This video shows the road to health reform and how the president delivered affordable health care for all Americans.
The new law is making health care work better for all of us, even if you already have insurance. It puts the health of your family first—ensuring access to free preventive care and protecting consumers from insurance company abuses.
#ACA is also a jobs jobs jobs creator
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I recently happened to be at an event where billionaire George Soros was being interviewed. The right wing hates Soros because he is: (a) liberal, (b) rich, and (c) fearless. [I could also make a case that they hate Soros because he is (d) Jewish, but I leave that up to you.]
Soros said a lot of things, but he said two sentences that I wish that everyone could hear. This is what he said:
“You can’t cut your way out of a recession. You have to grow your way out of a recession.”
The simple truth in those nineteen words seems to have eluded our policymakers, both Democratic and Republican, for the past four years. Here is a chart that proves it:
The chart has been featured regularly at Daily Kos, but it comes from the Calculated Risk Blog. It graphs job losses during and following each post-WWII recession, month by month, as a percentage of total employment.
As you can see, the job losses in America since 2008 are not only the worst in postwar history, but also feature the weakest “recovery.” In every single other recession, employment returned to peak levels in less than four years. (In fact, leaving aside the Bush Recession of 2001, employment returned to peak levels in less than three years.) Yet here we are, four years after the Great Recession started, still almost four percentage points under peak employment.
Which is five million jobs. Five million people who can’t find work. Five million people with no income.
So, as Soros and I might ask on Passover, “why is this recession different from all other recessions?” There is a simple answer: the austerity fetish. The bizarre notion that cutting is healing.
The Wall Street Journal recently confessed that without local government layoffs – police officers, firefighters, teachers and others – unemployment would be a full percentage point lower. I think that that’s an underestimate. If those police officers and firefighters and teachers still had jobs, we would be safer, and our children smarter. But beyond that, as those public employees spent their earnings, a lot of carpenters and waiters and real estate agents and cashiers would be able to get back to work.
And we have no one to blame but the cut-cut-cut policymakers, in whichever party. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman put it three weeks ago:
Consider, if you will, the current state of our nation. Despite hints of economic progress, we’re still in the midst of an immense disaster, in which unemployment and underemployment are devastating millions of American lives. And none of this need be happening! There has been no plague of locusts; we have not lost our technological know-how. Americans should be richer, not poorer, than they were five years ago. Yet economic policy across the board has become almost passive, has essentially accepted this disaster instead of trying to end it.
Soros and Krugman are right. It’s time to end this man-made economic disaster. It’s time to stop slashing our own economic wrists. It’s time for jobs.
Courage,
May 10, 2012 by TheAlyonaShow
Richard Mourdock, Indiana‘s state treasurer, defeated 36 year incumbent Dick Lugar last night to win the GOP nomination for this November’s election. Mourdock was backed by the same financial sector lobbyists that have dominated Capitol Hill for decades. According to Lee Fang, Lugar upset Wall Street by opposing its bid to delay limits placed on fees that banks can charge for credit card swipe fees. But it’s also Richard Mourdoch’s bizarre take on cooperating with Democrats that earns him tonight’s Tool Time award.
Point4CounterPoint says: Is this guy a warning flag or what – The Democratic Party needs to jump on what this man is spewing
May 12, 2012 by whitehouse
President Obama calls on Democrats and Republicans to come together and act on his Congressional “to-do list,” which will create jobs and help restore middle class security.
| Good afternoon –Most Americans are concerned that all we’ll see from Congress this year is inaction. Count me as one of those Americans.
But the fact is we need Congress. President Obama is doing everything in his power to move our economy forward. Not surprisingly though, the proposals with the biggest impact require legislation. So at this make-or-break moment for the middle class, the President has called on Congress to move forward with a concrete plan that creates jobs and helps restore middle class security. It’s so simple, we’ve boiled it down into a five item to-do list. Learn more about these ideas and share them. It matters when Americans stand up and make their voices heard. Last year, when you spoke out about extending the payroll tax cut, we changed the debate here in Washington. Over the past few weeks, you answered the President’s call to speak up about stopping student loan interest rates from doubling, and now we’re starting to see the gears turning in the House and Senate. The members of Congress who refuse to act are betting that Americans across the country won’t pay attention. So we’ve got to stay focused on the work at hand, and that starts with President Obama, who will be raising awareness across the country. You can join him by speaking out and sharing the list with your networks. These five ideas will help create jobs and protect the middle class. There are homeowners throughout the country who have done everything right, made their mortgage payments on time month after month, but when they look for relief, they get the runaround. With interest rates as low as they are right now, Congress should cut red tape for responsible homeowners to refinance and keep a little more money in their pocket each month. There are a set of tax credits that are helping American companies put people to work developing clean energy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Unless Congress takes action, those credits will expire. That’s an unforced error, both for our economy and our environment. Small business owners play a central role in our economy. Congress should provide firms that create new jobs or increase wages with a 10 percent income tax credit. Lawmakers need to do more to help the men and women who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan find jobs once they come home. President Obama is asking Congress to create a Veterans Jobs Corps that will help them find work as police officers, firefighters, or as employees at our national parks. We need to stop rewarding companies for sending jobs overseas. Congress needs to eliminate the loophole that allows corporations to deduct their expenses from outsourcing jobs and use that money to give a tax credit on moving expenses to companies that bring jobs back. That’s it. It’s straightforward and entirely within Congress’s power to pass and send to the President for his signature. So take a minute to learn more, then share this email and the list with folks in your network. http://www.whitehouse.gov/todolist Thanks, David David Plouffe P.S. — President Obama talked about why this plan is so important yesterday. Check out what he had to say.
|
||
You must be logged in to post a comment.