JOBS, JOBS, JOBS...Why can't D.C. get this message?

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Talking about jobs is one thing, Acting is another

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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Democrats, "Don't BLINK!!"

Right now it appears there is a stale mate between the White House and the House Republicans on raising the debt ceiling and cutting trillions for the sake of the deficit. And yes, the GOP want to put Medicare on the table, front and center.

The Republicans are proud of the Paul Ryan Plan of eliminating Medicare as we know it. The Ryan Plan will eliminate many programs within Medicare, as we know it. The Republicans have decided to double down on this to their own peril. (Latest CNN Poll is that the GOP is losing the Medicare argument, in other words, they are SINKING!!)

Democrats, let them double down. It is their problem. Let them hang themselves by their own noose on this one. Don't you dare put Medicare/Medicaid or Social Security on the table, period.

The implications of the Washington, D.C. Republicans are being watched, heard, and consumed by the voters out here. You now have GOP politicians running for office scared to commit to the Paul Ryan Plan. Case and point, look at Candidate Mike Haridopolos from Florida. He was afraid or "scurred" to come out plainly to support the Ryan Plan.

During the Ray Junior radio show, Florida Senate candidate Mike Haridopolos (R) was asked 10 times if he would vote for Ryan’s budget. After ducking the question 10 times, the host hung up on Haridopolos.

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This is the litmus test that will be pressured on every single Republican running for office in 2012. It is the "with us or against us" test, a test to see if you are a true conservative.

The Republicans have decided to stand still and not vote to increase the debt limit, unless they get their way on massive 1 trillion in cuts, including Medicare. The real deal on the debt limit is that it has been raised 74 times since 1962 and TEN TIMES WHILE BUSH WAS IN OFFICE. We heard NOTHING from the Republicans about the debt ceiling, who were in charge during most of former President George W. Bush's tenure. In fact, we all know it is the Republicans that put this economy on the destructive road it is at with wars off the books, Medicare D not being paid for, tax cuts for the very rich in this country, also not being paid for. But now, the Republican Party has a come to Jesus moment and must bring the deficit in check no matter how many people they throw under the bus.

This is what we are dealing with in Washington, D.C. Ideologues so out of touch, that many voters from Wisconsin, to Michigan, to Ohio, to Florida are having SERIOUS buyers’ remorse. So, if the Republicans are in such a cluster fuck, why would we even consider BLINKING when it comes to Medicare/Medicaid or Social Security for that matter?

Today, President Obama met with the House Republicans and from reports it was a frank meeting. It appears that both sides are at a stale mate. During this meeting Speaker of the House John Boehner is now linking raising the debt ceiling to job creation.

“Increasing the debt ceiling without significant spending cuts and budget reforms will send a message to American job creators that we still are not serious about ending Washington’s spending addiction, and this will bring further harm to private- sector job growth in America,” Boehner said in the statement.

Whatever.

And Congressman Paul Ryan is whining about how his wonderful GOP Budget is getting smeared and slammed by the White House and is practically begging for the President to not be so harsh.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said that at today’s meeting he expressed concerns to Obama about how the president was characterizing the plan Ryan wrote to privatize Medicare by giving people subsidies to buy health insurance.

“We’ve got to get our debt under control, and if we try to demagogue each other’s attempts to do that then we’re not applying the kind of political leadership we need to get this economy growing,” Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, told reporters.

At this point, I don't care about the Republicans whining and crying. After all the smears they did on the Obama Healthcare Plan and literally won re-election on the back of lies? Why should the Democrats give them a pity party? Yet, alone to even listen to putting Medicare or any other program on the table for cuts?

Lastly, let me reiterate how the public feels about this. From a Democratic Pollster:

If Democrats in deficit negotiations agree to a compromise that cuts Medicare benefits to seniors, they risk squandering the advantage they’ve built up over Republicans on the issue since 2010 and risk losing their more general edge as defenders of the middle class, a top Dem pollster who just completed an extensive health care poll tells me.

Jeff Liszt, of the respected Dem firm Anzalone Liszt, has just completed a poll for two liberal-leaning groups finding that the Paul Ryan Medicare plan is deeply unpopular with voters, and particularly with seniors and independents, when the plan is described to them. The poll also found that Obama and Dems have increased their advantage over Republicans on Medicare, on health care in general, and on who can be trusted to defend the middle class.

Now, President Obama and Leader Reid can sit and listen to the Republicans, but if they feel pressured to put Medicare on the table for cuts, negotiation they will have a very hard time for re-election let alone gaining more house and senate seats. Right now, Medicare is blunting the economy which is the biggest elephant in the room. Do we need to go stupid now?

I hope not.

Cross-posted @ Daily Kos

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