Bravo!

From the big, little man -- Robert Reich;

”It is not that America is out of ideas. We know what to do. We need massive public spending on jobs (infrastructure, schools, parks, a new WPA) along with measures to widen the circle of prosperity so more Americans can share in the gains of growth (exempting the first $20K of income from payroll taxes and applying the payroll tax to incomes over $250K, for example).

The problem is lack of political will to do it. The naysayers, deficit hawks, government-haters and Social Darwinists who don’t have a clue what to do would rather do nothing. We are paralyzed.”

That needed to be said. The harsh words he has for President Obama need to be said too. The President needs to do his job. He needs to use the bully pulpit and lead. There is no other choice. The Senate won’t do it. The House won’t. And make no mistake, the House could. But it won’t.

The Republicans don’t even have a leader. McConnell? Boehner? They can say “Free Market” and “tax cut”. That’s the extent of their ideas. We can do nothing except bail out the big boys and we’ll stagnate for 10 years. We can cut taxes and the rich will get richer while a generation is lost to the soul-damaging effects of unemployment. We can tread water and pray we don’t wind up in another World War. Or we can act. We can lead. The greatest, richest and most powerful country the world has ever known can gather itself, put its people back to work and lead the world out of this calamity.

Yes, we may fail. Yes, we will have to pay taxes. But we can do it. And we can afford it.

”If there was ever a time for bold government action it is precisely now. Obama should be storming the country, demanding the largest responses to the jobs emergency in history. He and the Dems should be giving Republicans hell for their indifference to all this.”

The rest of Robert Reich’s words need to be said too. Enjoy the read.

The Great Jobs Depression Worsens, and the Choice Ahead Grows Starker

Don Brown
September 3, 2010