The Rude Awakening

I certainly had my own thoughts on what happened last night, but what about the people who were actually there?

[Delegate Laurie Haley from Reno] said she is anxious to go home and start making phone calls and knocking on doors for Obama and for U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Las Vegas, who is running for U.S. Senate.

“I’m ready to go home and make a difference,” she said. “I’m so energized that my husband probably won’t be able to live with me for the next 60 days until the election.”

Haley said she is better off than she was before Obama took office, in part because of his support for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which makes it easier for women to sue employers for paying them less than men for the same jobs. The law was the first that Obama signed after taking office.

“It means that women like me won’t be paid 23 cents less than men for doing the same work,” Haley said. “That adds up to a lot of money per week,per month, per year and over the course of a career. It affects the quality of our lives.”

And this is exactly what the Democratic Convention was aimed to accomplish. With all the pundits' talk of "enthusiasm gaps" and "disillusionment", Democrats wanted to dispel that talk and show how Democrats are still fired up and ready to go. This week's convention in Charlotte went a long way in doing this.

But today, it looks like the economy is chiming in... And frankly, it isn't sounding all that great. However, we can't forget that exactly one year ago, President Obama offered a solution.

The American electorate was clamoring for action on jobs; the Obama White House crafted a credible plan that would be helping enormously right now; and congressional Republicans reflexively killed the Americans Jobs Act for partisan and ideological reasons.

With this recent history in mind, how are we to assign responsibility for high unemployment? Should we condemn the person who threw the job market a life preserver, or those who pushed it away? Or put another way, are we better off now as a result of Republican obstructionism and intransigence, or would we have been better off if the popular and effective job-creation measures had been approved?

By any reasonable measure, the GOP argument, which will be trumpeted loudly today, is completely incoherent -- they were wrong a year ago and now we're paying the price.

When we really think about it, we're lucky the economy created 96,000 jobs last month. Despite the constant G-O-TEA obstruction and economic sabotage, we're still seeing some kind of economic recovery.

However, it can be better. That's precisely why President Obama proposed the American Jobs Act last September. It would have created 1.9 million more jobs and an extra 2% worth of GDP growth this year. Yet instead of working with President Obama to speed up economic recovery, G-O-TEA politicians just kept obstructing.

Oh, and some G-O-TEA acolytes actually went further in proposing legislation to worsen our economic problems and throw America into depression! In fact, Nevada's own Dean Heller and Joe Heck both proposed bills last November aimed at slashing public investment in our economy precisely when our economy needed that investment the most.

Again, when taking this into consideration, it's actually a bit of a minor miracle that our economy is still growing and creating jobs. And it's become increasingly clear that our economy needs more investment, NOT LESS. This is what we started to hear from President Obama last night in Charlotte, and this is what we need to hear more from him about next Wednesday here in Las Vegas.

But let's face it, we still won't see enough progress if we don't see significant change in Congress. And this is the case President Obama and Congressional Democrats must make in order to sweep away the austerity nonsense and work on delivering real economic growth.

Who Are the Real Job Creators?

We've heard plenty this year about "job creators" and why we shouldn't "punish" them. But really, who are these "job creators"? What's the engine that gets this economy moving?

Seattle based venture capitalist Nick Hanauer provides a surprising answer. He says we've had it all wrong in the past three decades. If we really want to boost "job creators", then we must look beyond Wall Street and take a closer look at Main Street.

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"This idea is a way of completely misunderstanding how economies truly work," Hanauer said on The Last Word Monday. "The people who create jobs is the middle class. When a middle class consumer buys something from a company, that is what creates jobs. And that's why it doesn't matter very much if rich people pay higher rates of tax, because the true engine of job creation is a thriving middle class."

"A businessperson calling themselves a job creator is like a school claiming to have created evolution," Hanauer added. "It's just not true."

The notion that the rich are "job creators" is at the core of Mitt Romney's economic platform. Like the rest of his party, Romney opposes raising taxes even on the richest 2 percent of Americans, arguing that doing so would stymie job growth.

Think about it. Who buys the bulk of the shiny new electronic gadgets at Fry's? Who buys most of the groceries at Trader Joe's? Who does most of the stocking up at yet another Macy's summer sale? We do! The middle class truly is the engine that drives our economy. We buy most of the consumer goods and services, and that's what fuels job growth.

And in case that wasn't convincing enough for you, Desert Beacon has more facts and figures showing how "trickle down economics" fail to fuel job growth. Since middle class families are the biggest chunk of the population and make most of the consumer purchases, then it makes the most sense to ensure they have money to spend. They need the tax cuts. The super rich don't.

Really, one need not look further than Mitt Romney to see why this doesn't work. Despite all the tax breaks he gets, he's been busy destroying American jobs and hiding his money in offshore bank accounts. If that isn't enough evidence to prove that we've had it all wrong on "job creators", then I don't know what is.

