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Obama’s jobs plan: A band-aid for an economic catastrophe
- Text size
Patrick Martin
WSWS
November 24, 2008
The economic plan announced Saturday by President-Elect Barack Obama, with the goal of “saving or creating” 2.5 million jobs in 2009 and 2010, is a measure that has already been outstripped by events. The deepening crisis of American and world capitalism could destroy that many US jobs in the next six to nine months alone.
The collapse of the auto industry itself would wipe out 2.5 million to 3 million jobs according to most estimates, canceling out the entirety of Obama’s plan, even if it were to be enacted quickly and in full by the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress. The broader recession, well under way, is expected to increase the ranks of the unemployed by a million or more by next spring.
Obama announced his jobs plan in a brief radio speech on Saturday morning, excerpts of which were also posted on YouTube. He noted the most recent, extremely ominous, economic figures: “New home purchases in October were the lowest in half a century. 540,000 more jobless claims were filed last week, the highest in eighteen years. And we now risk falling into a deflationary spiral…”
He again sought to dampen expectations that the new administration would be able to reverse the economic slide quickly, saying, “It’s likely to get worse before it gets better.” While expressing verbal sympathy for the struggles of working class Americans who face lost jobs, inadequate paychecks and the disappearance of pensions and college savings, Obama offered nothing in the way of concrete assistance.
His concluding remarks were perhaps the most significant. Hailing what he called “the American dream,” he declared, “It has thrived because in our darkest hours we have risen above the smallness of our divisions to forge a path towards a new and brighter day. We have acted boldly, bravely, and above all, together.”
The gauzy, patriotic rhetoric conceals a lie. The economic and class divisions in the United States are not small; they are the largest and widest in American history. Never has such a tiny minority of the population monopolized such a huge proportion of overall wealth, to the detriment of the vast majority. As for the demand that action be taken “above all, together,” it means that the financial aristocracy, which is responsible for the crisis, should not be compelled to pay for it. Instead, the burden will be placed on the backs of “all,” i.e., on working people.
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Obama aides signaled the next day that he was retreating from his campaign promise to roll back the Bush administration’s tax cuts for the wealthy. Top adviser David Axelrod, appearing on two Sunday television interview programs, did not contradict reports that Obama would instead allow the Bush tax cuts to continue for another two years, when they are scheduled to expire. Another Obama adviser, William Daley, former Clinton commerce secretary, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that a continuation of the tax cut for those making over $250,000 a year until its scheduled expiration at the end of 2010 now “looks more likely than not.”
Weekend press reports also indicated that the economic stimulus plan to be introduced in January will be much larger than the $61 billion proposed by congressional Democrats this fall, or the $178 billion Obama called for during the final weeks of his election campaign. Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee, appearing on the CBS program “Face the Nation,” embraced the suggestion that the stimulus package could be as high as $700 billion, including tax cuts for low- and middle-income families, infrastructure spending, expanded unemployment benefits and tax credits for business.
This extreme escalation in the price tag is a response to the expanding scale of the financial crisis and its impact on the wider economy. The extreme fragility of the financial system was underscored in the extraordinary comments of former Treasury Secretary James Baker, who joined Daley on “Meet the Press.” Baker called for Obama to meet with Bush in the White House and agree on short-term measures to prop up the banking system over the 60 days leading up to the inauguration. Otherwise, he warned, “this thing is even, believe it or not, going to get worse.”
Baker continued: “I agree 100 percent we can only have one president at a time, but nothing would do more to create confidence and eliminate the fear and anxiety that’s out there, particularly in financial markets, than to see the incoming president and outgoing president get together on some sort of a proposal or program–over the short-term, I’m not talking about the mid-term or long-term correction of the economy, but something that would do a little more to make sure that our banks don’t continue to slide down and would stabilize our financial system, which is critical.”
Obama has scheduled a press conference Monday to announce his choices for the top economic positions in the new administration. The leading figures will be Timothy Geithner, current president of the New York Federal Reserve, for treasury secretary and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers as top economic policy coordinator at the White House. Both men are longtime fiscal crisis managers for American capitalism, going back to the Mexican peso crisis of 1995-96 and the Asian crisis of 1997-98. Geithner has been one of the three top officials handling the current Wall Street meltdown, working hand-in-hand with the current treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Summers is reportedly Obama’s choice to replace Bernanke when his term expires later in 2009.
The right-wing character of these personnel decisions has been widely noted in the media. As David Sanger of the New York Times observed Sunday, “President-Elect Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination with the enthusiastic support of the left wing of his party, fueled by his vehement opposition to the decision to invade Iraq and by one of the most liberal voting records in the Senate. Now, his reported selections for two of the major positions in his cabinet-Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state and Timothy F. Geithner as secretary of the treasury-suggest that Mr. Obama is planning to govern from the center-right of his party, surrounding himself with pragmatists rather than ideologues.”
