Today New York Times reporter Helene Cooper (8/10/11) surveys the bad economic situation and asks of Barack Obama:
Is he willing to try to administer the disagreeable medicine that could help the economy mend over the long term, even if that means damaging his chances for re-election?
What’s that mean, exactly? The first person she quotes is former Clinton official (more recently, former managing director of Kissinger Associates) David Rothkopf, and he’s talking about cutting so-called “entitlements”:
Mr. Obama, Mr. Rothkopf argues, has to focus in the next 18 months on getting the economy back on track for the long haul, even if that means pushing for politically unpalatable budget cuts, including real–but hugely unpopular–reductions in Social Security, other entitlement programs and the military.
From a different partisan point of view, Cooper finds the same medicine:
A longtime Republican strategist echoed Mr. Rothkopf. Charlie Black, a senior adviser to Sen. John McCain when he ran for president, said Mr. Obama “has got two big problems”–the unemployment rate and the budget deficit.
“Frankly, there’s not a whole lot he can do about jobs now,” Mr. Black said. “But it would help if we got the deficit under control, and to do that, you’ve got to reform entitlements.”
Cooper notes that some Democrats aren’t crazy about Obama’s policies so far (she doesn’t get into details), but that White House officials think Obama deserves credit for
not shying from politically unpalatable choices, demonstrating his willingness during the debt ceiling negotiations to make cuts in entitlements and programs dear to the hearts of Democrats.
That’s the corporate media’s economic advice in a nutshell: You can’t do much about jobs, but cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits is always the right “medicine.”
Update: The New York Times piece had a correction appended to it on Wednesday:
A news analysis article on Wednesday about President Obama’s handling of the economy paraphrased incompletely from comments by David Rothkopf, a former Clinton administration Commerce Department official, about steps that Mr. Obama should take to fix the economy and budget deficit. While Mr. Rothkopf called for the president to push for politically unpalatable budget cuts to entitlement programs and the military, he also said the president should do so in the context of a “grand bargain” in which the cuts would come in exchange for significant job-creating stimulus and increased tax revenues.
Check out the correction appended to this article. Apparently David Rothkopf thought he was misrepresented as too pro-austerity.
That’s ANATHEMA poison!
By omitting Rothkopf’s position supporting economic stimulus and increased tax revenues as part of a grand bargain with cuts in entitlement and military spending, Helene Cooper did a great disservice. I was disturbed by the original article because it disparaged the need for foreceful action to destroy lost jobs, and strengthened the hand of “do nothing” Republicans on this issue. The Times needs to do more than just publishing a correction which hardly anybody reads.
Correction: my comment should read “the need for forceful action to restore lost jobs”, rather than “destroy lost jobs”.
First there is really no such thing as job creating stimulus.Government does not create jobs.Even Geithner admitted as much last week.Did the last stimulus expenditures not show us this?hovel ready jobs my ass.The only way to create jobs is to get out of job creations way.That is the one thing government can do.If we do this and the economy explodes we will be able to afford a lot more largesse.Raising taxes creates nothing.It at best supports the status quo, and at worse it is a simple reshuffling of our nations wealth with all the government incompetence that entails.If Obama can not grow the economy(and he can’t)than he most assuredly will have to make painful cuts AND fight to raise taxes.He is the quintessential tax n spend Dem.He knows little else.The idea that a GROWTH in our economy will help all our problems is foreign to him .He sees America as smaller and less ,instead of bigger and better.And what is sickening is he has imparted that belief to a huge number of Americans in only 3 short years.it has become embedded.
Also the above article would have you believe that he will have to cut Social security.I thought according to you all it is self funded and doing great,instead of the ponzi scheme we all know it is.He will cut the military whenever he needs the cash,count on it.He will raise taxes anywhere and everywhere he is allowed.For now the Republicans are guarding the cookie jar.November 2012 can’t come quick enough.
Mr E –
This obsession with Barack Obama is well past unseemly, there is something pathological going on. If in fact you read all the comments posted then you should know good and well that not all liberals, sorry, ‘libs’ are empty-headed, idol worshipping Obama followers. They have been very clear about their reactions to and thoughts about his performance. This is not where his fan club meets.
Your single-minded focus on Mr Obama as the author of all that is wrong suggests that you imagine that all that needs done to fix everything is to put someone else in his place. But that will fix exactly nothing. It is not possible for Mr Obama or anyone who would take his place to do anything that would benefit the common good. The common good is ‘off the table,’ has been for many years. Your vote is your choice of how you, or at least the rest of us, will be screwed: hard and fast against the wall, or prefaced with cheap flattery and soothing lies. Equality of opportunity, institutional integrity and representative government are past tense in this country. And the fact that your friends and neighbors are rich saints in your estimation counts for nothing in this discussion. Personal anecdote does not an argument make.
But it also appears to be of some personal importance to you that ‘libs’ not only revile Mr Obama, but for the same reasons you do. Even if you get that there is substantial disappointment in Mr Obama’s presidency, I dont think it occurs to you that that fact will not necessarily turn a liberal into a right-winger, or a democrat into a tea person.
But you still have a sense of humor; ‘the republicans are guarding the cookie jar.’
That’s a good one
For fifty years I had paid into an insurance-retirement program called Social Security and a health insurance program called Medicare. Republicans and Rothkoph are advocating stealing. We paid into the program every paycheck and now they want to take that.
While Obama has abandon the people who elected him, in part because most of us consider the Republican candidates religious “wackos” or pandering to radical Christianity so will vote again for him, it does not take away from what is robbery.
Rm
First you are right…..The republicans are guarding the cookie jar is ludicrous.I should of said the Tea party faction (small as it may be) that has become embedded into the republican party is.
You are wrong about Obama in the sense of downplaying his effect upon this country.The president holds huge power.And this president has undertaken certain things(health care for instance)that will fundamentally change this country for the worse.He came in promising to “change” and remake this country.He means to do it.He has never faltered in striving for that.He is like a wrecking ball upon the American economy.I could care less the level of buyers remorse on the left.Your woe is me the common good is off the table -is the hospice care of the left.We on the right are gonna aim for a reinvigoration and full blooded transfusion away from this terminal sickness the left is diseased with.What is needed is a laser like attention to ALL his(Obamas) moves.And that means constant vigilance.You say those on the left can’t see the truth of who this man is….. if it comes from someone on the right that is. Nonsense People are not sheeple.Wow talk about partisanship.I myself worked for Clinton and Nader and am a recovering Dem.At some point smart people will realize they have been had.
Look if Romni and Perry take the helm and everything starts arching skyward ,and jobs come roaring back along with everything else,you will have your left faction that will try to bend it into a negative.Most people (even Dems)will breath a sigh of relief.I think that is where we are heading.Of course everything….everything is based on getting rid of this horrible horrible leadership.By the way….Hilary would of been a far better choice.I dont like her …but there it is.