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StumbleAs attention shifts from health care, a new focus for Washington: Jobs
Democrats bear brunt of populist criticism that the party can’t fix the broken economy
Nevada Job Connect in December 2008, months after the nation’s economy began to sputter.
Monday, Jan. 25, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Sun Coverage
The first time then-President-elect Barack Obama assembled his economic team on a December day in Chicago in 2008, the prognosis was dire.
Christina Romer, a scholar of the Great Depression, foretold of a deepening recession that could match the 1930s. Larry Summers warned of untold job losses. Timothy Geithner reported on financial markets on the verge of collapse. Peter Orszag, for the pick-me-up, showed the mounting debt.
The president embarked on an ambitious series of proposals that most economists believe saved the country from an even worse downturn in 2009.
But it was not enough to sway public opinion as the unemployment rate rose and Democrats’ popularity fell. A year later, Massachusetts voters changed the political landscape and prompted Democrats, including those in Nevada, to pivot from health care to a new agenda — jobs, jobs, jobs.
In a state among the worst hit by the recession, how could Nevada’s elected officials in Washington have so misread voter mood?
“Judging by where the Democrats stand today, it’s clear that they have made a colossal miscalculation,” wrote veteran political analyst Charlie Cook in Washington. “Obama and his party have no doubt taken on big and important fights. But given the nation’s tremendous economic troubles, they don’t seem to have picked the most urgent ones.”
Even Nevada’s passionate supporters of health care reform can’t turn the page fast enough on the legislation that has consumed Washington’s attention for much of the past year.
Shelley Berkley
“I don’t think anybody fully understood how deep and wide this recession was and how hard it was going to be to pull us out of it,” Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley said.
“You lost your job, you’re losing your home — you’re not going to care if your neighbor doesn’t have health care,” Berkley said. “We just got ahead of ourselves a little bit.”
Nevada’s unemployment rate inched back up to 13 percent, the state reported last week, prompting another round of criticism from Republicans that the party in charge in Washington is out of touch.
“Government takeovers do not work. The bailouts have not worked. Taking more of our private-sector dollars during a recession to grow government does not work,” said Sue Lowden, the former state party leader who is hoping to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
She called on Reid to cut taxes to help Nevada’s economy.
As is so often the case in Washington, the war is not over the substance of what is being done, but the perception — who is winning the battle over the message.
Sen.-elect Scott Brown, R-Mass., walks through the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010, after a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
After Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts Senate race, Republicans clearly get the victory lap. His populist message — that the party in power is not attending to the needs of regular folks — resonated.
Obama said it’s the same message that propelled his own 2008 campaign for the White House. With Obama preparing his State of the Union address Wednesday, Democrats will have another chance to make their case.
Many economists believe Democrats made great strides in the past year in shoring up the economy they inherited when President George W. Bush left office:
• The $787 billion economic recovery bill put money in people’s pockets with tax cuts and unemployment aid, saved teaching jobs and is paying for road projects.
• The Obama administration’s
$75 billion housing foreclosure program has begun to help Nevadans modify their mortgages.
• The second Wall Street bailout, despite its unpopularity, shook zombie banks out of their stupor and back into lending.
Opponents in the Republican Party and the increasingly powerful Tea Party movement decry these efforts as wasteful spending that is adding to the nation’s debt — as do Nevada’s Republicans in Washington, Rep. Dean Heller and Sen. John Ensign.
Yet Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman argues that the problem with Democrats’ response to the Great Recession is that the government fix was not aggressive enough. The recovery package, for example, was watered down as Democrats tried to appeal to their conservative flank and attract Republican support, which never materialized.
Reid’s office said economic concerns have always been at the forefront as Nevada’s economy worsened, and dismissed complaints that too much time was spent on health care.
“We can walk and chew gum at the same time,” Reid spokesman Jon Summers said.
The majority leader, for example, secured the largest increase in federal spending on Medicaid for Nevada in the recovery package — substantially altering a long-standing formula for how Nevada receives federal funding.