If "It's the Economy, Stupid", Then Who's Really Stupid?

We often hear this usual refrain from the usual media pundits: "This election will be all about the economy." And of course, there have already been countless references to that famous Clinton '92 campaign line I used in the title above. Now we've also heard many of the same pundits talk about how a prolonged focus on economic issues may somehow hurt President Obama's reelection campaign. So I hope they take a closer look at this... And take a really close look at this.

The numbers are out for job creation and it looks pretty good. The unemployment rate went down to 8.5% from [8.6%] and 200,000 jobs were created.

Here is the hidden gem. While looking into the different sectors, I found that the healthcare sector added 23K jobs in December and a total of 315K jobs in 2011. But if we listened to the right wing meme, the Obamacare law should have caused layoffs. Especially considering Obamacare DIRECTLY regulates the health insurance and healthcare industries.

The healthcare industry has seen their profits increase dramatically in 2011 according to [B]loomberg, “..profit margins at the companies widened to levels not seen since before the recession, a Bloomberg Government study shows.” So much for the talking point, that this law is bad for business.

So for all the G-O-TEA talking points about "ObamaCare kills the economy!!!", the health care industry actually ADDED jobs in 2011. There goes another false radical right meme down the drain! Also, take a look at this (with much thanks to Steve Benen for the beautiful charts!).

Overall, the U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in December, but as has been the case for a long while, it’s the private sector that continues to fare better. Last month, businesses added 212,000 jobs, making it one of the best months since the recession began.
For the 2011 calendar year, BLS data shows the U.S. private sector has now added 1.89 million jobs in 2011, well ahead of last year’s private-sector total of 1.2 million, and the best year for businesses since 2005. Since March 2010, American businesses have created 3.13 million jobs. (In 2008, the private sector lost 3.8 million jobs, and in 2009, the private sector lost 5 million jobs.)
And with that, here’s a different homemade chart, showing monthly job losses/gains in the private sector since the start of the Great Recession. The image makes a distinction — red columns point to monthly job totals under the Bush administration, while blue columns point to job totals under the Obama administration.

Just for fun, let’s add one more homemade chart, showing annual job losses/gains in the private sector over the last two decades. Red columns point to years under Republican administrations, blue columns point to job totals under Democratic administrations. (Note: 2011 was the best year for private-sector job growth since 2005, and the second best since 1999.)

Upon looking at the real facts and figures, it looks to be crystal clear that the President really does seem to know what he's doing on the economy. When we put money directly in the hands of working class families, consumer demand rises, jobs are created, and the economy grows. That's why it's so crucial to keep in place the payroll tax cut and continue the progress that President Obama kick-started in 2009.

I have been hearing on TV that the [current good] economic news is good for President Obama. And it is. But it misses the point. The news is good for the American people, for American businesses, for American jobs, for the American consumer. And President Obama is not simply the beneficiary of this good economic trend. He is the architect of it. He held the economy from falling off the cliff with the American Recovery Act, he relentlessly pursued and extended unemployment benefits and preserved the jobs of teachers and firefighters; he fought hard for the middle class and got the payroll tax cut and other targeted measures to inject consumer demand; he brought a 35% tax relief to small businesses for providing health care; he gave the fragile economy some breathing room even as the Republicans were trying to choke it off.

If anyone has any doubts about why the Republicans wanted to eliminate the payroll tax cut for middle class and working class Americans, there is your answer. They do not want positive economic news in an election year. After all, Barack Obama has already taken away national security (see: Osama bin Laden dead), fiscal responsibility (see GOP logic: tax cuts do not need to be paid for except the payroll tax cut), and damn nearly every other issue. Their only hope was to demagogue the economy, and the President's efforts seem to be paying off there too. Darn.

And if these trends continue - if jobs keep being created at a good pace, consumer confidence keeps heading north, new unemployment claims continue heading south, and so forth, there isn't much that will stand in the way of President Obama and a second term.

And that's what scares Republicans the most. As we talked about yesterday, they're freaking out over Mitt Romney's real job destruction record getting more attention. And now that reporters are finally paying more attention to Romney's real record of slashing jobs at Bain Capital, he and the entire G-O-TEA are in trouble.

Remember this MoveOn video from yesterday?



Believe it or not, it gets worse. Not only did Romney's Bain Capital slash 750 jobs at Missouri steel company, GS Technologies, and not only did Romney and Bain slash pension and health care benefits for GST workers, but Bain also had the gall to demand a $44 million federal government bailout of GST because Romney's Bain Capital underfunded GST's pension fund! And Mitt Romney wants to call himself a "job creator"? Seriously?

