The evidence keeps piling up; virtually all that voters care about these days -- which is to say, worry about -- is the economy. And that means jobs.
Those without them reached the official mark of 10.2 percent last week -- the highest level of unemployment in more than a quarter-century -- while the unofficial casualties have climbed to 17.5 percent, probably the worst since the Great Depression.
These are what you might loosely call the base numbers behind what Democratic pollster Peter Hart, speaking yesterday morning on CNN's "State of the Union," pointedly called the electorate's "disgust" at Washington. "You have to do something to get people back to work," he said, with noted exasperation, "otherwise Democrats and incumbents are going to be in trouble" in 2010.
After similarly observing America's "bad mood" of joblessness, Paul Krugman remarked last Thursday that "the stimulus bill fell far short of what many economists ... considered appropriate. According to The New Yorker, Christina Romer, the chairwoman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, estimated that a package of more than $1.2 trillion was justified.... [And] more is needed [because] the stimulus has already had its maximum effect on growth."
On the preceding Monday, Krugman had again evangelized from the rather crowded Keynesian pulpit: "The good news is that ... the Obama stimulus plan is working just about the way textbook macroeconomics said it would. But ... the same textbook analysis says that the stimulus was far too small given the scale of our economic problems.... [W]e need a lot more federal spending on job creation.... We now know that stimulus works, but we aren’t doing nearly enough of it."
The aforementioned came just 24 hours before election-determining independents slammed Democrats to the mat across two critical states. The morning after, in cable-network interviews, there were numerous sightings of Democratic self-reproach. Liberal Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, for example, appeared on MSNBC and limited her remarks about "lessons learned" from the elections to the economy alone. Yesterday, on CBS' "Face the Nation," Schultz was back, saying again that "that we need to focus on the economy."
Virginia's Democratic Sen. Jim Webb tutored with characteristic bluntness that "people up here on our side need to get their message straighter," and his homestate colleague, Mark Warner, in even blunter juxtaposition to Nancy Pelosi's prodigiously out-of-body, post-election observation that "We won last night," said, simply, "We got walloped."
In topical summation, let us revert to pollster Peter Hart, from yesterday: In 2010, he said, "I don't think people will be voting on health care."
Everyone, it seems -- from pollsters to White House advisers to liberal Congresswomen to moderate Democratic senators to prominent macroeconomists -- "gets it": The Number One issue among the electorate, by leaps, bounds, and parsecs, is jobs and job creation.
Something needs to be done and done now, as Hart noted, about jobs, jobs, jobs, because, as Krugman further observed, "Unless something changes drastically, we’re looking at many years of high unemployment."
So, what did the United States House of Representatives spend an entire and entirely rare work-Saturday doing, just in time for the Sunday-newspaper headlines and all the Sunday talk shows for all the increasingly jobless electorate to see?
Why of course -- it spent the day passing a health-care bill inclusive of a public option which is going absolutely nowhere in the United States Senate.
Look, way back in ancient times, when this health-care bill saw its genesis, no one was more supportive of a public option than I. In fact, I would have preferred to see the proposal of single-payer, but of course that was political unfeasible. But as it turns out, so, too, is a genuine public option. It simply is not going to happen; even the liberal House couldn't gather the necessary votes for a "robust" public option, and if it takes any form at all in the Senate, you won't recognize it.
It's time to kiss this thing goodnight and put it to bed. Strip it -- strip it completely from the bill and merely work to ensure mandates and thus the risk-spreading elimination of pre-existing-condition denials and annual caps and the like and just wrap this damn thing up.
Then work on a jobs bill. Immediately. Before Christmas and as a national Christmas present, or at the very least, a New Year's gift.
A quite possible result in one year? An employed electorate just might return a more progressive Congress to power, at which point maybe a genuine pubic option could be passed.
Who knows. That's a long way off. But one thing is for sure: If this Democratic Congress continues to toy with a health-care bill that the public has lost interest in and that the Senate is in no way going to pass and that is consuming time otherwise spent on a jobs-creation bill, well, a public option will be the least of this Congress' worries.
Buzz this on Buzzflash.net
I'm afraid he's right
Don't blame Carpenter , like it or not he is right ( correct ) . True health care reform and a real public option , creating competition to keep the Insurance companies in line ... it is not going to happen , that is as clear as can be . Too many whores on both sides of the isle , the bribe money paid off , plain and simple . Why do you think Obama never really pounded on the idea of a public option ? Because he knew there would not be much chance of ever passing a bill with a clean and strong public option , that's why . I had high hopes , I wanted true health care reform and either single payer or a strong and viable public option to compete with the Insurance companies BUT IT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN ! This government is too corrupt , period , and that 's both sides of the isle , only a few exceptions on the Dem side and one Independent , Bernie Sanders . The Dems now are putting lip stick , a diamond studded nose ring and Victoria's secret under wear on the pig and are trying to sell it to us . It's not about the people now , it's about Obama and the Dems being able to say they passed health care reform and claim success when in reality they absolutely failed . This is it , do we accept this and take what little good it does do or reject it and get nothing . That is our choice folks , like it or not . I am pissed as hell and frankly don't know which way to go , I almost think it's better to tell them FU , we aren't going to accept this pig , this absolute mockery and farce !This bill is so bad that it may well do more harm than good . It's doubtful that it will ever get through the Senate any way .
