Where Is the 2008 Barack Obama Now on Jobs and Trade?

[OhioChick]

Posted: July 13, 2010 09:30 AM

Although John Edwards had no business running for President in 2008 given the tawdry marital indiscretions that he was hiding from nearly everyone, including from his senior campaign team, he nonetheless clearly established the agenda on jobs (and labor) and trade for all of the Democratic candidates, especially as it later turned out for then Senator Obama.

Following Edwards' second-place finish in Iowa his other top advisor and I (at the time, I was serving as his Senior Economic Policy Advisor) compressed into a single 'manifesto' all of his statements over the prior year on these issues. For the short remainder of his campaign, he spoke continuously about keeping a robust number of manufacturing jobs in America, on the order of 20% of overall employment. He spoke of the need to forge a new partnership between organized labor and government. He pledged to make passing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) a major and immediate priority and to passing a ban on hiring permanent replacement workers for strikers.

Concerning trade and globalization, we espoused investing the resources required for the U.S. to keep its competitive edge in the world, and asserted that our global trade needed to be based on four core principles:

1) First and foremost, America's trade agreements must provide clear and measurable benefits for American workers - and then they must be enforced. This means they must include prohibitions against illegal subsidies, currency manipulation and other trade abuses. It means they must protect U.S. national security-related manufacturing essential to our high-tech weaponry and defense.

2) America's trade policies must also lift up workers around the world, which is a combined moral, global economic and critical U.S. national security imperative. This means that our agreements must also provide strong protections for the global environment, and that we won't condone agreements with countries which ignore good governance, where there is violence against workers, or where workers are denied just wages and basic labor standards.

3) In negotiating trade agreements "one size does not fit all", and thus America's trade agreements must account for significant differences in form of government, the rule of law, the relative maturity of economies, and common trade and business practices. Emphasis should therefore be placed mostly on fair and balanced bilateral and regional trade agreements, and not on multilateral global agreements such as Doha.

4) Restoring fair and balanced trade with China in all aspects must be a particular priority. We will do business with China, but we will not be pushed around or talked to death while they take our markets.

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-hindery-jr/where-is-the-2008-barack_b_644173.html

Snip

Senator Barack Obama on Jobs and Trade

Five months later, on July 2, 2008, Barack Obama embraced all of these commitments in a zinger of a speech to the United Steel Workers that I had the privilege to help write. This speech quickly became Senator Obama's own manifesto.

After being introduced by Edwards, Senator Obama said:

"Change is a President who welcomes you into the White House; who's walked with you on that picket line; who doesn't choke on the word 'union'; who lets unions do what they do best and organize our workers; and who will finally make EFCA the law of the land.

"Change is knowing that for trade to work for America, it has to work for all Americans; that we have to stand up to countries that are manipulating their currency or flooding our markets with subsidized goods; that it's wrong to have a 'one-size fits all' trade policy that treats countries as different as China and Mexico as if they were the same; that when workers are mistreated in sweatshops and labor leaders are threatened or even murdered abroad, it not only offends our conscience, it hurts our workers too; and that our job ends not when a trade deal is signed, but when it's enforced.

"Change is ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and giving them to companies that create good paying jobs here in America; it's putting people to work...making the materials we need to rebuild America; it's...creating millions of new jobs - jobs that we want to be good union jobs - and giving our workers the skills to do them."

SO, WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED FROM JULY 2, 2008 TO JULY 7, 2010?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-hindery-jr/where-is-the-2008-barack_b_644173.html

[amandabeech]

1. The remaining part of the article at the Huffpost looks at Obama's actions.

It is really worth a look.

The items outlined in the OP are why I supported Edwards in the primary.

While I think that he behaved abysmally in his private life, if he had been able to carry out his four proposals, I think that the country would be in better shape jobwise today.

[ihavenobias]

2. K & R. Unfortunately many people will just read the headline. n/t

[LWolf]

3. The '08 Obama:

Speaking to United Steel Workers:

After being introduced by Edwards, Senator Obama said:

"Change is a President who welcomes you into the White House; who's walked with you on that picket line; who doesn't choke on the word 'union'; who lets unions do what they do best and organize our workers; and who will finally make EFCA the law of the land.