In other words, these selections demonstrate that Obama will pursue economic policies determined by the same class interests upheld by his Republican predecessor. The primary concern will be the defense of the financial system—i.e., the accumulated wealth of the financial aristocracy, embodied in the giant banks, hedge funds and other huge financial institutions, whose parasitic and speculative operations precipitated the current crisis.
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November 24th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
“It has thrived because in our darkest hours we have risen above the smallness of our divisions to forge a path towards a new and brighter day. We have acted boldly, bravely, and above all, together.”
wow. i never felt more alone. whatever i can do to keep you on top. take m y last dime.
http://www.aniboom.com/video/301279/obama-plan/
November 24th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
The United STates Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has gone global. See link below.
http://www.youtube.com/bowellindustries
November 24th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
This won’t be a band-aid. It will be a free bleeding needle stuck in the US Citizen to further bleed the priavte sector dry to the point we will become closer to a socialist nation. This country is in debt due to a fiat cash system that has been out of control.
IIt is to the point that either no one can identify theproblem or if they can.. they will not admit it.
Incrementalism. October was one big bailout.. an attention getter.. Now the line is beginning to form.. more bailouts .. a few billion here and there. We have been conditioned and are now losing interest.
Anyone recaall that there is still a war going on in the middle east?
Problem(created by GVt incompetence), reaction(fear of an economic crisis based on GVT incompetence) , reaction(GVT is trying to bail everyone out.. oddly enough the people who spoke in October conveyed their message well.).
This is not politics.. This is Hegellian managemnt of a nation.
One or two generations more, and we will be the worst of the worst as far as a nation of free thinking people.
I am not an extremeist, but this is happening so fast that anyone who cannot see it… simply doesn’t want to.
November 24th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
” If the American People ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property, until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers occupied. The issuing of money should be taken from the banks and restored to Congress and the People to Whom it belongs!”
-President Thomas Jefferson http://www.saveamericanow.com qqq
November 24th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
It will all unravel quickly now. Get ready and pray for eachother.
http://www.TacticalWarfighterGear.com
November 24th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
What CHANGE???
Hahahahahahaahhahahahahaha!!!
November 24th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Two million new jobs doing what? Beating up old men for dropping bread crumbs in the park to feed the pigeons. Or maybe CDC disposal crews, to pack 500,000 cremation coffins five at a time, with Bird Flu victims. They want to cull the lower class, so the former middle class, can have your jobs.
November 24th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Here is comes folks, but at least all those Obama YES WE CAN Fools will also suffer. I love it
November 24th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Someone recently emailed me an unpublished fiction manuscript about the upcoming world depression.
Key to the storyline was how motivated groups of unemployed citizens used the resulting chaos as cover to “neutralize” water fluoridation systems, GMO food production and the chemtrail programs. They also made sure many top figures in the TV news, banking and pharma industries became terminally unemployable.
It was an exhilarating read! Hopefully, it will get published soon and they’ll get to share this story before the real collapse happens.
November 24th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
I thought Obama was going to be for the people, not for the big banks and big business, but for the little guy who voted Obama in and sent in hard earned 10, 15, 20 bucks to help him out to get elected.
Here we go, we have been set up big time, the only thing that changes is the new set of lies they tell us.
November 24th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Thanks to the millions (lunatics) who have voted for CHANGE and for this “House Negro” its time for reaping…
November 24th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
I thought Obama promised 5 million new “green” jobs just a few days ago. (The election seems years ago, doesn’t it.) I’m curious. How many jobs does the economy usually produce every year. Is this new number just Obama trying to take credit for the jobs that would appear anyway? And I note Obama qualified his remarks by saying or “saving” these jobs. This way, even if there is a continued loss of jobs, he could always claim that his policies kept even more jobs from being lost. Who actually runs Obama? I mean his unscripted speeches show that he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. And this kind of talk is pretty well crafted to include specfic numbers but yet not really say or promise anything. Does anyone know who the powers-that-be really are? I used to think David Rockefeller and a few similar international bankers, but I’ve heard real fear in their voices during some recent interviews. Who is it really?
November 24th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
6 pcmiler2000 Says:
November 24th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
What CHANGE???
Hahahahahahaahhahahahahaha!!!
END QUOTE
reminds me of a joke
“Hitler addressed some POW’s, and told them, today we will change
all the POW’s thought it was a good change, so they started cheering
Hitler looked down and said, you change your underwear with him, and you with him, and you we him”
hahahahahahahahaha
HW Spartan
PS;”hitler looked at a large group of POW’s and said, today we are going to eat pork
the POW’s cheered and where loud about it.
suddenly, hitler shouted to the POW’s “SHUT UP PIGS!!”
hahahahaha
you see change is for the changed deranged snakes.
enjoy
November 24th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Who cares about this uncle tom.
Makes me glad I Voted constitution party.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Isn’t that Christina Romer standing there in line? No wonder she looks so happy now that she in in O Bama’s cabnat.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
The manipulation will be intense.
November 24th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
ANOTHER “stimulus” plan…?! How very predictable. I see that he is already practicing his assigned role as “savior”. Toss a few small crumbs to the multitudes, in their time of desperation, in order to stave off a revolution. How very revolting.
