A Jobs Bill is Coming

If you are reading this consider yourself invited to join the Delaware State Education Association at the annual Labor Day Parade in Wilmington, Delaware. We will line up at 9:30Am at 15th and King Streets. Give an hour to Labor since they gave you the whole weekend!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
President Obama will be unveiling a new jobs program in a few days. One interesting distraction has been the setting of the date to address Congress. The Republican House rejected the first offered date and suggested another...well you can hear about it in the news. The only reason I say "interesting" is that I have never seen such crude disrespect for the office of the Presidency than I have since Obama took office. Remember Congressman Joe Wilson's "You lie!" during the State of the State? Or John Boehner's not returning the President's phone calls? There have been other incidents as well. The point is civility appears to be gone. It's like the meaner cousins of the Beverly Hillbillies have come to Congress.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let us all hope that Obama's jobs plan will be worth the wait when the House does finally let him speak. Playing catch up is always difficult, but that's what he needs to do. When Obama's first stimulus, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, was before the people he should have stated something along these lines:
My predecessor attempted to help this economy with a massive initiative in trickle down economics when he bailed out the banks. This Administration is not going to do that. We are going to put money at the grassroots level to stimulate the economy and in the process of putting people back to work we will improve our education system, repair crumbling infrastructure, and move the nation forward in alternative energy and green economy. With all that said, I must warn you: This is a deep recession. Just like the Administration of FDR, we may have to come back again, and maybe again, with more stimulus until the citizens in this country are back on their economic feet. I will never apologize for investment that puts us back to work and strengthens us for the future.

Unfortunately nothing like the above was said during the first stimulus fight. So, instead of creating jobs with federal spending, we've been on a mission to cut federal spending. We didn't think of taking on this job when we gave $1 Trillion in tax cuts to the wealthy, when we took on two wars costing billions of dollars every month, or even when we gave billions to extremely profitable oil companies. No, we decided to cut spending in the middle of a deep recession. FDR must be rolling in his grave.

How the President now changes the debate from 'kill government and shrink its head', to 'government is the only entity that can get money moving again in the economy so lets rebuild and build anew', I don't know. However, he is a great communicator. Moreover he's going in the right direction and there is a power that comes from doing the right thing.