It's time for Carpy to bite the bullet!
Carpy, you are nothing but a DINO!
Buzzflash, why do you allow this clown to post his corporate sponsored propaganda on your progressive website?
Don't you realize you lose donation money every time he posts his anti progressive BS on you website?
Don't you realize other progressive webites are encouraging their readers to fight for the public option by contacting their representatives by phone, fax and email. But Carpy has been discouraging any action by claiming it is a useless battle.
It's time to kiss this thing called Carpy goodnight and put it to bed. Strip it -- strip it completely from Buzzflash.
my sentiments exactly
How ironic that I followed PM to this blog consortium - was unfamiliar with it before he joined - and before I did, I was so impressed with his single venture I donated to it - which I rarely to never do, only to become exasperated with the one who led me here. Now, it's time to adhere to a subset of "biting the bullet" - to "cut my losses" by discontinuing to read this conservative apologist, constantly arguing to cave to the Republicans in their minority status - for what else is the hapless party to do when Obama refuses to run the show and "Carpy" refuses to assign fault to Obama? And to those who suggest making it official by going over to the proverbial dark side or, as I have, to become one of those so-called strategists who strategize nothing more than liberal failure, I propose he become a FOX News commentator, under the category "enabler," where at least he'll be paid more for his obvious contempt for his own side - and yes, that's a subsection of self-loathing.
oh yeah - also
the post assumes 2 issues - health care and jobs creation - cannot be focused on simultaneously. It also pretends that jobs are actually more essential - since one's health is not actually a precondition to pretty much everything else. So Obama can't convince the populace that health care really trumps jobs - a very close second - because if he could he would be doing precisely that while, because he isn't, he's still blameless because, well, "Carpy" has disallowed the blame Obama strategy as a viable option. For some reason this whole situation reminds me of defrosting the freezer without unplugging the refrigerator. If that's not the clearest analogy, decent bill passage is the freezer and Obama is the electricity.
This single-payer wanter
This single-payer wanter thinks PM is right. I am getting angrier and angrier at people like Dennis Kucinich who think being overcharged for insurance you can’t get and that won’t pay out is better than being overcharged for insurance you can get and that will pay out. People need to go to the doctor who aren’t going! It is an emergency.
WTF?
Dennis Kucinich has always been for single payer. He is wise to vote against this new handout to the wealthy that fauxbama is calling reform. Carpenter is clearly a neocon idiot, or Fox news liberal(same difference). Where do you get information that Dennis K. wants you to buy insurance that wont pay? That statement is ridiculous. I guess you would rather pass this bullshit so struggling people can be forced to give up their food money to the insurers too? When the wealthy elite have reduced the rest of us to starving in the streets, then, and apparently only then, will we see change we can believe in. We are way past the point of retaking power from the elite by electoral means. Anything coming out of this government will be exclusively for the benefit of the wealthy. If you need more evidence of this your as thick as Carpy.
Could you explain that please?
The whole point of Obama-care is to force people to buy junk insurance - insurance that you can't use because you can't afford the copays. It's a no-lose for the health mafia collecting the premiums and a no-win for you.
I don't see how your anger at Dennis Kunich follows from the evil in this bill and Dennis's opposition to it.
Would you mind elaborating a bit? Thanks.
Carp says liberals must bite bullet...again
Yes, it's as predictable as the sun rising in the east or a republican selling his soul for greed, this corporate-loving columnist we know and love as "The Carp" demands that liberals sacrifice what good remains in the health care bill just to pass...something. So we can get back to doing...nothing. On jobs.
After all, it was liberals (like Krugman) who said there was a 2 trillion dollar shortfall in the economy that needed to be made up by stimulus--BEFORE WE PASSED THE FIRST ONE.
Did Obama listen?
Now his FDR moment has passed and his timid, milquetoast, GOP-courting governing style has paid off in spades--big banks growing bigger, with bailouts and bonuses as usual, too--while the unemployed are left to ponder why social Darwinism has blossomed under a democratic president and congress.
Every man is certainly not a king under this Obama/Geitner/Summers triumvirate.
