Today's job report is a hard core reminder that things are not rosy out here on Main Street. In fact, things have not changed and are getting worse. As politicians are worried about the national debt, Main Street (where the votes are) is being drowned out here.
Unemployment ticked up to 9.1% with a measly 54,000 jobs being added. That is not only pathetic but downright sad. But the D.C. politicians could care less about the people on Main Street; they are slaves to the corporations and banksters out here.
The real people, the little people? Washington, D.C. could care less about us, until they want our vote. That is a real, reality.
Unemployment rose to 9.1%, only 54,000 jobs added.
Employment rose far less than expected in May to record its weakest reading since September, while the jobless rate rose to 9.1 percent as high energy prices and the effects of Japan's earthquake bogged down the economy.
Nonfarm payrolls increased 54,000 last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, with private employment rising 83,000, the least amount since June. Government payrolls dropped 29,000.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected payrolls to rise 150,000 and private hiring to increase 175,000 in May. The government revised employment figures for March and April to show 39,000 fewer jobs created than previously estimated.
The job creation slowdown confirmed the economic weakness already flagged by other data from consumer spending to manufacturing. It could stoke fears about the depth and duration of a slowdown that started early in the year.
Let's face it and be blunt, the time for a jobs program was when Barack Obama assumed the presidency in 2008. When President Obama walked into the Oval Office in January, 2009 the most pressing thing this country faced was the economy wrapped up with joblessness. Well, the opportunity was squandered. A stimulus package that did very little to help Main Street, which was laden with tax cuts that jump started nothing, has us all back at square one. Along with all of this, there are still over 14M upward of folk unemployed, many who have utilized their UI benefits and still don't have a job.
We also do not have politicians in Washington, D.C. with the political will to really change anything. Since, the Democrats took over in 2009 they walked in very tepid steps. With unemployment still a reality on Main Street, the fight was given to an over blown health care package that was bumbled in explanation from the very beginning. In the end, two years wasted on a health care package the public did not understand, thanks to the lack of communication from the Democrats and demagoguery from the Republicans which led to the GOP taking the House back.
And when President Obama was asked to fight more from Congressman Waxman, this is what was said:
"He was a little testy with the Waxman question. Essentially, Mr. Waxman was urging him to fight more," one legislator said. "The president reminded folks that he's the president sitting in that chair and he knows how to negotiate."
Obama also told the assembled Democrats not to count on more fiery rhetoric from the Oval Office.
"He said, 'There's a difference between me and a member of Congress,'" another lawmaker said, paraphrasing the president as saying: "When I say something the markets react, all of society reacts, other countries react. I've got to be careful with what I say. I can't just say it for brinkmanship. I've got to say it in a way so that I get what I want said, but I don't upset markets and so on."
My, scared to step on Wall Street toes, while Main Street is drowning. To read there will be no more fiery rhetoric, should be the hand writing on the wall for many Americans. There will be no job help for you. Forget about keeping your home, though you may be victim of the largest financial scam in history of this country, gas prices and food prices are not coming down soon, and folk you will just have to deal with it. It is obvious that the White House needs Wall Street money, now more than ever to win next year. We just have to deal with it.
That is the reality.
Along with all this crap swirling around, we now have to hear of repeated DEFICIT TALKS, while the country is drowning in high gas prices, high food prices, and a housing market so FUCKED UP that it will be decades to straighten out. How can anyone possibly help us, when they want to take everything we have left away from us? And we have a Democratic President willing to negotiate on that? As long as we have a President who is willing to let taxes for the rich remain in tact, there will never be a will to do the right thing for the common man. Believe me; it is being played out in state after state, city after city, street after street. With so many houses in foreclosure there now is not enough rental property to help the massive families that need it. Another reality.
What really hurts the most is that very little has been done to help folks on Main Street. Very little. Many promises were campaigned on but families and individuals don't see it or feel it. Case and point, I was watching the news last night here in Chicagoland and there was a housing forum here to help people behind in their mortgages. Members from various banks were there, but what got me was that people lined up the night before to speak with someone to help save their homes. Over 100,000 people, estimated showed up. One Latina woman spoke to a reporter on camera and said that she voted for Obama, but have seen no change in her life. Her husband lost his job and unemployment is not enough to pay for their mortgage. Lastly, she stated that people need jobs in this country and there are no jobs.
Folks, that is what 2012 is about. Not this other irrelevant bullshit flying around but JOBS.
Finally, we better hope and pray that the Republican Party does not find a way to come together. We better hope that the Republican Party continues on the path of inner destruction. If a real candidate from the Republican Party emerges one, who can strike a chord with the American people about creation of jobs, the Democrats, especially President Obama will be in trouble.
Cross-posted @ Daily Kos
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