I thought the speech was very good, and I also thought the President demonstrated great passion as well as great exasperation that he has so little support to do the things for this country that MUST be done.
Here are the highlights courtesy of The Monitor:
Nearly $250 billion in tax relief for individuals and businesses through tax credits and a variety of tax cuts.
140 billion to upgrade roads, bridges and schools.
35 billion to help keep teachers, police and firefighters on the job.
Extending and expanding a payroll tax cut that would save the typical American family $1,500 in taxes in 2012.
A payroll tax "holiday" for employers on any new hires or wages. All companies would be eligible for the break, which would apply to up to $50 million in new payroll spending.
Cut the payroll tax in half for businesses with payrolls of less than $5 million.
The President bent over backwards to find programs and tax cuts that the Republicans should NOT be able to vote against. But sadly for the American people that will only work if the Republicans are not actually willing to let this country crumble into disrepair for short term political gain. I have to say that I do not have much confidence that such an obvious act of treason is not exactly what the Republicans have decided to do.
Thank you, Mr. President!
ReplyDeleteWhere is Sarah Palin's unhinged tweet or Facebook rant? Sarah, you and your ghostwriters are slipping.
ReplyDeleteObama 2012!
Give them hell Mr. President!
ReplyDeleteWe the people, must remember that despite the Koch $$$$$, WE have the power to vote those Bastards out! We have seen what they do when in power and it is not for us. We have to educate, be aware of all the new restrictions to suppress the vote by the GOP and beat them at their game.
It is sad to see how in order to defeat our President, they trampled on those in need.
Our President has been the best representive of our country in a long time, and this has scared the hell out of them, as they have no one like him, so they try to beat him down. We the people will not let them succeed!
Last night showed, why the GOP keep searching for their own Obama.
but I have a job. No one gave me a job. I don't think it's the governments job to find people jobs. There is work out there. Everyone I know who wants to work, is working.
ReplyDeleteI read Yahoo Financial's synopsis and analysis of President Obama's proposal. They said it is structured in such a way that any 'reasonable' Republican, ostensibly working for the welfare of the American people, would never dare vote against or fillibuster this plan, lest they risk certain ridicule and tossing from their position in the next election. Teabaggers beware!
ReplyDeleteIt's very crafty in a chess game sort of way, if you read the details. I give kudos to President Obama, and I say that as a registered Republican of 45+ years. (However, I'm soon to escape the cult.)
For years I've thought - and I'm ready for some flak on this one - that we should go full bore like FDR did and start up a WPA program, and damn the cost. Mr. Obama's plan includes this, even if at a less robust level than FDR's - that's OK. If a newly employed worker is tasked to build a hiking trail in a local state park, at least that is a respectable job. A job = money = spending = more jobs for the manufacturers, builders, and retail workers = taxes paid = no net drain on the govenment coffers.
Thank you Gryphen. I appreciate that you keep us up to date on issues about our country, and that your blog is not necessarily always about the evil Ms. Palin-Heath. She's burnt toast now, soon to be reduced to crumbs.
"...the President bent over backwards..."
ReplyDeleteI SO wish he'd stop doing that.
I voted for him because I thought he'd be a wonderful progressive leader. And I still believe he could be... but only if John Boehner would let him.
The president asked that we let our representatives know that we want action on jobs now.
ReplyDeleteCall today and better yet, call and remind a friend to call too.
Perhaps the American public will finally start to realize who their friends REALLY are?? Love that he basically threw this bill in the GOP/TP's faces!
ReplyDeleteAnd..
Anon @ 3:43am--Really? Then how come I know at least four people (good, hard working, talented people) who haven't been able to find a job--any job--in at least three years? And one who had to move 1800 miles away from her husband to get a low-paying job in her field? Ever heard of outsourcing? And don't mention Mickey D's, or anything like a minimum wage job--there's a handy employer's excuse called "being overqualified." Get it?
I thought it was an awesome speech. Your last paragraph is right on, though, Gryphen.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 3:43
ReplyDeleteYou are a liar, and a transparent liar at that.
Anon @ 3:43, I know plenty of people who are out of work and looking for jobs - plenty. Far too many. Some of them people who worked for corporations, who were laid off several years ago. You should count yourself blessed.
ReplyDeleteOur President was not proposing government jobs - aside from some infrastructure jobs, for projects which sorely need attending to (unless you want to drive over a bridge and have it collapse). He was mostly proposing initiatives which will benefit both small and larger business so they will hire.