November 25th, 2008 at 1:41 am
Revolution grows closer…or does it? Will the day ever dawn when the People of this republic open their eyes? We can only hope that we can see the Republican and Democratice parties for the parisitic and dogmtic cancers that they are. We will never have our liberty until we overthrow the two major parties, and free our government.
November 25th, 2008 at 6:20 am
Oh, don’t worry, Sheeple! Obama is a demi-god among men. Like Billy-Boy Clinton, Obama will magically create millions upon millions of jobs! The only catch is that they’ll be “service industry” jobs and because college edjumicated whites and blacks will refuse these “burger flipping” jobs … the illegal and legal aliens, who still have a work ethic and no other means to improve their lot in life, will be filling these positions.
What….? You thought CHANGE actually meant “real change”….? LOL! Sorry…. CHANGE is just New World Order double-speak for “THE STATUS QUO.” Get freaking clue! We’re all slaves! GAME OVER….
November 25th, 2008 at 6:49 am
http://video.google.com/videop.....0256183936
THIS VIDEO EXPLAINS A LOT OF THIS WAS MADE IN ‘96
November 25th, 2008 at 9:37 am
When Obama pardons all the illegal aliens, our health care system will fall apart.
November 25th, 2008 at 10:14 am
All this Talk about Stimulus is making me look at the Receptionist in a different light.
November 25th, 2008 at 10:39 am
The Obama Administration hasn’t even started yet so I am giving him a very small window of opportuanity!! But based on what he has been proposing; I will have to admit that it looks very bleak and that he will do the bidding of the puppet masters who have owned every President with the exception of JFK and Ronald Reagan whom they shot!! He will fold and know that it was them who put him in office even though their first choice was McCain!! But like JFK and Reagan; Obama had too much popularity and charisma and there was nothing that they could do about it!! So they settled for Obama knowing that they had raised them both up anyway and they always had a contengency plan!! And the Great God of Heaven will allow them to enslave the whole world and make it take their zombie making beast chip inorder to see WHO IS ON THE LORDS SIDE!! And those who take it will be forever cursed by the Almighty God and His Holy Angels as we and them shall look down upon their tormentings from heaven from time to time to see those who persecuted us and killed us and made us Gods Great Marytrs!!
BUT YOU ALEX; YOU ARE TO COME ALL THE WAY TO GOD AND PREACH HIS GOSPEL AND END-TIME MESSAGE LIKE I DO!!
November 25th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
lets see.. 4.3 trillion divided by 200 million is 21,500 each. more than enough to put solar and wind power on every rooftop saving everyone over 1,000 every year. GM could go into producing permanent magnet versions of their own alternators for small windmills (for less than small companies do) and might not need a bailout, someone(s) mass producing grid-feed inverters, so battery storage is not required, brings the price of inverters down. the surplus energy would pay for servicing and replacements. “carbon footprint” is reduced and no need for the whole sneakys--- carbon tax. Geothermal power could replace the nuclear power plants so we arent running around throwing depleted uranium at each other, Iran could have electricity without a potential for nuclear weapons and Israel could maybe STFU with their fear mongering threats about it, if the US were to able show them the program. big foreign corporations want US land to build MEGA-WINDMILLS and charge us for the electricity, and that kind of idea gets approval with eminent domain land seizure, gee thanks?
big energy isnt gonna go out of business or stop making money if all the homes producing power are grid connected, they’re going to need more service techs to maintain it. so theres manufacturing, installation, maintenance, JOBS.. always means taxes and profits doesnt it?
$1000 a year saved by 200 million homes is 2 trillion dollars, the government will end up with half of it anyway, it is what they do.
its a better solution than what these thieving looters are doing. power to the people.
we’d be “going green” and creating tons of work doing it instead of doing nothing and carbon taxing the people while looting an already bankrupt treasury. 4 billion invested returning a billion every year for many many years (life expectancy of solar cells about 20-25 years) while giving cleaner power to BE productive with. it makes a lot more sense than a bunch of illiterate non-productive “youth brigades” running around. manufacturers could have electricity very cheap, more production and profit is more taxes, every time.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Clinton in black face will save us with make work programs building non producing infrastructure. We’re saved!!! Well, until those projects are finished and we have millions of obsolete workers standing around. Soilent green here we come!
November 25th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
We have let these people send all our mgft. TO SLAVE LABOR countrys the Corp. were and are now making 50 to 85 % profit /they aren,t going to let this come back and have to go back to making only 20 or 30 % ,and we all can,t be Bankers / Think about this America can,t feed itself ,colth its self ,make a pair of shoes !!!! Its going to get real bad and soon ! After X MAS look for the Gov,t to call for a banking holiday/its comming and you willnot know till a Sat. Morning when you try to use your ATM card//and it will say sorry all account on hold !!!!!!!
November 25th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
In the words of whose sane o-b-a-ma,
Rem facias,rem;recte si possis,si non quocumque mondo rem.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Жаль не мое…..