Obama Asks for Patience on Economy, Unemployment
The president has said it will take a while for the economy to turn around
President Obama spent his first six months in office arguing that the government needed to move as fast as possible to save the economy. But now, while he still favors aggressive government action, he is increasingly emphasizing the politics of patience as he tries to maintain the support and trust of the American people.
It's unclear whether this will work, because polls show mounting anxiety about Obama's policies. These include his $787 billion stimulus package, which has not had a huge impact so far, and, more broadly, the vast spending that has pushed the federal deficit to the unprecedented level of more than $1 trillion this year.
What seems most unsettling to voters is that unemployment keeps going up. It is now at 9.5 percent, the highest in more than 25 years, and the rate is expected to climb to 10 or 11 percent in the next few months. Obama advisers had predicted that his stimulus package would hold unemployment at or below 8 percent.
This week, Obama's pivot toward patience became more apparent than ever. While urging immediate congressional action on healthcare reform, he admitted there isn't a panacea. "This has been a more severe recession than we've seen since the Great Depression, so how unemployment numbers are going to respond is not yet clear," he told reporters in Washington. "My expectation is that we will probably continue to see unemployment tick up for several months. And the challenge for this administration is to make sure that even as we are stabilizing the financial system, we understand that the most important thing in the economy is: Are people able to find good jobs that pay good wages?"
Speaking last week in Michigan, which is suffering from the nation's highest jobless rate of 15.2 percent, Obama said he inherited such a mess that it will take a long time before the overall economy shows much improvement. He billed himself as an activist and his Republicans critics as do-nothing complainers. "I love these folks who helped get us into this mess and then suddenly say, 'Well, this is Obama's economy,' " the president argued. "That's fine—give it to me. My job is to solve problems, not to stand on the sidelines and carp and gripe."
What has Democrats worried is that the unemployment rate in some key states—including Michigan, Ohio, Florida, and Indiana—is already soaring well over 10 percent, and they fear this is an indication of things to come nationally. Republicans go further, arguing that these states show that Obama's prescriptions are not only failing but are making matters worse.
White House officials have been saying for months that the country is showing surprising patience about the economy. "Americans understand that it took us years to get into this mess, and it will take a while to get us out," says a senior Obama adviser.
But Republican strategists argue that Obama and his team are wrong about the politics of patience and that Americans are much more restless and anxious than Obama thinks. The latest CBS News poll bears this out. Sixty percent of Americans say Obama's stimulus package has made no difference in the economy, 21 percent say it has had a positive impact, and 15 percent say it has made the economy worse. Fifty-seven percent approve of Obama's job performance, down from 63 percent in June and 68 in April. Fifty-seven percent say the country is on the wrong track, up from 50 percent in June, suggesting an uptick in pessimism.
And his critics point out that Obama is also asking for more time to solve other urgent problems. He is urging patience in Afghanistan, where his surge of troops and more aggressive combat operations against terrorists are increasing casualties. He is urging patience in Iran, talking about carefully evaluating the new reform movement there before doing anything dramatic. He is urging patience in dealing with immigration, which he has put on the back burner in Congress because of deep divisions over the issue. He is urging patience in dealing with the tensions and hatreds between Israel and the Palestinians.
Many Republicans agree with Ed Gillespie, a prominent GOP strategist and former White House counselor to President George W. Bush, who says Obama "has got to stop overpromising and underperforming." The White House's fear is that more and more Americans are starting to notice the difference.
- See photos of Obama behind the scenes.
- See photos of Michelle Obama.
- Read Obama's Return to the Race Issue.
Reader Comments
Just wondering
I have been hearing that president Obama is trying to pass a bill to stop income taxes. Is that true? If so when does this plan take affect?
socialized medacine
SOCIALIZED HEALTH CARE 7/30/09
I worked in Manchester England for a short time starting in 1960, I still have
My tonsils and caught a bad sore throat shortly after arriving in England. It
Was necessary to see a doctor at the hospital, emergency room for it.
This part of the story needs your un-divided attention, The emergency room
was set up with about 20 open front booths arranged in a semi-circle at the back
of the room, as we the patients come in we were seated in these booths. When
all the booths had a patient, the nurse left the room and brought the Dr. in and seated him at a half moon shaped desk in the center of the room, with a note pad.
Now he turns to the patient at the end to his right, points to him and asked what’s
Your name?, what’s Your problem?, how long has it been this way?, he then turns to his note pad and writes on the notepad. He then repeats this routine around the room. Neither he nor the nurse approached a patient for any reason. He then gave the nurse the note pad and she gave everyone their prescriptions and we were all done. I don’t want anything to do with this kind of health care.
I met a friend that I bowled with and became good friends with his family, I had
evening tea with them often. One evening while I was visiting, the old program called Dr. Ben Cassey came on T V and after we watched the program and it was
off, I said that’s a good show, isn’t it. I didn’t tell you that my friend’s father was a
medical Doctor, and he jumped to his feet and said to me sternly, don’t refer to that program as a show. This show was playing out in the U S at that time and new to England. Shortly after that I saw the English version of the T V guide and it had a
good write-up featuring the Ben Cassey show. It told how they would intentially mismatch symtoms and diagnose’s, in order to avoid liability, So that viewers wouldn’t self-diagnose their problems. I could’t wait to give my friend the Doctor the book. On my next visit to their home The Doctor was waiting on me at the door and proceeded to bless me out, for giving him the book. He said you don’t know it, but I have learned a lot from that program. Do you hear what I’m telling you he asked? I have to ask you the reader, the same question. Do you hear what I have
told you? These doctors in socialized medicine are poorly trained, and have no incentive to continue their studies and stay up to date. We have the very best doctors in the world. To change that would be like the ford Edsel, not a change for for something better.
James Cunningham ph 704-864-6121
1907 Alpine Lane
Gastonia
Actuallly, there was a precedent to this current disaster
Someone said there was no precedent, but actually, there was; it was The Great Depression, and it was a lot worse (although some us are too young to have actually experienced it, outside of reading about it in the history books).
Please don't state that this current financial crisis was "unprecedented," because the precedent was way worse, to be honest.
That said, stocks are rock bottom, bargain basement cheap! Gen-X and Gen-Y, let's all make the most out of it, and if no one's yet done so, open a Roth IRA and just sit tight knowing that you've got a lot of time on your side to ride this out and watch new growth occur in the future. This is the time to buy cheap and hold for the long term, because things will improve over time.
Just avoid the Bernie Madoff types. Vanguard is the way forward (no load funds).
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