelling the very
wealthy to start paying their "fair share" of taxes,
meaning their rate should be the same or higher than
that of working people. A recent CBS/New York Times
survey had 63 percent of respondents favoring
increasing taxes on households earning more than
$250,000 a year.

That should be enough. President Obama is proposing
something that most people want, and think will do some
good, amid the current economic crisis. Congress should
heed his injunction to pass the measure right away with
little alteration or amendment. It's the democratic
will, you say?

Yeah, except there a problem. The same poll found
skepticism that the President's handling of the economy
is effective and 75 percent of those questioned have
serious doubts Congress will step up to the plate.
While most aren't encouraged by Obama's economic
measures thus far they have pretty much given up on
Congress altogether.  Less than one in five looks with
favor on the Republicans on the matter.

Still and all, under the circumstance one might think
the President would have the wind at his back and would
be able to get something enacted that would at least
begin to tackle the unemployment crisis.

The Balance Sheet, the daily commentary from The
American Prospect magazine, said of the President's $3
trillion deficit-reduction plan that "instead of just
slashing spending, this time he's doing it the
progressive way."

"One of the proposal's signature initiatives is the
"Buffett Rule," which would raise taxes on Americans
making over $1 million," it went on, "The White House
will also propose closing tax loopholes for
corporations, and paring back tax deductions for all
Americans. Overall, the plan would raise taxes by $1.5
trillion over the next 10 years. But there are more
progressive goodies in the bag: Obama was expected to
raise the Medicare retirement age from 65 to 67.
Instead, he is expected to propose cuts to Medicare
providers  - not beneficiaries. To top it off, Obama
has threatened to veto a plan that consists only of
entitlement cuts without new taxes.

"This is good politics and policy. On the policy front,
tax increases on the wealthy will help to roll back one
of the major causes of our deficit problem: the Bush
Tax Cuts. Politically, the plan will put Republicans in
the position of either working with the president or,
more likely, trying to argue that cutting Medicare
benefits rather than taxing millionaires is the best
way to reduce the deficit."

"The American political discussion has finally turned
to the right target: jobs," wrote columnist Charles
Blow in the Times September 17.  "Even so, the
president's jobs bill is already being nickeled and
dimed from the right  -  and the left - even though it
is only throwing nickels and dimes at the problem to
begin with. But at least it's a start, even if a long-
overdue one."

Actually, the right-wingers aren't just snipping at the
President's proposal; they are pretty much flat out
against it. They oppose anything Obama proposes. It's
hard for some people to accept (who wants to be
cynical) but they don't want the economy to improve
before next year's Presidential election. That's why
they keep talking about things off in the future that
evade the current situation. Or, they use the moment of
economic insecurity as an excuse to press forward their
pet projects: lessening health, safety and
environmental standards, continuing to let the very
wealthy off the hook tax wise and undermining such
things as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

New York Times former editor Bill Keller was heard from
this week complaining that liberals are subjecting the
President to "a lot of carping."  "Obama's deal to
continue the Bush tax cuts, his surrender of a public
option on health care, his refusal to call the
Republicans' bluff on the debt ceiling rather than
swallow budget cuts - these and other compromises
amount, in the eyes of the Democratic left, to crimes
of appeasement," he wrote. That's just overstating the
case. Besides, Obama didn't have to cave on the public
option and if he hadn't, things would be quite
different today. But Keller is right about one thing
with regards to the liberals and the left: the
President "needs their energy if he is to keep his
office and have any allies left in Congress."

Hailing Obama's emphasis on jobs, AFL-CIO President
Richard Trumka Monday called on Congress to,
"immediately pass the President's proposal for job-
creating investments, to ask the wealthy to start
paying their fair share, to focus on the true causes of
our long-term deficits, to reject any cuts to Medicaid
or Social Security or Medicare benefits, and to stop
scapegoating federal and postal employees and retirees
for problems they did not cause." On Monday, the labor
organization said, "Thanks to President Obama, our
national conversation is moving in the right direction.
With the release of the American Jobs Act-and today's
speech - he has come forward with important steps to
start addressing our jobs crisis. Now, it's our job to
demand action." From what I've seen and what I've heard
from fellow leftists, that pretty much describes the
reaction to the President's jobs and deficit taming
proposals from the left side of the parliamentary
aisle.

"We are gratified that the President is returning
America's focus to job creation and a fair tax rate for
millionaires," said Nancy Altman, co-chair of the
Strengthen Social Security Campaign, over the weekend.
"We thank the President for leaving alone Social
Security, a program that, by law, cannot add to the
deficit and so has no place in deficit discussions. We
also thank the president for recognizing that raising
Medicare's age of eligibility from 65 to 67 simply
shifts costs to the nation's seniors who have not
caused the deficit. We hope that any final plan would
include zero reductions in Medicare benefits now or in
the future."

 "With today's deficit-reduction plan the President is
 aligning himself with the American people," said Eric
 Kingson, co-director of Social Security Works.  "The
 President, like Americans all across the country,
 wants to restore economic security for America's
 families by getting people back to work.  He has shown
 that he is listening to the people on Social Security
 and the Medicare eligibility age."

On cue, as soon as the President unveiled his deficit
reduction and tax plan, the rightwing voices began to
scream in unison about supposed, "class warfare.
Somehow, in their minds, telling the needy, the
handicapped and the retired to make do with less in the
way of Social Security, Medicare and Welfare unfairly
targets no one, while taxing the very well to do is
"Class Warfare."

The President has apparently done one thing that will
firm up support at his "base":  He's stopped making
threats to curtail Medicare. Hopefully, he's put a stop
to Republicans running around quoting him to the effect
that it and Social Security are the biggest drivers of
the federal deficit. That honor goes to the Bush tax
cuts, most of the various wars in which the country is
involved, and healthcare costs. New York Times
Columnist Charles Blow reported last week that a recent
Rand Corporation study found that "between 1999 and
2009, total spending on health care in the United
States nearly doubled, from $1.3 trillion to $2.5
trillion. During the same period, the percentage of the
nation's gross domestic product devoted to health care
climbed from 13.8 percent to 17.6 percent. Per person
health care spending grew from $4,600 to just over
$8,000 annually." That's not the result of Medicare;
it's a reflection of avarice on the part of the medical
and hospital industries (surpassing the costs in all
other industrialized countries). It will not be brought
under control by limiting seniors' access to Medicare.

And now?  "President Obama's new jobs plan is a step in
the right direction, while some board members of the
Federal Reserve and the Bank of England - though not,
sad to say, the European Central Bank - have been
calling for much more growth-oriented policies,"
economist Paul Krugman wrote Monday. "What we really
need, however, is to convince a substantial number of
people with political power or influence that they've
spent the last year and a half going in exactly the
wrong direction, and that they need to make a U-turn.

"It's not going to be easy. But until that U-turn
happens, the bleeding - which is making our economy
weaker now, and undermining its future at the same time
- will continue."

Of course, it ain't over `till it's over. But I go
along with Fire Dog Lake's  view:

"The social safety net is off the chopping block for
now." And that's real good. And, the bulk of the credit
is due to the "tireless efforts" of political
activists, and everyday people in defense of the social
safety net."

Resistance and advocacy work.

"Our pledge warned politicians from the beginning that
they couldn't cut benefits and expect to survive
politically," says FDL. "The Wall Street-owned,
austerity-crazed Congress will still try to push for
benefit cuts, but it will be much more difficult to
accomplish without the President out in front
supporting them."

_____________________

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member Carl Bloice
is a writer in San Francisco, a member of the National
Coordinating Committee of the Committees of
Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and formerly
worked for a healthcare union.

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