What's so sad is that Tea Party people seem so slow to COMPREHEND the basic economic facts. They don't understand the simplest of concepts, or else they outright are lying and just pretending to be confused because they don't want President Obama to be successful at anything. Your comment demonstrates; an inability or an unwillingness to acknowledge the truths in front of us.
Btw, people in the military work for the government. You don't think they rely on their jobs?
I love President Obama. This man is a fighter, with the smarts to back it up.
ReplyDelete3:43 am. It's very nice that you have a job. But, remember, that having a job today does not mean that you will have one in a month or in six months. Didn't your mother ever say to you, "there but for the grace of God go I." Everyone is just one call into the employer's office from losing a job, just as we are all just a heartbeat away from not having any more heartbeats. Some empathy would do you good this morning.
ReplyDelete3:43..just where do you get your screwed up information?
ReplyDeleteIf enough Americans demand the Republicans pass this bill, they damn sure will, and soon. But it depends on loud and insistent public pressure, so everyone do your part here, please. And keep calling it "The American Jobs Act" not "Obama's jobs plan" as the media is already lazily trying to label it. The former is much more powerful language.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to write to my Republican representatives in Congress today. This is a good bill. Here are the key points that everyone should familiarize themselves with: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/jobs_act.pdf
Anonymous 3;43 am said..."but I have a job. No one gave me a job. I don't think it's the governments job to find people jobs. There is work out there. Everyone I know who wants to work, is working."
ReplyDeleteYou've got yours, so the hell with anyone else, eh? Ayn Rand would be proud. By the way, the American Jobs Act includes an extension in unemployment insurance benefits, something you should be damn glad about. Unless you want to unleash 10 million unemployed people who will offer to do your's and other other people's jobs for half of what you're getting paid now.
Don't you just love these people who have jobs and whose friends have jobs, deciding that those who don't have jobs are slackers, living large off of unemployment and food stamps. What a great life the unemployed have! Not. I know many well-educated, under-educated, and over-educated people who are looking for work and they are all doing everything in their power to get a job. Some, who consider themselves lucky to even have a job are working jobs that my generation used to take to pay their way through college. Now these jobs are being taken by people who are trying to keep their houses and their families together.
ReplyDeleteIf the Republicans really cared about the people of this country, they would embrace Obama's plan and pass it as quickly as possible. But they won't. Those that stand in the way should be run out of office in 2012.
The one thing the people have left is the power of their vote. We must organize and commit ourselves to end this madness.
Not to pile it on, but 3:43's comment shows the ignorance that the propaganda of the Tea Party have perpetuated.
ReplyDeleteThe arrogance and lack of compassion are what asounds me. These are the people who go berserk when their job is axed, then file for GOVERNMENT unemployment benefits, food stamps and free cheese.
Have you ever seen a homeless person? Has if ever occurred to you that you could be one paycheck, one catastrophic illness, one company relocation overseas away from joining that person?
_________
Yes, the President owned the GOP in this speech, this is the President I wanted to see last night, this is the President at his best.
Why didn't he do this from day one? He had the senate and the house working hard with him, not the obsturuction, delay, deny, racist, hate filled Bagger infested GOP led and controlled House?
Keep up the good work, President Obama. Your second term will go much more smoothly, and you will be voted in a Second term.
Crystal Sage: "If the Republicans really cared about the people of this country, they would embrace Obama's plan and pass it as quickly as possible."
ReplyDeleteOne correction. If the Republicans really cared about the people of this country they would embrace THE AMERICAN JOBS ACT and pass it as quickly as possible.
Trust me, we need to keep referring to it this way. Messaging is so important to get this Act passed. If we keep referring to as "Obama's jobs plan" it doesn't put any responsibility on the obstructionist Republicans to pass it. The public can be more accepting - or at least more expectant - of Republicans to reject something "from Obama." But if we keep making them criticize something called the "American Jobs Act," well, that is something very different.
Thank you, Crystal Sage. I have relatives who had the gall to say "What recession?" They are getting free investing help (and subsidy) from an investment banker brother, even though they are a 1)civil servant and 2) a secretary. It's bs. They are in the top 2% simply through family.
ReplyDeleteThere are many people hurting out there, through no fault of their own. Underemployment is a huge issue, as well.
I am so proud of the Obama team for painting these assholes into a corner.
ReplyDeleteJust let them stand in the way of this Jobs Act. They will be screwed in 2012.
3:43 AM Well lahdeefuckingdah to you anon. Out here in the country, fly over country, most people who want jobs can't find them, can't sell their homes to move to them, and would love a little help to get on their feet again. Some states are worse off than others and having a job program where we the people help build our infrastructure would be a godsend to many households.
