Official Discussion Thread for President Obama's Jobs Speech

[Paul Kemp]

I'll give it around a B.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

"Recession avoidance plan rather then a job creation plan" - I think Anthony Mason of CBS.

[J. J.]

Yep, definitely the best speech he's given in a long time, both in delivery and tactic.

Actually, I thought it was his worst speeches.  The last five minutes were good, but is substance, more of the same.  A few things might get passed, but it is DOA.

Obama has lost the magic.

Homeland Security now talking about a plot to plant car bombs in NYC and DC.

Respectfully, that's rubbish (albeit your view)

If you don't see the political tactic in this and HOW badly this could backfire on the GOP then...

Respectfully, it is recycled failure tactic.  Too much emphasis on construction, and "Shovel ready wasn't as shovel ready as they thought."

It sold in 2009, but nobody will buy it in 2012.  Nothing fails like failure.

[You kip if you want to...]

I haven't seen it yet, but from what i've read, he's trying to play the GOP at their own game. He's made it as nice for the GOP as it can be, so if they don't pass it, they'll look like the obstructionists that they are.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Yep, definitely the best speech he's given in a long time, both in delivery and tactic.

Actually, I thought it was his worst speeches.  The last five minutes were good, but is substance, more of the same.  A few things might get passed, but it is DOA.

Obama has lost the magic.

Homeland Security now talking about a plot to plant car bombs in NYC and DC.

Respectfully, that's rubbish (albeit your view)

If you don't see the political tactic in this and HOW badly this could backfire on the GOP then...

Respectfully, it is recycled failure tactic.  Too much emphasis on construction, and "Shovel ready wasn't as shovel ready as they thought."

It sold in 2009, but nobody will buy it in 2012.  Nothing fails like failure.

My view is that there wasn't enough emphasis on infrastructure spending in the last package.

[J. J.]

Yep, definitely the best speech he's given in a long time, both in delivery and tactic.

Actually, I thought it was his worst speeches.  The last five minutes were good, but is substance, more of the same.  A few things might get passed, but it is DOA.

Obama has lost the magic.

Homeland Security now talking about a plot to plant car bombs in NYC and DC.

Respectfully, that's rubbish (albeit your view)

If you don't see the political tactic in this and HOW badly this could backfire on the GOP then...

Respectfully, it is recycled failure tactic.  Too much emphasis on construction, and "Shovel ready wasn't as shovel ready as they thought."

It sold in 2009, but nobody will buy it in 2012.  Nothing fails like failure.

My view is that there wasn't enough emphasis on infrastructure spending in the last package.

In Obama's view, it was not speedy enough to stimulate the economy, hence the quote, though I he said "we."  I didn't say it; Obama did.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

I wasn't making comment on the speech, I have always thought that.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I haven't seen it yet, but from what i've read, he's trying to play the GOP at their own game. He's made it as nice for the GOP as it can be, so if they don't pass it, they'll look like the obstructionists that they are.

I'm not sure they have any sense of embarrassment at this point, though.

I thought the speech was fairly good, overall. Whether it leads to actual results is difficult to say.

[Capitan Zapp Brannigan]

He sounded like a Republican. But I guess that was the point.

[Bacon King]

Obama's posturing here is beautiful.

He made a series of moderate proposals, citing each time how the specifics were supported by the GOP. He highlighted the need for bipartisan compromise, and the devastating effects that would result if Congress did nothing. He made strong cases on every topic. He's calling for everything to be paid for in full by additional cuts made by the supercommittee- and next week will be sending them a specific proposal of cuts to pay for the program in full plus another trillion dollars on top of that.

If the GOP agrees with the plan, then their "cause gridlock in Washington so confidence stays low and the economy stays bad" strategy fails completely and Obama wins reelection. If the GOP doesn't agree to the proposals, Obama can clearly illustrate how he charged Congressional Republicans to fix the economy but they did nothing- putting the blame firmly on their shoulders and causing a huge swing against the GOP in 2012.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

I agree, it's tactically magnificent.

[Simfan34]

I can agree with that assessment. Strategic brilliance.

[You kip if you want to...]

Just watching it now.

"How can we let our kids learn in places that are literally falling down?" *Republicans remain poker faced*

Gotta laugh.

[J. J.]

I wasn't making comment on the speech, I have always thought that.

