Friday, September 9, 2011

Talking about jobs

So, Paul Krugman was favorably impressed with Obama's jobs speech, which he described as "significantly bolder and better than I expected." I am less impressed, because I don't think Obama means a word of it.

Whenever Obama gets into trouble, he tries to speechify his way out, and that's what he's doing now. Obama knows that most of the fourteen million Americans who are out of work now voted for him because the expected him to help them. However, Obama has no intention of helping them. Obama and his fellow neoliberals have decided that the unemployment crisis is "structural" in nature, which is a fancy way of saying that a ten-percent unemployment rate is the new normal. What Obama really wants to do is shred the social safety net and turn America into an oversized Bangladesh. If he comes out and says so, though, it will leave his re-election campaign in the doldrums. So instead, he's making noises like he actually wants to do something about unemployment, knowing perfectly well that he can count on the Republicans to stop it from happening.

Make no mistake: if Obama is re-elected next year, his concerns about unemployment will vanish quicker than you can say "hope and change", and he'll be back to his deficitmania and his perpetual cycle of tax cuts and spending cuts. His talk about jobs is just that: talk, with no promise of any action.

No comments: