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This is pretty good news. President Obama, at his jobs summit, just agreed that many of the solutions being offered at today’s session would involve public dollars, and that would be “a good investment in the future.”
There was a lot of concern about leaks that the President was more interested in deficit reduction in 2010, which would be really almost a death wish. This statement bears a much closer relationship to reality, in particular the reality of what needs to be done to fill in the demand shortfall and reverse unemployment.
Here are the opening remarks from the President at the jobs summit. I know these things are largely irrelevant, but getting the President on the record that job creation is more important than deficit reduction is important, and he should be held to it. While Obama said that there “aren’t enough public dollars to fill the hole of private dollars” created by the recession, he did say there’s a role for those public dollars to play in the near term. And anyone who doesn’t agree needs to look in the eyes of the 15 million unemployed and tell that to their face.
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Sorry David, but I’ve seen other published comments from Obama saying that the federal government doesn’t have the money for a jobs creation program. Money and the budget deficit was not a concern of his when he escalated the war in Afghanistan ($30 billion more a year at least) or when he helped put together the Tarp bailouts for Wall St. and Goldman Sachs (an estimated $2.5 trillion but nobody knows for sure). Obama was the stealth candidate: a conservative DLCer whose views approach Republicanism. He could care less about job creation and the millions of people unemployed. If he had wanted to do something, why wait until 11 months into his administration to call this conference?
Obama: “Limited Resources” for Jobs Creation
Today Barack Obama voiced a concern that he never had with the Afghanistan esclation that will cost at least $30 billion a year. In speaking about jobs creation, he said “our resources are limited.” From the AP:
Funny, I do not recall the President having any such concerns for the war escalation. I guess “balancing the budget” only comes to his mind when he’s thinking of spending money on the American people’s needs.
For the source of the AP article, I have a link on my diary here about Obama’s West Point speech being the prelude to escalation in Pakistan.