Reid also tucked a provision into the recovery act that is now being unleashed to build a north-south energy transmission line — a $550 million project that will bring construction jobs, tax revenue and new renewable energy companies to Nevada. Construction could begin this year.
“That one provision alone not only helps in the short term with construction jobs, it helps in the long term create a more diverse economy for the state,” Summers said. “That was a provision inserted by Reid specifically for Nevada.”
Berkley has pushed for tax breaks for business travelers — allowing them to write off meals or spousal travel, for example — to help attract visitors to Las Vegas.
“I have been talking about Nevada’s problems in Washington for well over a year, long before the election,” Berkley said. “It just hasn’t translated into action.”
But Democrats, as the party in charge, get the blame for an economy that remains in the tank, a problem that haunted the party’s Massachusetts candidate last week.
Danny Tarkanian
Another Republican trying to oust Reid, former UNLV basketball star Danny Tarkanian, hoped to capitalize on the Massachusetts victory with a fundraising pledge — seeking $24 donations, one for every year Reid has been in the Senate.
Tarkanian wrote to supporters last week: “Brown’s victory was the latest repudiation of Harry Reid’s billion dollar bailouts, so-called stimulus plan, and reckless scheme to have the federal government take over our nation’s health care system.”
Obama acknowledged his failure to explain to Americans why fixing health care was a cornerstone of broader efforts to improve the economy.
“I think that if we had gotten health care done faster, people would have understood the degree to which … health care is part of a broader context of how am I going to be able to move the middle class forward in a more secure and stable way,” Obama said in an interview with ABC News after the Massachusetts special election results were in.
“I think that what’s happened is, is over the course of this year, there’s been a fixation, an obsession in terms of the focus on the health care process in Congress that distracted from all the other things that we’re trying to do to make sure that this economy is working for ordinary people.”
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reject all these trade policies we've made. kids coming out of high school with no college in front of them have no opportunities, even alot of college grads fall in this category, manufacturing jobs need to come back, penalize companies that have shipped jobs overseas with a tarrif. my 20,000 people town has 3 large empty factories, this is same around the whole country. both parties are to blame so think before you bash one another , it's not helping us or our children.
formervegas76 :
I'm with you on your comment here. I would like to add that we don't forget or forgive the current leaders who put their attention to our national economy crisis BEHIND the feeble and hated healthcare reform bill. We need to vote them OUT of office and replace them with leaders who get it. They had their chance and blew it!
lets foget about health care lets move on to more important thing right now we wasted a year on this.
FORMERVEGAS: if company moved out of country hit were it hurt. company been moving out these last 8 plus year
OBAMA foreclosure program has help me with one of my loan they drop it by 500 dollars . now they working on the second. i lawyer up that the best thing i done.
Sometimes just plain common sense rules, as in Massachusetts.
First of all, transferring debt from the banks and investment houses to the government with the bailouts just delays the solution to the problem and creates new ones, like inflation.
Giving health care to millions of uninsured, particularly people with pre existing conditions, will just increase the costs for the rest of us.
And ramming through these new policies using back-room deals and tricks just makes us realize that these politicians are just out for themselves.
Like Harry Reid. Where was he when Obama was trashing Las Vegas? Nowhere to be found. He is NOT out for Nevada, just himself. Time to get him out and get new blood in there that will stand up for us here.
Talk about change? Thats change that will be good for us.
A year into his Presidency Obama still provides NO support for Small Business. Why because small business owner tend to be fiscally conservative and are not welcomed by the Democrats.
Obama has squandered the Stimulus.
A few short days after Obama held a jobs summit in December that highlighted the realization that Obama had to do something for Small Business -- Nancy Pelosi and her Democrats went rogue and passed another stimulus bill with nothing but disdain for Small Business.