"Change is knowing that for trade to work for America, it has to work for all Americans; that we have to stand up to countries that are manipulating their currency or flooding our markets with subsidized goods; that it's wrong to have a 'one-size fits all' trade policy that treats countries as different as China and Mexico as if they were the same; that when workers are mistreated in sweatshops and labor leaders are threatened or even murdered abroad, it not only offends our conscience, it hurts our workers too; and that our job ends not when a trade deal is signed, but when it's enforced.

"Change is ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and giving them to companies that create good paying jobs here in America; it's putting people to work...making the materials we need to rebuild America; it's...creating millions of new jobs - jobs that we want to be good union jobs - and giving our workers the skills to do them."

What happened, indeed.

[inna]

7. What a mockery. Cruel, tragic, sad. nt

:(

[Radical Activist]

4. Wow. This guy really doesn't get it.

He isn't the only aging pundit who fails to understand the changing reality of the new green jobs economy.

First, depending on exports to bolster our manufacturing economy is idiotic during the recession. The economic collapse is worse in other parts of the world. This is not a realistic time to increase exports. The economy has changed in the past three years since Obama wrote his first campaign platform.

Second, he's not the only aging pundit stuck in the outdated "jobs v. the environment" way of thinking. He doesn't get that building high speed rail, solar panel manufacturing, energy efficiency projects, building new wind farms, fuel efficient cars and other green jobs are the nation's main growth sector. That's the best plan we have and that's how our jobs economy is going to recover.

His dismissal of the best chance we have for economic recovery is moronic. The rest of the article is a very odd collection of statements that imply Obama is doing something bad without any specifics or supporting evidence. Very strange.

But really, what can you expect from someone who thought that the DLC's former chief in the US Senate was the progressive candidate in the race just because he gave some nice speeches.

[inna]

8. "That's the best plan we have" - what plan are you referring to? insufficient & inadequate stimulus?

"building high speed rail, solar panel manufacturing, energy efficiency projects, building new wind farms, fuel efficient cars and other green jobs" - how many billions for infrastructure spending?

Massive, REAL job stimulus is needed. Not tax breaks and tinkering around the edges. And not the IMF austerity crap.


We need something like this, that is proven to work and help the real ecomomy and the workers:




http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8743887&mesg_id=8744272



"First, depending on exports to bolster our manufacturing economy is idiotic during the recession."

Wait a second. Isn't this exactly Obama's current plan?


Also, who's "the DLC's former chief in the US Senate" and who's "the aging pundit"?

[Radical Activist]

9. Try looking up how many billions

were spent on green job projects that directly created jobs. It's actually the largest area of stimulus spending. But I know the talking points are that we're only supposed to complain about the bank bailout.

$50-$110 billion according to this source: http://www.greenjobsguide.org/wiki/federal

The next step for more is the climate change bill. He's already done a lot of what you're asking for and is already fighting for exactly what the article wants. Happy?
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/obama-green-stimulus-did-it-work.php

The former Senate DLC leader is John Edwards, and the aging pundit is the guy who wrote the blog in the OP.

He should have educated himself before writing.
http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/03/guide-green-projects-obama-stimulus-bill.php?page=1

[inna]

10. Thanks for the links!

It's helpful to look at the breakdown. $100B is actually more than I thought. You don't hear much about green jobs and hi-speed rail for some reason, I was under impression that it was a limited project and it wasn't creating many jobs.

Still, $100B for green jobs is good, but not good enough. We need MASSIVE investment in infrastructure, the way China did it (and it's working great for them).

They just told IMF to go screw themselves with their neoliberal ideas, and invested in real economy that actually benefits the workers.


(As for Edwards... LOL, I didn't even know that he was DLC. He was my guy during the primaries btw; his message was more populist/left-ish than the other two.)

[Birthmark]

5. The 2008 Obama is the one we voted for.

We liked him. We wish he show up.

[ChromeFoundry]

6. K&R n/t