"President Obama On 60 Minutes: Recovery ‘Will Likely Take More Than One President’" (with video)

MEDIAite with videos:

President Barack Obama recently sat down with 60 Minutes reporter Steve Kroft for what was a significant and full-throated defense of what his administration has accomplished in the almost three years he has lived in the White House. Obama pushed back on detractor’s suggestions that he has somehow both been obstinate in legislative negotiations and continually capitulated to the House GOP. He also remarked that when it comes to his potential opponent, ‘it doesn’t really matter’ who Republicans nominate. MORE...

"President Obama Discusses Economy in Kansas" (with video)

C-SPAN, with video (01:02:48):

Pres. Obama travels to Osawatomie, Kansas to deliver remarks on the economy where he invoked Theodore Roosevelt's populism and challenged Republican belief in trickle-down economics.

That’s a theory that speaks to our individualism, Obama said, "but here’s the problem, it doesn’t work. It has never worked."

He highlighted the 99% protests and agreed with the premise of the demonstrators: the richest 1% are obtaining more wealth than the rest of the American population.

"This kind of inequality – a level we haven’t seen since the Great Depression – hurts us all. When middle-class families can no longer afford to buy the goods and services that businesses are selling, it drags down the entire economy, from top to bottom," he said.

The President promoted his economic priorities, including the extension and expansion of a payroll tax cut, which Congress has rejected.

Speaking to an enthusiastic audience, Obama said a strong economy starts with education, which he declared a "national mission."

The speech was billed as a "make-or-break moment for the middle class and all those working to join it," according to the White House. "We shall go up or down together," he said.

Howie P.S.: Now we have to pay attention and watch how this message plays out. Chris in Paris (AMERICAblog) gives voice to some skepticism on this front. Politico offers "Barack Obama channels Teddy Roosevelt." More skepticism about "President Obama's Latest Big Damn Speech About the Economy" from The Rude One. Chris in Paris (AMERICAblog) posts again: "Prosecuting Wall Street not possible, but prosecuting food stamp fraud is."

"A Thanksgiving Reflection: Looking Beyond Election Day"

Robert Reich:

Most political analysis of America’s awful economy focuses on whether it will doom President Obama’s reelection or cause Congress to turn toward one party or the other. These are important questions, but we should really be looking at the deeper problems with which whoever wins in 2012 will have to deal.

Not to depress you, but our economic troubles are likely to continue for many years — a decade or more. At the current rate of job growth (averaging 90,000 new jobs per month over the last six months), 14 million Americans will remain permanently unemployed. The consensus estimate is that at least 90,000 new jobs are needed just to keep up with the growth of the labor force. Even if we get back to a normal rate of 200,000 new jobs per month, unemployment will stay high for at least ten years. Years of high unemployment will likely result in a vicious cycle, as relatively lower spending by the middle-class further slows job growth. MORE...

"50% of All Workers Made Less than $26,000 in 2010" (with chart)

Derek Thompson (The Atlantic):

Today we get our first look at American wages in 2010 based on payroll taxes reported to the Social Security Administration. David Cay Johnston picks out the most important takeaways, including:

1) Half of all workers made less than $26,364, the median wage in 2010. That means the typical wage is at its lowest level since 1999, after adjusting for inflation. MORE...

Feingold to GE CEO: "...you root for corporations when corporations are making sure your jobs stay here in the United States,” (with video)

RAW STORY with video (03:59) from CBS's The Early Show:

In an interview that aired Sunday, General Electric Chairman and Obama job czar Jeffrey Immelt told CBS’ Leslie Stahl that the notion that Americans were against big companies was “just wrong.”

“I want you to root for me,” Immelt said. “Everybody in Japan roots for Toshiba. Everybody in China roots for China South Rail. I want you to say, ‘Win, G.E.’”

Not only has G.E. shipped thousands of U.S. jobs overseas, the company also reportedly paid no taxes in 2010. Protesters at Occupy Wall Street and across the country are calling for corporations to be taxed at least at the same rate as individuals.

Former Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold (D) responded to Immelt Monday. MORE...

Matt Taibbi on "Obama and Jobs: Why I Don't Believe Him Anymore"

Matt Taibbi:

I was hours early for a flight and stuck in a relatively small terminal crammed with people. Only one area in the whole wing had empty seats; an unused gate that contained a TV blaring the CNN broadcast of Obama's Labor Day speech at full volume.

