Washington Has Abandoned the Unemployed

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when McConnell and Boehner said that their #1 priority was to make Obama a 1 term pres., they are going to accomplish this even if it takes making unemployment to 20+%, then they will just blame this administration and the democratically led senate for not doing their job and creating jobs, and not letting the house create jobs either, because that's what all the new reps. said they would do isn't it? A bloody uprising is a brewin', I think by the end of the summer.

Is unemployment a political problem? After two years of "stimulus" spending when the road construction workers' wives go to Target to buy clothes and toys for the kids most of those products are made in China. American corporations are posting record profits and when they invest in new equipment and facilities in Mexico they are exporting U.S. jobs: http://redwriteblue.blog.com/2011/02/17/polaris-snowmobile-heads-south/

Another NYT comment: "The U6 unemployment numbers stand now at 15.9%. For some Americans, those with secure jobs, these are just abstract figures. But I write letters of recommendation for new graduates from a well-known university. One surprise was when an outstanding student asked me to write for a job in Korea! When I ask around, I find he is not alone. Some of the new US graduates are actually emigrating to get jobs in the developing economies. Other excellent former students are without jobs in spite of excellent qualifications. We are losing a generation of potentially highly productive workers. Schools are not hiring because state and local governments are cutting back, housing prices continue to plummet. I've lost hundreds of thousands in equity myself, and I've cut back tremendously. When the drier broke I decided why not dry with solar power? I've stopped buying most new clothing. I've cut cable TV. I buy DVD's instead of going to the opera. I've started a garden. And I've been saving like mad because the future has never looked so insecure. It doesn't need to be this way. Why can't Obama get the simple idea that letting the tax cuts on the rich expire and using the proceeds to fund government jobs in education and construction will make the US more competitive a decade from now and provide millions of workers with paychecks that will enable them to go out and spend. This would increase the aggregate demand that Krugman talks about and would start a feedback process that would lead to more and more spending and more and more jobs. Housing prices would likely stabilize and even I, seeing my home equity stabilize, would have the confidence to buy a new car, perhaps a Chevy Volt. The sad fact is that NO ACTION is being taken to drive down unemployment. And those new graduates will suffer permanently lower living standards because they are not getting the work experience needed to start their careers. We are thus creating a new normal which is unsustainable because without the extra revenues from higher employment, deficits at 10% of GDP are unsustainable. When we are forced to bring the deficits to an end, we will join Greece and Ireland in austerity. The problem is that austerity just makes things worse, driving up unemployment even more enforcing yet more austerity in a vicious downward cycle. Krugman is right when it comes to pushing for greater stimulus. Too bad, Obama does not have the FDR-leadership qualities to provide the fireside chats that might get Americans on board."