Nancy's $174 billion bill is just a regurgitation of the FAILED first $789 billion stimulus. It contains equal parts of Union infrastructure projects, raises for Union State jobs, and like the 4th or 5th extension of unemployment and cobra. CBO has said that most of the infrastructure accounts are so bloated with money that cannot be spent that only $1.7 billion of Stimulus II will be spent by September 2010.
What Nancy Pelosi is doing is piling on more payback to the Unions -- clearly more than they can even use. Even the Black caucus is dismayed at the lack of small business support in their communities.
The facts continue to come in that the Bush era financial system intervention rather than the Obama era jobless stimulus bill has brought us out of the recession.
We need an honest assessment of what worked per Nancy Pelosi's test that the stimulus bill be timely, targeted and temporary. The Democratic TARP oversight panel on 12-9-2009, reported "TRAP was instrumental in avoiding a global financial meltdown". And Treasury said "TRAP has succeeded in achieving its primary goal of economic stabilization". Hence TARP can be shutdown early.
...untold job loses. How many businesses, manufacturers have outsourced to foreign countries? Would this be considered untold actions by our government to allow job loses? Why does it take a YEAR for our Government to realize that they focusing on getting jobs for our citizens should be a priority.
We the people already are pretty upset at our Administration on letting the pathetic bill that was drawn up behind closed doors by our Democratic partisan Senate failed, due to the unethical way it was constructed by the Democrats and for what the Democrats had written into the bill. With this sad attempt by the Democrats how can we trust them to do anything right without being under a watchful eye now?
Tim Geithner's position now as Treasury Secretary and his then secret bailout for AIG at the end of 2008, when he was lead man at the New York Federal Reserve, has him showing up to answer questions in front of the House next week. How can Tim be trusted?
How can Bernanke be trusted, yet Harry is willing to give him another chance. Another chance? To do the job right? After proving that he led the U.S. astray with his performance the first go round?
How can Harry be trusted? After leading the Senate on a one year wild goose chase with the health care bill that among many things, gave illegal aliens cheaper health care than American citizens as we the people would be paying the illegals' bill. How could an American Senate majority leader give the rights of an American citizen to non citizens in our country breaking federal immigration laws? Again, how can Harry Reid be trusted?
Shelly Berkley says that she lost focus with what was going on with our job loses because she just got a little bit ahead of herself. An elected House of representative getting a little bit ahead of herself? How's that? Getting blinded by sponsering immigration reform bills as she is doing? How is giving illegal aliens a pathway to citizenship going to help our citizens get jobs back? Shelley Berkley has proven she cannot be trusted.
Geeze Louise, we could do this all day long. when is a politician going to prove to the U.S. people that they don't lie, that their actions are honorable, and that they can be trusted by the people?
We've got a long year ahead of us.
What a concept. Try to fix what hurts the people most instead of following some idealistic path yearned for by the extremists in the party.
The problem is watching how well this administration has handled everything else you worry their jobs programs may cost many more jobs than they create.
That is nice.....
Finally......they are going to focus on jobs.
Hallelujah!!!!
I think they FINALLY got the message.
Even though, Biden once said, "Obama is going to focus on a 3 letter word....Jobs, Jobs, Jobs." LOL....Jobs is a 4 letter word.
I am not sure what they can do.
They shot their wad on cash for failing corporations and Cash for Clunkers and our $10 a week tax credit (OMG!!!).
The bank is kinda empty.
They probably will come up with a $200-400 billion "stimulus" ...what....which is number 4 or 5.
It probably will watsed on that fanasty of green jobs that we all hear about. Talk about being suckered in on buying a bag of magic beans.
$400 billion is tiny in our $14 trillion economy.
What took so long? Oh they finally figured out that they can't cram that stupid health bill down our throats with out the supermajority so now they will focus on something important. We'll see what happens.
Obama has sealed the deal on national health care reform. And he has certainly not addded any new jobs. People want work. Not rhetoric.
Too little. Too late. Too much B.S.
How in the hell can Tarkanian fix ANYTHING.
His statement should read, "I'm a dolt, but vote for me anyway."