The problem is, he tried that, and for whatever reason, it failed to stimulate the economy.  Some of that is that construction only stimulates a small section of the economy directly, and only for a short amount of time.

The problem with leading off with that is the simple reason that it was tried, Obama was for it, Congress passed it, and it was implemented, and the economy is worse off.

The 2009 Stimulis Act was passed in February 2009.  Unemployment was 8.20%  2 1/2 years later, what is the unemployment rate?

About the only thing it did was prevent deflation (which was an economic positive, but I'd hate to run on it).  We have no problem with deflation today.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

He began talking about structural economic problems but then spent most of the time talking about counter-cyclical solutions. It sounds like he wants to pay for a short-term jobs policy by equivalent spending cuts/revenue over a much longer term - not at all helpful from a structural point of view.

[Yelnoc]

Now Obama has to hope the GOP doesn't play ball and pass this.  Because this isn't a job maker, it might not even stave a recession off at all.  If that happens, Obama's ass is in a sling.

[You kip if you want to...]

That was rather impressive, or better than I expected anyway. Obama will have calmed the nerves over his ability to fix things/win in 2012 a tad.

He's finally taken the strategy which he should've since January though, which I was happy about - if GOP block it, then it's their fault, and their fault alone, when the economy goes down the crapper.

He really put last night's debaters to shame, not that that would've been difficult.

[Bacon King]

Now Obama has to hope the GOP doesn't play ball and pass this.  Because this isn't a job maker, it might not even stave a recession off at all.  If that happens, Obama's ass is in a sling.

If this passes on a broad bipartisan basis I think it'll do a lot of good for the economy indirectly- renewed confidence from seeing strong Presidential leadership and a bipartisan Congressional effort to fix the country will greatly break the "mental recession." Also, especially cutting the payroll tax in half for everyone will definitely drive up consumer spending.

[Politico]

Is Ryan sleeping? Mainly good ideas, but how will we pay for it? Infrastructure and schools warms the cockles of my heart.

More borrowing now and higher taxes later (and higher inflation later if the Fed is somehow forced into a corner for political reasons (e.g., Nixon/Burns))

[J. J.]

Now Obama has to hope the GOP doesn't play ball and pass this.  Because this isn't a job maker, it might not even stave a recession off at all.  If that happens, Obama's ass is in a sling.

I think that is the problem for Obama.  Cantor was just on Fox and said that he could embrace some of it.

I'm think about a "half a loaf" situation.  The R's adopt some of it, it gets passed.  Okay, it doesn't work.  Here is the R's line:

"1.  Obama and Pelosi gave us stimulus (Porkulus).  It failed.

2.  Obama insisted that stimulus II (Son of Porkulus).  He got most of what he wanted.  It failed.

Obama failed."

[Politico]

The Democrats don't even seem enthusiastic for much of this.

Because nobody is willing to give Obama the memo that he's finished. It is painful seeing him cling to this delusional belief this entire bill is going to pass. The good parts will pass, and the exuberant parts will not.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

I was pretty pleased.  He seemed fired up, which is a nice change.  Hopefully a good deal of what he proposed will get passed, though I'm not optimistic.

[Mr.Phips]

Now Obama has to hope the GOP doesn't play ball and pass this.  Because this isn't a job maker, it might not even stave a recession off at all.  If that happens, Obama's ass is in a sling.

If this passes on a broad bipartisan basis I think it'll do a lot of good for the economy indirectly- renewed confidence from seeing strong Presidential leadership and a bipartisan Congressional effort to fix the country will greatly break the "mental recession." Also, especially cutting the payroll tax in half for everyone will definitely drive up consumer spending.

Because the early 2008 stimulus really helped the economy and lifted consumer confidence. 

[Bacon King]

Is Ryan sleeping? Mainly good ideas, but how will we pay for it? Infrastructure and schools warms the cockles of my heart.

More borrowing now and higher taxes later (and higher inflation later if the Fed is somehow forced into a corner for political reasons (e.g., Nixon/Burns))

Again: Obama specified that the entire cost for this project was going to come out of the $1.5 trillion in new cuts he's calling for by Christmas. And that he's going to release a specific proposal for these cuts next week.

[krazen1211]

"He acknowledged that Congress had little appetite for spending that isn’t eventually paid for and pledged to provide a plan on Sept. 19 that would pay for his jobs package. "


Is this a joke?