The summit is being held on the eve of the Labor Department’s report on November unemployment, which is expected to show another jump in the official jobless rate. Earlier this week, the business consulting firm ADP released a survey of employers showing that another 169,000 jobs were lost in November, making it the 23rd consecutive month in which payrolls declined, the longest stretch since the Great Depression.
Economists predict double-digit unemployment will last throughout 2010 and possibly for years thereafter. In the face of this disaster, Obama has repeated his mantra that employment is a “lagging indicator” of an otherwise “recovering” economy. He has made it clear that he will take no measures, such as a government public works program, which would increase the federal deficit. Instead, job creation must be entirely subordinated to the capitalist market and the profitability US corporations and investors.
Apart from extending UI, the federal government has done very little about the situation.
Democrats are supposed to be better about the economy, but so far they haven't done a hell of a lot.
The message Obama is giving to millions of now-unemployed workers who had supported him for president is this: No federal jobs programs for you, suckers:
But Obama's options are limited, as the administration already has signaled that it is unwilling to make any investments that would add significantly to the nation's ballooning deficit.
At least the USCC is being kept out of this summit.
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