{"id":5160,"date":"2011-06-20T03:01:08","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T10:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=5160"},"modified":"2011-06-20T03:01:08","modified_gmt":"2011-06-20T10:01:08","slug":"democrats-divided-on-jobs-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/20\/democrats-divided-on-jobs-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats Divided on Jobs Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republicans rode the wave of \u201cJobs, Jobs, Jobs\u201d to victory in 2010.  Since then, they have waged unrestricted class warfare against the American people.  For jobs, their only proposal is to return to the policies that made Bush the worst president in modern history for job losses.  Democrats have stayed largely on the defensive, reacting to scheme after scheme by Republicans, each more draconian that the last. Finally, Democrats are planning a jobs program, which is good.  The problem is, getting them to agree is like herding cats.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"20jobs\"Senate Democrats are beginning to fear that the country\u2019s increasingly dim economic outlook will cost them their seats in 2012 and are trying to craft a new agenda aimed at spurring job creation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

While there is no shortage of ideas of what a plan could include \u2014 from a payroll tax holiday to increased infrastructure spending \u2014 Democrats haven\u2019t settled on the details or whether to craft one large package or push through a series of narrow measures<\/strong>. They\u2019re also unsure how to sell their plans to the public or how to engage Senate Republicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no easy answer to this,\u201d Sen. Joe Lieberman (R-Conn.) [I corrected this from I to R.] told POLITICO.<\/p>\n

Fearing the economy may be getting worse, Democrats plan to soon unveil what they\u2019ll call a \u201cJobs First\u201d agenda \u2014 and the stakes are high<\/strong>. A bleak economic outlook, like the May jobs report, could cost Democrats their thin Senate majority and even the White House if they can\u2019t make a strong case to an anxious electorate that their policies will create jobs.<\/p>\n

Senate Democrats are now grappling with ways to gain an edge in the economic debate dominated by budget talk. For instance, in an attempt to woo Republicans, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the White House are open to extending a payroll tax break to stimulate the economy, but that has spawned unease from Democratic senators such as Maryland\u2019s Ben Cardin who worry that it would drive up the deficit and unnerve liberals such as Vermont\u2019s Bernie Sanders, who are concerned it would deplete the Social Security trust fund<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Politico<\/a>><\/p>\n

I found a video of Schumer discussing this on Crooks and Liars<\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/font><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my take.<\/font><\/p>\n

The first choice is, \u201cDo what\u2019s right, or do what Republicans will accept?\u201d  Those are mutually exclusive choices.  We are better off failing to do what\u2019s right, and be perceived as so doing, than painting ourselves with a Republican brush.<\/font><\/p>\n

The second is, \u201cOne large package or many narrow measures?\u201d  Large packages are so complex that it is easy for Republicans to misrepresent them with ludicrous lies, such as \u201cdeath panels to kill grandma\u201d.  Individual measures are easier to present to voters clearly.  They have the added benefit of publicizing Republican obstruction of measures America wants and needs on each item.<\/font><\/p>\n

The third choice is, \u201cWhat are the specifics?\u201d  I favor infrastructure projects, research projects, and incentives for job creation, an FDR-like approach.  I oppose a payroll tax holiday.  Cutting off revenue coming into the Social Security program, hastens the date when it no longer takes in enough to pay full benefits.  That plays into the Republican scheme to Banksterize Social Security.<\/font><\/p>\n

Whatever they decide, we can\u2019t let Republicans distract is from jobs,<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republicans rode the wave of \u201cJobs, Jobs, Jobs\u201d to victory in 2010.  Since then, they have waged unrestricted class warfare against the American people.  For jobs, their only proposal is to return to the policies that made Bush the worst president in modern history for job losses.  Democrats have stayed largely on the defensive, reacting […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}