Geithner and The White House: The Wrong Message in Troubled Times, Campaign for America’s Future, August 4, 2010, by Richard (RJ) Eskow, used with permission, quoted verbatim:
Picture this: You’re lying in the dark with a broken leg. Somebody comes by every couple of days to give you water and a little food, but you’re wasting away. Suddenly a figure appears holding a candle. In the flickering light we see Tim Geithner’s face. “Hey, there!” He says. “Do you realize that if we hadn’t acted so promptly, both of your legs would be broken? Good news, huh? Why, you might even be dead without us.”
Why didn’t you fix it right the first time, you ask.
“That would have been expensive,” he says, “and we didn’t think there was the political will for that. But we recognize more needs to be done, and we’ll ask Congress to take care of it. Still, look at what we have done.”
Geithner’s been chosen to bear the Administration’s economic message, which is an unenviable task. The White House is going to have change that message, and the policy behind it. Yes, things would have been much worse if they’d done nothing at all to fix the economy. But that’s setting the bar a little low, isn’t it? They can’t change the past, so the fact that they should’ve asked for a bigger stimulus in the beginning can’t be changed. Still, they can learn from that mistake by being more forceful this time. They need to tell us what it will really take to fix the mess we’re in, and then be willing to take their case directly to the public.
Geithner wrote an editorial for the New York Times that reflects everything that’s wrong with the Administration’s thinking. Their proposals are weak tea, and the messaging is political strychnine. Geithner’s piece is entitled “Welcome to the recovery“, although the White House is wisely insisting today that they didn’t pick the headline. They even claimed that the editors’ choice of title was “sarcastic.” (I hope they’ve considered the implications of having an editorial from the Secretary of the Treasury provoke public sarcasm from the editors of the New York Times.)
The White House reportedly wanted to call Geithner’s piece “The Case For the American Economy,” but that isn’t much better than the editors’ “sarcastic” title. There have been so many “Mission Accomplished” comments on the Internet about this editorial that you’d think Geithner delivered it from an aircraft carrier.
Not that we’re singling out Geithner. Barry Ritholtz is right to point out that this op-ed probably met with great approval in the White House, since it gibes perfectly with the Administration’s overall messaging. That’s what scares me. Their political game plan for the economy is what Terry in On the Waterfront called “a one-way ticket to Palookaville.”
Here’s what scares me even more: This is an Administration that seems more eager to accept the political reality than to try changing it. According to reports, Larry Summers and others knew the initial stimulus it offered was too small. That means it gave in without a fight on the work that needed to be done.
This may be our moment of greatest political opportunity to do something meaningful about what has become a structural recession (or depression) for millions of Americans. Geithner and the rest of the Administration either really believe what he writes, or they don’t think they can get more and don’t want to try. Either way, this historic that moment may pass without decision action and Presidential leadership. The consequences will be dire if that happens.
After noting that we face levels of long-term unemployment not seen for more than half a century, Geithner says “we must do more to ensure that (unemployed Americans) have the skills they need to re-enter the 21st Century economy.” Shorter version: Goodbye, American manufacturing. Does the Administration really think we’re going to work our way out of long-term structural unemployment with training alone? How many fifty-six year old former auto workers does the White House think will be hired in Saginaw, or Flint, or Detroit, once they become proficient in website design?
And, let’s be clear: That’s where the ,jobs would have to be. With 19% of US mortgages underwater (14.7 million in total), a lot of people aren’t going anywhere. Their “negative equity” totals $770 billion. That’s a lot of money not helping to fuel the recovery (or being saved). And the mobile workforce, once the engine of American prosperity, is starting to look like a thing of the past.
Comment by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: While unemployment for those making $250,000 a year stands at a very acceptable 3.2 percent, for those of us making $20,000 a year of less, official unemployment figures show that fully 31 percent of us are actually fully unemployed. Budget or no budget, this is a completely unacceptable figure and Obama should use every tool at his disposal to fix this. Otherwise both Obama and the Democratic Party will feel some pain of their own come November.
Check Out the Best Guide to Politics on the Web!
The Guide to Liberal News and Politics on the Web
Find Out Where to find the Truth!
The current official unemployment rate (which fails to count a lot of people) is 9.6%. Private employers added 42,000 jobs last month. If we need 13,000,000 jobs to get us to 6% unemployment (which would have been unacceptably high fifty years ago), here’s what that means: At the current rate of job growth, without a government jobs program, it will take more than twenty-five years to reach 6% unemployment. Obviously trends can and do change, but that’s the environment in which the White House is sending this message.
Try making “the case for the American economy” to an unemployed American with no job prospects who’s struggling with an upside-down mortgage — or, for that matter, to her family, neighbors, and friends. For them she’s a warning sign, a reminder that they could be next.
Adds Geithner: “American families are saving more, paying down their debt and borrowing more responsibly.” Actually, they’re terrified. The Michigan Consumer Sentiment index plunged again in July as job fears and other economic insecurity undermined the nation’s sense of security. While some Administration-admired economists have long wanted to “scare” Americans into healthier savings ratios (Mission Accomplished!), an increased savings rate is not the healthy sign it would be under other circumstances. Americans do need to increase their rate of saving, but they need to do it to plan for retirement. This looks more like a deer-in-the-headlights panic that will undermine spending, impede the recovery – and win votes for the opposition party.
Consumer confidence is one of the factors hurting small businesses. But the business owners’ confidence is low, too, leading to reduced investment and hiring. That’s exactly the effect we don’t want. The Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, which tracks six measures of small entrepreneurs’ expectations, is the lowest it’s been in seven years of operation:
This survey matches findings from the National Federation of Small Business and other sources. And small businesses aren’t just facing reduced demand and long-term fears. They can’t get access to the loans they need, either. “Major banks … are stronger and more competitive,” write Geither. “… (O)ur banks are better positioned to finance growth.” But they’re not doing it. As rational actors, they can’t be expected to do it when speculation is so much more profitable. Geithner touts the success of TARP (with numbers that only tell half the story), but TARP recipients are actually stingier with their loans than other banks.
Try making a case for that economy. “We are on a path back to growth,” says Geithner. This graph, from Meteor Blades’ excellent roundup of economic indicators, says otherwise:
This may read like a hit piece on the White House and Geithner, but it’s not. They can and must do better, for the good of the country as well as for their own political futures. They have the ability and the resources to do that, but it will take a fundamental shift in their thinking. How? First, they have to recognize that they’re not going to get much recognition for their accomplishments as long as things are this bad. It may not be fair, but life is rarely fair. They must make their case forcefully, laying out stronger job and stimulus proposals. They must demand more banking reform which shuts down the casino, ends too big to fail, and gets banks back into the lending business. And they must draw a clear line between themselves and their opponents. We hear that both Geithner and the President will slam Republicans later today, but for that strategy to work they need to offer a clear alternative. The cheerleading-while-handwringing strategy approach in this editorial isn’t it.
We’ll take them at their word that they never intended to say “welcome to the recovery.” But instead of making “a case for the American economy,” they should be making “a case for fixing the American economy.” Until they do – and it includes more than just tinkering at the edges – they and the country will both face continued job insecurity.
This post was produced as part of theCurbing Wall Streetproject.
Richard (RJ) Escow is a staff blogger for Campaign For America’s Future. Campaign for America’s Future has graciously given Evans Liberal Politics to republish their articles on an ongoing basis, for which many thanks. RJ Escow lives in Los Angeles and his interests include: An Economy for All, Health Care for All, Making It In America, Social Contract, Real Security, Social Security, America’s Future Now, Invest In America, Progressive Vision, Revitalizing Democracy. You’ll soon be seeing much more content from Campaign for America’s future here on Evans Liberal Politics.
"President Barack Obama Weekly Address," says an economic plan by the House Republican leader just repeats job-killing policies of the past and would take the country “backward at a time when we need to keep America moving forward.” (July 24) — 4:29
BREAKING NEWS FLASH: from CLG News — Calif. Gay Marriage Ban Overturned 04 Aug 2010 A federal judge has ruled that the California gay marriage ban is unconstitutional under the federal Constitution. The decision will be appealed to the Ninth Circuit. Read more at Yahoo News.
