Day By Day by Chris Muir July 14, 2009 – Not Much Up on Top
Day By Day by Chris Muir
President Barack Obama conceded Tuesday that the unemployment rate will keep growing for “several months” as he prepared to head to battered Michigan to unveil a plan to help train people for the next generation of jobs.
Obama is proposing a multibillion-dollar investment in the nation’s community colleges, a $12 billion effort to help the two-year institutions reach, teach and train more people for “the jobs of the future.” He was to outline his program in a speech Tuesday afternoon at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich.
Before leaving town, Obama was pressed on how high the unemployment rate might climb. In Michigan, the jobless rate is 14.1 percent, worst in the nation.
“How employment numbers are going to respond is not yet clear,” Obama said after a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.
“My expectation is, is that we will probably continue to see unemployment tick up for several months,” Obama said. “And the challenge for this administration is to make sure that even as we are stabilizing the financial system … are people able to find good jobs that pay good wages?”
More than 2 million jobs have been lost since Congress passed Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus package. Without that government intervention, Obama said, states like Michigan would be in even worse shape because they would have had to lay off more teachers, firefighters and other workers.
Obama said renewed hiring tends to lag behind other signs of economic recovery. The White House has been criticized for being overly rosy in its projections of the economic rebound, particularly in terms of employment.
Huh?
I thought economic stimulus was to stimulate the economy to employ people – not to bailout states to NOT layoff school teachers and other unionized public employees.
What a mess but at least Obama is consistent in his disdain for the private economy.
Obama can urge patience but the unemployed voters will hold him and his party accountable beginning NOW.
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Technorati Tags: Day By Day, Economic Stimulus, Barack Obama
2 Comments
Ling
I believe Obama (and the GOP) is going to have to chooose between Stimulus 2 and healthcare. By the time Congress gets serious about healthcare, the economy is going to be in dire straits,a nd the Dems will be clamoring for another stimulus. I think Obama can push through one of the bills without GOP support, but the other one is going down. Which one should Republicans take down?
Flap
Some Americans want health care reform but don’t want to pay for it.
Every American wants and needs a job.
Both issues are lsoers for Obama and the Congressional Democrats.