Where did the ‘Jobs President’ go?
by Jim Hightower

The economy is growing, the Dow Jones is soaring, and bankers are profiting — so the Great Recession is over!

Really? Check the latest job numbers:

• 10.2 percent of America's workforce is unemployed — nearly 16 million people.
• Another 15 million of us are unofficially jobless or forced to settle for part-time employment, meaning that the real percentage of Americans who can’t find the work they need is 17.5 percent — one out of every six workers.
• The U.S economy has lost jobs for 22 straight months — the longest streak since 1939.

Well, explain the economic cognoscenti, what we have here is a "jobless recovery." Bovine excrement! Not only is that an oxymoron, it's moronic. If the workaday majority of Americans have not recovered, then neither has our economy.

Fortunately, President Obama is on top of the situation. "We need to pass an economic rescue plan for the middle class," he declared, "and we need to do it not five years from now, not next year, we need to do it right now." Bravo! Exactly right!

Unfortunately, that was Obama speaking last year, when he was a candidate. This year, when he could actually create a jobs program to rescue the middle class, Obama has instead been practicing tinkle down economics, rescuing Wall Street bankers on the fatally flawed theory that they would then invest in new job creation. Not likely — the only job numbers those guys are pumping up are their own, grabbing more than $100 billion in bonuses this year!

Come on, Obama, you said you'd be "the jobs president." Get moving! America needs every home and building weatherized, our entire infrastructure repaired and expanded, a new green energy system installed across the country, and more. Put Americans to work. Lift the middle class — not five years from now, but right now.

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