*****
We’re Counting on YOU! Please share Evans Liberal Politics with friends! While we enjoy a certain level of popularity on the web, in order for us to keep bringing you the latest in liberal news and politics, we really need you to SHARE Evans Liberal Politics with your friends and contacts. Please help us out — we bring you the latest in liberal and progressive news and politics just to share the truth and promote liberalism. Can you help us today?
Please consider making a $5 or $10 donation to Evans Liberal Politics. We bring you the news and all things liberal for free out of love of people and liberalism, but a fellow has to eat! The button to donate via PayPal is located at the top right of every page, and your kind help is greatly appreciated.
*****
To make a Word or .pdf document of an article, or share or email it, simply load the individual article by clicking the dark blue title at the very top, or use the icons beneath the article.
We’re Counting on You!
Tell Your Friends About Evans Liberal Politics!
Listen to 159 Rock and Pop Hits!
#1 Rated by Google
Come on Over and Listen
to great Rock, Pop and electronic music while you surf the web!
"The American Dream": (This is a repeat due to popular demand.) George Carlin performs a brilliant and scathing monologue on our serfdom which may be his very best short effort. — 3:15. Scary stuff.
![[A plane releases chemical dispersant over the Gulf oil spill. Photograph: Reuters]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/A-plane-releases-chemical.jpg "A-plane-releases-chemical.jpg")
Robert Reich: The Enthusiasm Gap and You
Evans Liberal Politics
August 5, 2010
Robert Reich: The Enthusiasm Gap and You
The Enthusiasm Gap and You, Robert Reich.org, August 4, 2010, by Robert Reich, used with permission, quoted verbatim:
A friend whom I’ll call David raised a ton of money for Democrats in 2008 and now tells me they can go to hell. He’s furious about the no-strings bailout of Wall Street, the absence of a public option in health reform, financial reform that doesn’t cap the size of banks or reinstate the Glass-Steagall wall between investment and commercial banking, and a stimulus that was too small to do much good but big enough to give Republicans a campaign issue. He’s also upset about tens of thousands of additional troops being sent to Afghanistan, a watered-down cap-and-trade bill that’s going nowhere, and no Employee Free Choice Act. David won’t raise a penny this fall and doubts he’ll even vote. “I busted my chops getting them elected, and they caved,” he fumes. “They’re all lily-livered wimps, and Obama has the backbone of a worm.”
Tea Partiers are getting all the press. But the anger on the left, including much of the Democratic base, is almost as intense.
The pattern isn’t new. I remember a gloomy fall 16 years ago when as secretary of labor I traveled around the country trying to rev up the base for the 1994 midterms. I found anger and disillusionment then, too. Of course, Clinton hadn’t accomplished nearly as much as Obama. In fact, he’d pushed initiatives like NAFTA that infuriated the base.
When Republicans control Congress or the White House, their base can get restless but doesn’t seem to suffer the same disillusionment. Republicans stood by Ronald Reagan in the 1982 midterms and rallied enthusiastically for his re-election in 1984. They were out in force for George H.W. Bush’s 1990 midterm as well as George W. Bush’s in 2002 and his 2004 re-election.
Why the asymmetry?
First, the Republican base keeps the heat on after elections so Republican officeholders accomplish what they promise and are less likely to compromise in the first place. The Republican base fueled the Reagan and George W. Bush tax cuts and penalized George H.W. Bush only after he reversed his “read my lips” pledge not to raise taxes.
The Republican base is part of a conservative movement. The Democratic base, by contrast, is a loose coalition that elects a new president and then goes home, expecting the new president to deliver miracles.
When I ask David what he’s done over the last 18 months to push for a more progressive agenda, he says he e-mailed senators in support of a public option and signed a Sierra Club petition for cap-and-trade. “On Afghanistan I even called the White House to tell the president not to send more troops. What else am I supposed to do?”
David thinks of himself as an individual with strong progressive views about specific issues rather than as a member of an ongoing movement with a larger vision of what America should be.
Washington’s network of progressive advocacy groups is just like David. Each has a narrow bandwidth (health, environment, labor, women’s rights) with a national constituency that donates money and sends members of Congress e-mails as requested about particular initiatives.
These groups are staffed by overworked 20-somethings and headed by people who enjoy being minor celebrities at Washington fundraisers and occasional visitors to the White House.