No wonder why even some Republicans can't hide the reality about Mitt Romney being so hopelessly out of touch with the 99%...



And why other Republicans have to go to such extreme measures to turn attention away from Romney's terrible jobs record.



Congrats, Rick Santorum! You're still crazy!

And Mitt Romney is still a job destroyer. And Barack Obama is still the candidate with the best record on real job creation and good economic stewardship. No wonder why Obama's poll numbers aren't looking so bad now.

"Real Life Concerns" As We "Scrape By"... Or How Obama Finally Gets It

In case you missed it last night...



And here's the full text. And here are some additional facts on "The American Jobs Act".

So what's actually in it? Take a glimpse.

President Obama tonight laid out a $450 billion job creation plan before a joint session of Congress, challenging lawmakers to repeatedly to “pass this jobs bill.” “Regardless of the arguments we’ve had in the past, regardless of the arguments we’ll have in the future, this plan is the right thing to do right now. You should pass it. And I intend to take that message to every corner of this country,” he said.

Obama called for a reduction in the payroll tax, investments in infrastructure, a plan to modernize up to 35,000 schools, as well as tax breaks for new hires and a plan to reform the corporate tax code that currently “stands as a monument to special interest influence in Washington.” Obama emphasized that many of these ideas have, in the past, garnered bipartisan support and he threw in some Republican favorites, such as approving pending free trade agreements.

The Recovery Act was a start in creating badly needed jobs, and this new American Jobs Act has the potential to create 1.9 million jobs and add 2% in GDP growth. This is what we desperately need...

Especially for us in Nevada, as yet another Brookings Institution report found that our lack of public education leads to lack of economic diversification that continues to hinder Nevada's economic recovery. This proposal from President Obama will invest in modernizing public schools, beefing up public works programs, and offering companies real incentives to hire the long-term unemployed.

I hope this is the start of President Obama shifting to a more aggressive and relentless focus on reviving the economy. We all know what the teabaggers want to do. Now, it's up to Democrats to provide a real alternative.

NV-03: For the Heck of It, Republicans Keep Denying Reality

Apparently, professional radical right whiners are not happy when the truth is told about Joe Heck and what he's doing in Washington. Apparently I'm "embarrassing myself daily for the entire world to watch".

Wait, so telling the truth is now "embarrassing"? Lordy, someone needs to call the WHAAAAAA-MBULENCE!



They're even taking the crybaby act to the local teabagger propaganda rag "newspaper" to whine about "big, bad, unemployed people stalking!!!" poor little rich Joe Heck. OK, so maybe Heck's feelings are hurt when he sits in his hilltop McMansion and staffers notify him of constituents saying not-so-nice things about him.

Well, guess what? Those "big, bad, unemployed people" have lost their jobs, are losing their (far more modest) homes, and are worried about how they'll put food on the family table in the next week. Nevadans are suffering, yet all Heck and his Republican colleagues in Congress want to do is lie about consumer safeguards...

Politicians and business groups often blame excessive regulation and fear of higher taxes for tepid hiring in the economy. However, little evidence of that emerged when McClatchy canvassed a random sample of small business owners across the nation. [...]

McClatchy reached out to owners of small businesses, many of them mom-and-pop operations, to find out whether they indeed were being choked by regulation, whether uncertainty over taxes affected their hiring plans and whether the health care overhaul was helping or hurting their business.

Their response was surprising.

None of the business owners complained about regulation in their particular industries, and most seemed to welcome it. Some pointed to the lack of regulation in mortgage lending as a principal cause of the financial crisis that brought about the Great Recession of 2007-09 and its grim aftermath.

Obsess over teabagger extremist endorsements, attack the Peace Corps (??!!), flirt with eliminating corporate income tax (while demanding that seniors and disabled get Social Security and Medicare cuts), and return from a month long vacation only to keep obstructing and play political games against President Obama.

Did you notice something missing there? For all the pomp and circumstance, where is the action on what matters? Where are the jobs?

They definitely have not surfaced here since Congressional Republicans took over the federal agenda and called for a host of job-killing policies, from union busting to "austerity" budgets to holding the full faith and credit of America hostage. When even a majority of Republicans think President Obama needs to focus more on job creation than budget deficits (overall, 68% of Americans want more focus on jobs while only 30% want more focus on budget cutting), shouldn't Joe Heck and his House GOP colleagues think twice before pushing the same policy agenda that the overwhelming majority of Americans reject?

President Obama has tried desperately to engage Congressional Republicans with multiple offers of compromise, but even he now has to realize that he can't keep trying to negotiate with crazy and expect different results. "Austerity" really is killing our economy and killing off American jobs, but Joe Heck just doesn't want to quit these bad policies. So why should he be surprised when his angry constituents show up outside his office to protest?