ReplyDeleteI love our prez. My husband keeps saying Obama is the best poker player he has ever seen.
ReplyDeletePat Padrnos
3:43AM
ReplyDeletebut I have a job. No one gave me a job. I don't think it's the governments job to find people jobs. There is work out there. Everyone I know who wants to work, is working.
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You're a liar or you don't know many people. If you have a job then someone gave you a job you damn moron. Unless you're Sarah the Grifter.
I stand corrected. You are so correct, Anon @7:00 A.M. Unfortunately. we are in a place where anything with the name Obama attached to it, is automatically dismissed or derided by certain closed-minded people. Just like they have taken the HCR Act and call it "Obamacare," they (meaning the Republicans and their albatross, The Tea Party) want to give people the message that health care reform is wrong and a failure.
ReplyDeletePass the THE AMERICAN JOBS ACT
Can someone please tell me how someone as stupid as Rand Paul got elected? The damn fool just released a video response to the American Jobs Act where he reads off a teleprompter a speech lecturing President Obama to turn off his teleprompter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j80sRzMVj0
ReplyDelete3:43 am: "There is work out there. Everyone I know who wants to work, is working."
ReplyDeleteFor the sake of your country, please familiarize yourself with the unemployment crisis here. Did you know, for example, that 877,000 veterans are unemployed? That is how bad this situation is. Unless you believe that 877,000 people who have the fortitude to be in the military suddenly got lazy and uninterested in working once they became private civilians again.
Pat, your husband is 1000% correct.
ReplyDeleteGreat comment.
President Obama wants to help pay for the jobs bill by cutting Medicare and Social Security. I could have seen that coming from a mile away. Anyone can become ill or injured and need Social Security even when young. Medicare is already unusable in rural Alaska and I suspect they are going to dramatically increase the premiums and co-pays. It is sad we could not have had a strong jobs bill a long time ago. It is sad this one had to be tailored to the thinking of right wing wackjobs rather than just the thinking of intelligent economists. Again we had to settle for mediocre because we can't get the right to care one iota about the people of this country. Will they now hold even this bill hostage?
ReplyDeleteEveryone needs to contact their Senators and Reps to support this bill. We face a very real threat of a double dip recession. Murkowski issued a completely ridiculous response. I will only address one part of it.
ReplyDeleteShe stated "President Obama spent a lot of time sharing his plan with the country, but there was one thing you didn’t hear: the word ‘stimulus.’ Although the plan we heard tonight sounds a lot like a replay of his 2009 stimulus bill, even the President has now come to realize what Americans have known for some time, it simply didn’t work. $800 billion in federal spending got us where we are today – 9.1% unemployment, stagnant economic growth and a $15 trillion national debt. So while he avoids the word, he’s reheating the same failed ideas."
Funny, I thought what got us here was the deregulation of the financial industry that lead to the housing bubble and its inevitable collapse; unpaid for spending by the Bush administration on tax cuts for the rich and two wars; and most likely a stimulus bill that wasn't large enough to do anything except stave off the economy from becoming any worse. I'm pretty sure that Gryphen in an early post had some very interesting graphs that trash Murky's arguments. I am about to email them to her. I can't wait to get her asinine canned response.
Anon at 3:43 am...
ReplyDeleteFUCK YOU.
I mean, seriously.
Lots of people are unemployed right now, who would jump at the chance to work for an honest living.
You are better than NO ONE.
Asshole.
He always s has talked big and talked purdy.
ReplyDeleteQuestion is, will he fight or cave or do both, like he did on the debt ceiling.
Or has he finally figured out what the rest of us figured out about the Republicans back when Nixon was in office?
Or is he just campaigning for the WH and building the same house of cards he did last time?
Because if it is the 1st or 3rd alternative, whether he wins the WH again or not this country will never recover because average citizens will have no wealth and no power remaining to be able to regain control of this country's various layers of government.
He has willfully painted himself into a corner, and even if he is man enough to work his way our of it, why allow the situation to go that far in the first place, with what it has cost America and Americans in international reputation, human lives and suffering at home and abroad?
The Emperor has no clothes!
ReplyDeleteThe previous administration spent without regard for the national debt. This administration has spent more in less than half the term.
Throwing Billions in all directions under the guise of resolving a problem perpetuated by another failing set of policies will only accomplish one thing.
MORE debt!
Thank you for keeping the fires burning while blaming everyone else for your epic FAIL!