He's lost MILLIONS with his mommy Lois Tarkanian and his ol' man Jerry Tarkanian
on that REAL ESTATE LAND DEAL THAT FLOPPED AND NOW IS IN BANKRUPTCY.
Another bunch a' LOSERS promsin' BIG....
I think it's misguided to say that there was no focus on jobs before. Healthcare is a jobs issue, tax breaks for small business help employers retain and hir employees.
The Obama Administration has been keenly focused on jobs for their best campaign contributors...
The Obama Administration's health care reform was no more that an attempt to create a federal government takeover of the health care system to further their socialist agenda...
The SOTU this year will be a comedy act themed "I feel your pain" replacing "Change we can believe in".
Right after that one act satire, O will load up several 747s with hundreds of security personnel and a fleet of limos to come here and tell us what a wonderful job Gried is doing for us. Only the grandest suite in Las Bugsy will be good enough and he will speak to hand-picked ears pre-selected for the ability to clap loudly at every pause.
Been there - done that back in '08. Fool me once, shame on me; fool me twice, shame on you.
Sorry, Mr. President, but I don't think you living in a huge mansion or Gried living in the D.C. Ritz-Carlton DO feel our pain or our ANGER. Don't let the door of the 747 hit you in the ass when you are leaving....
Berkley says she was to wrapped up in health care she didn't realize the job market. Reid says nothing to Obama for bashig our state and causing us to lose miilions of dollars and thousands of jobs. Titus, what does she do anyway. Vote for politicians that actually care about our state whether republican, democrat or independant.
Come on people, who creates jobs? Everything the government pays for comes from the tax payers!!!! If taxpayers and businesses have less money than how the hell can they create more jobs. All jobs bills will do is hurt the complex US economy. The super smart politicians in Washington are too dang stupid to fix the problem. But Americans can fix the problem.
Politicians are so kind and caring when it doesn't effect their own bank accounts.
Let's just tax politicians and pay them less!
Its only fair since they believe that they can decide who makes too much and who should be taxed more. They are public servants, they won't mind. Greater good, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah right, Obama's lastest plan to help focuses on jobs - NOT! Who is going to pay for his aid to middle class families? He'll just print more money or raise taxes, and that doesn't create jobs!
"Reid's office said economic concerns have always been at the forefront as Nevada's economy worsened, and dismissed complaints that too much time was spent on health care." His focus on passing Obamacare would really help the economy -NOT!!
Here's a great example of how Reid tried to help the economy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McfkyBFii... Check it out!
We need JOBS!! We need to keep more of our tax money! Obama can extend Bush's tax cuts which expire the end of this year. The 25% tax rate will go back to 28%.
We can help the economy ourselves by neutralizing Obama's tax and spend plans. Vote out REID and help bring a balance to congress, and at the same time get rid of a disgraceful and corrupt politician who is an embarrassment to Nevada!
The failed health care promotion was not in vain because it irrefutably demonstrated that Obama and his gang of thieves and liars are unfit for any serious adult task.
Big business won't create any jobs unless they will make big money off of them. Since our labor is at the highest scale in the world, if they need more workers they'll just open up a new business, factory in a third world country. That's where labor costs are cheapest.
As bad as the situation in Haiti is and we all know the help they need, I'm pretty ashamed to ask why our Government didn't act the way they are with Haiti with the disaster here left after hurricane Katrina. A natural disaster in our own country and we have yet to finish repairs in the south. Shameful.
ok, so obama wants to now focus on jobs...so he can take what marginal increase in profit those jobs create away from the hiring company in taxes?
lol.
ok.
want jobs? vote these liberal morons out in 2010 and 2012.
With the stellar job the Dems did on Healthcare, why would we want them to do anything to help the economy ?
I'd just as soon let the economy right itself, in SPITE of Barry's brand of help.....We simply can't afford anymore of his help.
Besides, who knows WHAT some state would get in the way of a special deal - shipyards for Nebraska maybe ?
What does Obama know about jobs? He's never had a real one.