In These Times: "the jobless have good reason to feel that the White House simply abandoned them"

[Better Believe It]

Published on Wednesday, August 3, 2011 by In These Times
Worry of Double-Dip Recession and Jobs Crisis Lost in Debt-Ceiling Coverage
by Roger Bybee

.... it’s no joke to imagine the likelihood of America going through a double-dip recession, considering that the recovery from the recent Great Recession has been the weakest of any since 1945, as Working In These Times contributer Jack Rasmus writes in Z Magazine. In fact, the recovery has been largely invisible for the bottom 90% of Americans.

Despite an estimated 2 million jobless Americans who have exhausted their unemployment benefits and many more approaching the end of their economic lifeline, the fate of the jobless in the debt-ceiling fight was almost entirely omitted. Laura Clawson of Daily Kos provided this update on August 1:

White House officials confirmed that there would not be an extension of unemployment benefits as part of the final package. The administration had insisted that an extension be part of the grand bargain it was negotiating with Boehner. But when those discussions fell apart, so too did efforts to ensure that unemployment insurance was part of a final package. A senior administration aide added that the president would push for an extension in the months, if not weeks, ahead.

With a double-dip recession increasingly likely, the jobless have good reason to feel that the White House simply abandoned them for a fight on much less favorable terrain sometime in the easily-deferred future.

Read the full article at:

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/11772/worry_of_double-dip_jobs_crisis_lost_in_debt-ceiling_coverage/

[woo me with science]

1. He will make more of an effort to appear laser focused on jobs

as soon as the campaign season gets going.

[Better Believe It]

3. But he won't present a clear plan to create millions of jobs. Just election rhetoric.

[MichiganVote]

2. To say nothing of the worthless Congress--where is the accountability