Eugene Robinson: "The word most politicians ignore: Jobs"

[alp227]

What is it about the word “jobs” that our nation’s leaders fail to understand? How has the most painful economic crisis in decades somehow escaped their notice? Why do they ignore the issues that Americans care most desperately about?

Listening to the debate in Washington, you’d think the nation was absorbed by the compelling saga of deficit reduction. You’d get the impression that in households across America, parents put their children to bed and then stay up half the night sifting through piles of think-tank reports on the kitchen table, trying to calculate whether there will be enough in the Social Security trust fund to pay benefits beyond 2037.

And you’d be wrong. Those parents are looking at a pile of bills on the kitchen table, trying to decide which ones have to be paid now and which can slide. The question isn’t how to manage health care or retirement costs two decades from now. It’s how the family can make it to the end of the month.

President Obama gives signs of beginning to perceive this disconnect. His Republican opponents, not so much.

Full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the_word_most_politicians_ignore_jobs/2011/04/25/AFrUC1kE_story.html

Thanks to Steve Benen for linking me to this article, and Benen comments further about Robinson's commentary.

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. If you're a politician...

...and the first two words out of your mouth aren't 'aggregate demand', you're blowing smoke up my ass. And if the next four aren't 'Marginal propensity to consume', then you're not being serious.

[DJ13]

2. The pols dont fail to understand

Why focus on jobs when their main constituents (business) dont care about jobs?

Increasing the labor force would only cut into to the record profits they are now making.