So it was either sit underneath a full-volume broadcast of our fearless president bellowing out his latest hollow promises, or the hellish alternative: retreat to gates full of screaming five year-old children, all of them jacked up on sugar and bawling their eyes out because it was the end of Labor Day weekend and their cruel parents were dragging them home from Disneyworld. MORE...

"Rep. Maxine Waters: We Need To Spend A Trillion Or More On A Jobs Program" (with video)

Josh Feldman (MEDIAite) with video (01:33) from "Meet the Press":

On Meet the Press today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters called for President Obama to take a more forceful approach to a jobs program, and likely made Republicans drop their jaws with the amount of money she argued the United States should invest in such a plan.

David Gregory asked Waters if it would be possible for the president to take on an ambitious role in working on job creation in Congress, given the recent partisan fights over the debt ceiling. Waters put the impetus on Obama to take the first step.

“The president must be bold. I agree that he must have a jobs program, he must create jobs. I’m talking about a jobs program of a trillion dollars or more. We’ve got to put Americans to work. That’s the only way to revitalize this economy. When people work, they earn money, they spend that money, and that’s what gets the economy up and going.”

Waters insisted any kind of effective jobs plan could not “shrink” to the demands of Republicans or give tax breaks to those in the highest income tax brackets.

Robert Reich: "The Zero Economy"

Robert Reich:

Since this Depression began at the end of 2007, America’s potential labor force – working-age people who want jobs – has grown by over 7 million. But since then the number of Americans with jobs has shrunk by more than 300,000.

If this doesn’t prompt President Obama to unveil a bold jobs plan next Thursday, I don’t know what will. MORE...

"Secretary Of Labor: On Getting Americans Back To Work" (NPR-audio)

Tell me More (NPR), with audio (11:55):

August job numbers are showing a stagnant 9.1 percent unemployment rate. Concern is growing over whether the government could do more to boost job growth. Host Michel Martin speaks with U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis about the administration's efforts to create new jobs and what can be expected from President Obama's jobs plan next week.

"How Washington Could Create Jobs Right Now"

Michael Winship (Truthout-Op-Ed):

"We currently need about 8.2 million more jobs to reduce the nation's unemployment rate to 4.5%. Creating that many jobs in a program like the one described... would require a net increase in federal spending of about $235 billion during the first year... If the Bush-era tax cuts had been allowed to expire at the end of 2010, the federal government would have collected about $295 billion in additional revenue during 2011. This would have been more than enough to cover the cost of the job program." MORE...

"The Wrong Idea: austerity on autopilot"

NY Times (editorial):

Stocks on Wall Street dropped sharply on Thursday, with investors spooked, again, about the euro-zone debt crisis and the sputtering United States economy.

Yet, even at this hour, leaders on both sides of the Atlantic seem determined to handcuff fiscal policies — the main tools that can increase jobs, consumer demand and economic growth — with an unquestioning devotion to rigid austerity. MORE...

"Obama strikes realist tone" (CNN interview)

Abby Phillip (Politico):

President Barack Obama acknowledged Tuesday that he may be a one-term president if voters’ patience with the pace of the economic recovery runs out by next November.

“The mess has been bigger than a lot of people anticipated at the time,” Obama said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer from Peosta, Iowa. “We have made steady progress on these fronts but we’re not making progress fast enough. What I continue to believe is that ultimately the buck stops with me. I’m going to be accountable.”

Throughout the interview, whether asked about the economy or next year’s campaign, the president struck a realist tone — conceding the scale of problems facing the country while insisting his administration is working diligently to fix them.

Obama said that even though Americans understand that the economy’s problems are “decades in the making,” voters are “impatient” to see more progress on the economy.

“I understand that and I’m sympathetic to that,” Obama said. MORE...

"Obama Bus Tour Takes President To Midwest To Talk Jobs, Economy" (with video)

HuffPost Politics, with video (04:49):

Hitting back against an emboldened GOP, President Barack Obama launched a rare direct attack Monday on the Republican presidential field, criticizing his potential 2012 rivals for their blanket opposition to any deficit-cutting compromise involving new taxes.

"That's just not common sense," Obama told the crowd at a town hall-style meeting in Cannon Falls, Minn., as he kicked off a three-day bus tour through Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. MORE...

"White House Debates Fight on Economy"

"President Obama heading to Michigan last week, where he visited a factory and urged voters to turn their anger on Republicans."

Binyamin Appelbaum and Helene Cooper (NY Times):

As the economy worsens, President Obama and his senior aides are considering whether to adopt a more combative approach on economic issues, seeking to highlight substantive differences with Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail rather than continuing to pursue elusive compromises, advisers to the president say.

Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Plouffe, and his chief of staff, William M. Daley, want him to maintain a pragmatic strategy of appealing to independent voters by advocating ideas that can pass Congress, even if they may not have much economic impact. These include free trade agreements and improved patent protections for inventors.

But others, including Gene Sperling, Mr. Obama’s chief economic adviser, say public anger over the debt ceiling debate has weakened Republicans and created an opening for bigger ideas like tax incentives for businesses that hire more workers, according to Congressional Democrats who share that view. Democrats are also pushing the White House to help homeowners facing foreclosure.

Even if the ideas cannot pass Congress, they say, the president would gain a campaign issue by pushing for them. MORE...

Howie P.S.: After 20 articles each month, the paywall goes up.

"Nervous Democrats say President Obama must be bolder on economy" (with video)

Karen Tumulty and Peter Wallsten (WaPo), with video (02:20) from AP:

With President Obama’s reelection on the line, Democrats are increasingly anxious about what they see as his failure to advance a coherent and muscular strategy for addressing the nation’s economic ills.

Growing numbers of Obama’s allies, beyond the liberal activists who have expressed disappointment in the past, contend that he has trimmed his sails too much since the party’s electoral defeats last fall. This sentiment has sharpened in the wake of the negotiations over the debt ceiling, when the president accepted Republican demands for spending cuts without obtaining guarantees of tax revenue increases, which he said were necessary for a “balanced approach.” MORE...

H/t to Greg Sargent.

"Jan Schakowsky Announces New Budget Plan With Focus On Jobs"

Jordan Howard (HuffPo):

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, announced on Wednesday that she will introduce a progressive-minded budget outline aimed at putting more than two million people to work.

Titled the “Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act,” the plan would cost $227 billion and would be implemented over two years. It would be financed by separate legislation introduced by Schakowsky called the "Fairness in Taxation Act," which would raise taxes for Americans who earn more than $1 million and $1 billion. It would also eliminate subsidies for big oil companies while closing loopholes for corporations that send American jobs overseas.

The congresswoman said that her plan would create 2.2 million jobs and decrease the unemployment rate by 1.3 percent. MORE...

"How can the US rebuild its economy?"--- Rachel Maddow on MTP (video)

MSNBC-MTP, video (15:38):

How can the US rebuild its economy? Dr. Alan Greenspan, Austan Goolsbee, Rachel Maddow and Alex Castellanos share their ideas for growth during our economic roundtable.

(Updated) Howard Dean on "Face the Nation" Today (with video)

UPDATE II: CBS News-video (09:32):.

Bob Schieffer spoke with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Gov. Howard Dean (D-Va.) on the bipartisan efforts needed to resolve the issues that lead to Standard and Poor's downgrade of the U.S. credit rating.

UPDATE: Rachel Maddow will be on "Meet the Press" today, which airs in Seattle @ 10am on KONG (16).


CBS News, with video (00:39):

This Sunday's Guests on "Face the Nation" are Obama Campaign Adviser David Axelrod, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Howard Dean, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Months of debate over the crisis created over the debt ceiling have given way to a new cold reality in Washington - the economy. As the government dithered to fix its own mess, the stock market erased all of its gains from 2011, roughly a trillion dollars in value lost in a matter of weeks, capped off by a 513 point drop Thursday.

Howie P.S.: Face the Nation airs live in Seattle @8:30am on KIROTV (7). I have been wondering what Howard Dean has to say about our current situation. I will post video of the show when it becomes available online.

"Katrina vanden Heuvel: Debt Deal Exposes America's Democratic Deficit" (with audio)

The Nation with audio (48:00) from The Diane Rehm Show (NPR):

GDP growth is sluggish, unemployment remains high and poll after poll shows that Americans want job creation, not deficit reduction. Yet today's debt deal shows just how disconnected both parties are from the real economy. Instead of passing a jobs plan, Washington continues to implement budget cuts and austerity measures that will further depress the economy.

On The Diane Rehm Show this morning, The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel discusses the emerging "democratic deficit" separating the political and economic elite from the rest of the country. You can find her latest article on the debt ceiling negotiations here.

Robert Reich: "We’re really in a “jobs and growth” crisis – not a budget crisis."

Robert Reich:

A friend who’s been watching the absurd machinations in Congress asked me “what happens if we don’t solve the budget crisis and we run out of money to pay the nation’s bills?”

It was only then I realized how effective Republicans lies have been. That we’re calling it a “budget crisis” and worrying that if we don’t “solve” it we can’t pay our nation’s bills is testament to how successful Republicans have been distorting the truth. MORE...