But these groups don’t mobilize people back where they live, and they’re no substitute for a broad progressive movement.
A movement connects the dots across issues and reveals a larger wrong that must be righted.
When it comes to misuse of power, Americans carry two deep-seated fears — of big government taking over and of big business and Wall Street running amok. Both are sometimes justified, but the political response is lopsided. The conservative movement adeptly fits almost every morsel of news to the first fear, giving its members an animating cause: Reduce government.
A progressive movement would focus on the second fear, seeking to protect average working people from the depredations of big business and Wall Street. Given what has occurred in recent years — from Enron and WorldCom through the devastation brought on by Wall Street, to the price-gouging by health insurers like WellPoint and Big Pharma, right through BP — there is no absence of dots to be connected.
Check Out the Best Guide to Politics on the Web!
The Guide to Liberal News and Politics on the Web
Find Out Where to find the Truth!
Average Americans are hurting. But their pain isn’t coming from government. It’s coming from an economy whose benefits are concentrating ever more at the top, whose giant corporations are controlling ever more of our democratic process, and whose costs and risks are becoming ever more burdensome for the middle class and the poor. Public schools, parks, and libraries are closing or reducing hours and staff. Median hourly wages are dropping. Unemployment is at levels not seen in decades; long-term joblessness hasn’t been this bad since the 1940s. Social safety nets — unemployment insurance, Social Security, and Medicare — are endangered.
Yet corporate profits are reaching unprecedented levels, and the richest Americans — CEOs, other top corporate executives, investment bankers, and hedge-fund managers — are raking in as much or more than before the Great Recession.
With the election of Barack Obama, many on the left found comfort in the belief that a single man could make transformative change without powerful tailwinds behind him. But that was a pipe dream. No person can do it alone.
I can understand your disillusionment with a president and representatives that seem to bend to the prevailing winds from the right. But if you and David and other progressives wallow in your cynicism we’ll be in much bigger trouble as a nation than we are now.
Here’s what I learned during my years in Washington: Nothing good happens there unless Americans outside Washington are sufficiently mobilized, energized, and organized to make sure it gets done.
Be angry, but channel your anger toward constructive change. This fall, work for the reelection of politicians, or for candidates to replace them, who support a genuinely progressive agenda. And lend your hand to the creation and continued sustenance of a powerful progressive movement in America.
(Originally written for the American Prospect)
Comment by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: I have attempted to liven up Professor Reich’s fine article by providing some hyperlinks to interesting, amusing and informative articles on the web about the topics which are linked. I hope those of you who enjoy surfing for surfing’s sake will enjoy my selections. It may even actually be true that you could learn a few things (and hopefully be entertained) by following the links.
See Deficit Scare Talk Is a Big Scam by Corporations and Right-Wingers; The Problem Is Not Enough Good-Paying Jobs, AlterNet, August 5, 2010, by Joshua Holland.
With Apologies to Professor Reich…:
AHEM: Lest We Be Thought Too Square…
Warning: Obscenity. For Mature Audiences Only.
George Carlin: The American Dream
OR: Why the American Education System Will Stay "Broken"
Question for Our Readers: Do you basically agree or disagree with Carlin’s assessment? Please leave a comment.
TRAVESTY: See US foreign aid to subsidize outsourced jobs in South Asia, The Raw Story, August 4, 2010, by Daniel Tencer.
See Gov’t Partnering with Foreign Firms to Outsource Jobs, Daily Kos, August 3, 2010, by Th0rn. An intelligent discussion by a liberal who is supportive of foreign aid yet objects to the insensitivity of this particular group of projects at a time when American workers are crying out for help.
Also see Dems break GOP filibuster on jobs bill, UPI.com, August 4, 2010, by UPI.
here. The above article is from Reich’s new blog, and can be viewed here.
Thanks to Professor Reich for permission to publish his articles on an ongoing basis.
*****
To make a Word or .pdf document of an article, or share or email it, simply load the individual article by clicking the dark blue title at the very top, or use the icons beneath the article.
We’re Counting on You!
Tell Your Friends About Evans Liberal Politics!
Listen to 159 Rock and Pop Hits!
#1 Rated by Google
[Translate]