The unholy alliance of republicans and bluedogs are sure to fund the upcoming Afghan troop increase by BORROWING IT--no strings, no pay as you go, just print the damn money--but if Obama or the liberals DARE to propose a new jobs bill it will be damned as a deficit killer and just as "dead" as the public option you kill before slumber each night. Some people count sheep.
I'll bet you think the Stupak amendment was a necessary compromise as well, right Carp?
We'll see what democratic women have to say about that in 2010 if it isn't stripped from the bill in conference.
What we need to do is pass a public option thru reconciliation and then kick that sorry scurrilous traitor LIEberman out of his plumb chairmanship before he can begin fear-mongering against "terrorist Muslims." But of course, under the gentle "leadership" of Harry Reid he'll probably do neither.
Anyway, for the 2547th time (because Carp can't get it thru his thick skull), liberals will not jettison the PO.
This issue has become larger than the PO. It's about whether liberals are going to sacrifice our remaining principles to a rogue, corporate, socially-regressive southern faction within the Democratic Party that is perfectly willing to side with the hated and discredited teabagger republicans to derail any form of progressive legislation while Obama wrings his hands in a back room somewhere and sings Kumbiya and asks if we can "all just get along."
No, we can't.
Liberals will not soon forget the constant betrayals by this president and congress. Without us, it doesn't matter how far to the right you move.
Absent any revelation by the democratic leadership, the democratic majorities are in severe peril in 2010--and the bluedogs will be the 1st to go.
Good riddance.
your the liberman of liberal columnist
You really don't give a damn about working people Mr. Carpenter,you keep trying to shove a dysfunctional health care bill down peoples throats so the Democratic party can get glory for passing a health care bill no matter how destructive to working people that bill is.Now you claim we need to start working on jobs the real issue.Congress hasn't had the guts to pass a real health care bill,how will they stop global free trade the only thing that will actually help the economy.Oh thats right obama doesn't want to stop global free trade so we will keep losing jobs and wages.
Mr. Carpenter do the world a favor and get a job at the weekly Standard you would make a better propagandist for the republican party then you do for serious Democrats
To your point:
The most efficacious thing Congress could do to improve America's economic condition is pass a Single Payer health care bill, and to hell with the insurance 'industry' ......... period.
Is every one of the countries we attempt to compete with crazy?
Let's address the economy,
Let's address the economy, or the wreckage that is passing for one.
Over the past decades, corporate America has sent millions of jobs overseas, reducing the numbers of
trained and skilled workers available in the US.
They have made the healthcare system in this country something to be ashamed of.
They have crushed the educational system and gutted it.
They have emptied the treasury by borrowing so much that our country owes tens of trillions of dollars.
They continue to spend a trillion dollars a year on blowing up other people's countries, or increasing our ability to.
So we are left with a customer base for domestic produced product that is mostly unemployed,
in poor health with no hope for affordable care, poorly educated and poorly trained.
The population of truly intelligent, healthy and innovative workers is gone.
The equation for a recovery would require several key ingredients, including the aforementioned workes
corporate is depending upon, a stable currency, a market for our products, manufacturing capability,
and a cheap source of energy for production and distribution. All of which we are lacking.
There is going to be a long slide into the toilet.
The so-called public
The so-called public option is a sham, only benefitting insurance companies and the congressmen who take their bribes.
The bill that has passed the house will not cover every person in this country,
will mandate that people who cannot currently afford health plans be forced to buy one or be fined
(as though they could afford that!),
and creates about thirty million
more unwilling and potentially abused customers for the industry.
It does not create an affordable plan readily available to everyone, or even a majority of the people.
It leaves the corrupt industry as a mandated and sponsored middleman in every health transaction in the country
and does nothing to change the tactics and policies currently responsible for the system's imminent collapse.
There is no acceptable or possible substitute for a single payer universal plan
and all the propaganda saying otherwise is wool pulled over our eyes.
The private insurance industries have to be amputated.
When this happens, the cost of their poor and redundant management will be removed from healthcare.
The plan would be best paid for from a payroll tax (you will merely switch from paying a private to paying less for a fed program, reducing your cost)
and a corporate tax (no loopholes, and lets actually collect the taxes, unlike 2000 thru 2008, hmmm?). The overall effect is to make a much larger risk pool
and investment pool which drives prices down. It removes bonuses and paychecks from CEO's etc from the equation, saving billions.
It makes a healthier workforce and is the best and only investment option.
Lastly, it forces those phone workers who deny your claim because you are sick
to go out and find an honest job!
Now go tell your congressman you will vote him out of a job unless he serves you and not the bribe.
The public option
Cowardice. That is all you're spewing. We won on Tuesday when and where it counted. We win again with healthcare and a strong public option. If we have the courage of our convictions now, we leave the corporatist republicans in the dust for a solid generation at least.
If you're worried about jobs, make the case for a badly needed second round of stimulus.
Stop being a coward in these columns.
William