“I understand some in the Obama administration thought it was important for voters to see him as being “serious” about the federal debt by playing to the Republicans’ deficit hysteria rhetoric”

hey, it’s much more important to APPEAR serious, especially about a bogus issue, than it is to BE serious about real issues. /s

not just obama. too many progressives fell for the deficit reduction trap:

… once you concede that deficits are actually bad, you’re boxed in. If you exclude Social Security and Medicare, there is no way to cut deficits seriously (short- or long-term, on unchanged economic assumptions) except by slashing the Pentagon or by raising taxes. If you had to do something, I agree, those would be better moves. But good luck. It’s not a political battle one can win.

Hey, the only jobs that count are the ones held by the oligarchs, dontcha know?

Triangulated right into a corner.

Eric Cantor doesn’t give a rat’s ass:
Eric Cantor Dismisses Report That GOP Plan Would Cause Job Loss

In his weekly Capitol briefing with reporters, Cantor acknowledged that the Republican stopgap budget bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, might increase unemployment. But he argued that the government should not be creating jobs if that means creating greater deficits.

“What kind of jobs is he talking about? Is he talking about government jobs? If so, why is the government hiring people it can’t afford to pay?” Cantor asked. “This is obviously an unsustainable solution and something we’re trying to correct in our CR.”

I’m sure Obama will think of a way to wimp out. Maybe he can accept the Repubs’ 700K job loss, and then hit the campaign trail insisting that things would have been worse if he hadn’t shown his “bipartisanship.” Really. The guy is useless.

This story ties with the last one. Walker says pass the bill, or 6000 WI jobs get cut.

we aren’t having a debate between cuts and pro-jobs legislation

Not any discussion of taxes, wars and spending.

What Walker is not saying is with or without the bill 6,000 jobs get cut.

Time to roll back his tax cut.

Being serious about the economy does not mean seriously considering “deficits” as the principal problem we face. Apart from being wrong, it’s a Republican meme no Democratic president can win on. Duh. It’s also wrong in that Obama is focusing exclusively on cuts; like a Republican governor, he’s ignoring opportunities to increase revenue from corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

Utilizing the graphics reprinted on this site alone, paired with his gift for gab, he could use such moves to win hands down. Hell, as James K. Galbraith said in the remarks posted by Selise, even credibly attempting such policies would be moral, necessary, responsible and electorally successful.

Mr. Obama, however, has no fire in his belly, no will to fight, except against his own supporters. He and Bill Daley should consider removing their Democratic lapel pins; they’re false advertising.

Raise taxes, good idea.

The Senate Dems are calling their full concession on a 2 week CR a victory, so how many jobs will be lost to the Obama plan?

Worse than.

How is it possible that the dems would agree to job cuts and tax cuts for the rich at the same time?

hey boener! where da jobs?????

Our government is so dysfunctional, corrupt and mismanaged and now, after being taken over by the corporations, is being dismantled.
We cannot have a functioning society or nation without a strong central government which adheres to the laws of the land and we ain’t got it anymore.
If these cuts go through we will have roving gangs in the streets and it will be everyone for themselves.
But, hey! Thanks for those tax cuts, Mr Obama, republicans, democrats

That December day when I saw a present and former Democratic president go on national TV and sing the praises of continuing the Bush tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, it became obvious to me that we no longer have a two party system. We have an establishment party. It doesn’t make a helluva lot of difference who is sitting in the White House.

It was mentioned in yesterday’s book forum, the people want ‘jobs, jobs, jobs.’ But the political class talks ‘deficit, deficit, deficit.’ No need to rehash why that is so. However, with weak consumer demand, the only real player is the government.

Fiscal austerity makes sense at a superficial level (‘we must live within our means’), but in the current circumstances, it adds gasoline to the fire. It will make things worse. And not surprisingly, the current Administration seems to go along with this view.

People care about jobs and the economy, not deficits and the ‘shared pain’ of austerity offered by corportist whores, uh sorry, I mean, politicians.

I suspect it all comes back to Citizens United.

With the ideological dominance of the GOP on the Supreme Court, the outcome of Citizens United was known long before Roberts made it official. With there being no limit on what rich people and corporations can spend, the only way Obama thinks he has a prayer is if he finds a big corporate interest or two and sells out to them, hoping to have enough money to beat back Romney or Huckabee.

The cure, at least at the state level? http://www.publicampaign.org

Everything that could have saved our economy and started turning it around either wasn’t done or was done so cynically that it didn’t work and now, here we are, looking straight down the barrel of a great Depression on steroids.
And the gov and everyone involved know exactly what they’re doing. Welcome to the land of the Koch and the home of the fleeced.

but the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs is going to be far more destructive to his re-election prospects than opinions about relative deficit seriousness

indeed! obama and his handlers screwed the pooch on this one – bye, bye 2012.

The same people who own Obama will own his Republican opponent. Life will only get more difficult for working Americans until the system that oppresses them collapses from its own excesses and overreach. This could happen sooner if Americans could somehow unite and give it a good push.

Where have I heard that 700,000-lost-jobs figure before?

Oh, right, after the Bush/Cheney administration and runamok Wall Street gamblers almost crashed the U.S. and world economies in late 2008, by the time President Obama was sworn-in as president in January 2009, the U.S. was losing 700,000 jobs a month, with unemployment skyrocketing…and all due to crappy and often criminal conservative Republican economic policies that almost sank America into another Great Depression.

Are the Republicans this insane?

Just look at all the crappy Republican economic policies that keep costing Americans jobs. Whether it’s House Republicans calling for draconian cuts in federal spending (which will cost jobs across America), or Republican governors turning down federal funding for much-needed infrastructure projects (similarly costing Americans jobs), or the right-wing nutjobs running the U.S. Chamber of Commerce across the street from the White House, all Republican economic policies appear geared to destroy American jobs, and doing absolutely nothing to create American jobs.

And the answer to the question above: yes, the Republicans ARE this insane, because every indication is that Republicans hate America and especially hate American workers.

Forget the fucking Republicans. It’s what the damn Dems do (and don’t do) that is the real crime.

The LA Times is reporting that he wants a compromise with them on the budget. He hasn’t learned anything from all the other times he’s tried the ‘bipartisan compromise’ routine.

We need to primary his ass.

Are the Republicans this insane?

Of course they are! The only objective they have is getting the ‘usurper’ out of the WH and to get the other house that was ‘stolen’ back. Other than that, no plan for the country other than to enrich the Koch’s further.

Government mandates and spending often has a varying impact on taxpayers, as well as unintended consequences such as influencing unemployment and the housing market. Additional consumer credit analysis and Moody’s Analytics’ Mark Zandi commentary is available at:
http://www.moodysanalytics.com/Products-and-Solutions/Economic-Consumer-Credit-Analytics/Economic-Research/Global-Macro-Dismal-Scientist.aspx

Oh, you’re so nasty…hehehe…now you’re getting me all excited…stop it!