Obama's speech stirs, some say a bit too much
DURHAM, N.C. — Wilma Dillard took over her family's barbecue restaurant in 1997, after her father's death. But this spring — with her blue-collar customers cutting back, and the banks unwilling to extend the usual credit — she was forced to close the 58-year-old Durham eatery and lay off her dozen employees.
"I could hear my father telling me, 'Wilma, it's time for you to get out of the waters. The water's a little too rough for you right now,'" the 51-year-old former school teacher says. "'Bring it into dock, and maybe it can sail again at a later day.'"
On Thursday, she and millions of other recession-weary Americans sat rapt before their televisions as President Barack Obama told Congress that later isn't soon enough.
"They need help," Obama said in pushing his nearly $450 billion American Jobs Act. "And they need it now."
Dillard took heart; she proclaimed herself "inspired" by Obama's speech, and pleased to see Republicans applauding some of his comments. This economic crisis, she said, "shouldn't be settled at the ballot boxes."
Dillard is an optimist, unlike many others who watched Obama's speech. They hold all sorts of opinions about his proposals, but hovering over it all is skepticism that the ferocious partisanship of recent months can be overcome, and that anything will be done.
Marc Epstein liked what the president was saying. He just didn't care for the WAY he said it. Epstein, owner of Boston-based Milk Street Café, said he would have preferred something less "pugnacious."
Epstein, 53, opened his first "food hall" in Boston in 1981 and employs 65 people there. In June, he used a loan guaranteed by the Small Business Administration to open a second location on Wall Street in New York City, putting 107 more people to work.
He took advantage of the down economy — and an empty space in a prime location — to expand.
"I feel that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, which is create jobs," he said.
He wants to see more of what he was able to benefit from — the public/private partnership between the SBA and his bank. But he's not sure Obama's approach is likely to create the kind of bipartisan feeling that will make that happen. "I don't know if it's going to be dead on arrival," he said of Obama's proposal.
Watching House Speaker John Boehner's body language, Roy Dabbs agreed.
"He's sitting back like, 'Oh, no. I'm not touching this baby,'" said Dabbs, 64, of Elkhart, Ind., who was laid off in January 2010 from his $68,500-a-year job as an operations manager for an Illinois packaging company. "I think they're going to fight it."
Ansha Saunders, of Redwood City, Calif., worried that the speech only served to highlight the divide between Obama and Republicans, big business and the average worker.
Saunders, 35, was laid off in March from a job in accounts receivable for the credit card industry. She's been going to career fairs, hoping to land something that will take advantage of her master's degree in information systems.
"I get the concerns by business owners about closing tax loopholes, because that's how they've been profitable," she said.
"I want to be optimistic that Congress will really not just use this (downturn) to say, 'We want a Republican in next year,' but really look to the benefit the U.S. economy, the people who are out of work, and compromise."
But David J. Tufts thought the president struck just the right tone. When Tufts joined The Marketing Directors in 2007, the Atlanta-based real estate marketing company was in expansion mode. By the end of 2009, the luxury condominium market in "Hotlanta" had cooled.
"Rather than fire people, we got together as a group and said we're going to be all in this together and keep it going," Tufts recalled. "It was a watershed moment for our company, and we were ready for the rebound. Unfortunately, the rebound has yet to come."
There have been few hires in the past two years, and no salary increases. This summer, he gave employees every other Friday off.
He said Obama "came on strong," because he had to.
"He said he's going to take it to the public," Tufts said. "I think he made his case very well that sometimes you have to spend money to make money. ... The logjam needs to be broken."
Others reveled in Obama's tough talk. "My immediate reaction is 'Wow! That's the guy I voted for,'" said Erik Berg, 43, who teaches at the John D. Philbrick Elementary School in Boston's Roslindale neighborhood. "Where's he been for the last 2 1/2 years?"
He particularly liked Obama's dig at members of Congress who've pledged never to vote for a tax hike on the wealthy.
"I don't know how our country has come to a point where we cuddle billionaires and we vilify working people, particularly public sector workers," he said.
Lincoln Newey, of Utah's Salt Lake Valley, said he liked the way Obama "took it to the tea party." Laid off in early 2009 by the limousine company he managed, the 49-year-old MBA with two decades of marketing and communications experience feels lucky to have a part-time job providing financial advice to seniors.
"It's an hourly wage, but it's the best hourly wage I've seen in a while," he said.
The way Newey sees it, nothing short of a "man on the moon" plan that ignores the clamor for reduced federal spending will shake the economy out of the doldrums.
Joe Olivo, though, was not impressed by the president's proposals. The owner of Perfect Printing in Moorestown, N.J., has had a good year so far. Revenue has grown 20 percent, back up to pre-recession levels. But he's still skittish from 2008, when revenue plunged 25 percent in a single month — the worst drop since he opened shop in 1979.
Olivo has 45 employees and could use a few more. But he's wary of reaching that magic payroll of 50, at which point health care reforms would mandate he provide employee health insurance or pay a fee beginning in 2014.
"That is a huge cloud," said Olivo, who has gotten by with temporary workers and has postponed buying new equipment. He said the president's proposals — such as the tax credit for hiring veterans — show he doesn't understand small business.
"They don't have the time or resources to file the paperwork to get those credits," he said. "There was nothing (in the speech) to convince me, 'Start investing again.'"
Back in Durham, Wilma Dillard swung by the restaurant Thursday to check on things, just as she does every few days. She's still paying the utilities, waiting — and hoping.
On a wall in the silent banquet room out back, the nation's first black president stares out from a framed, enlarged copy of an Ebony magazine cover. "IN OUR LIFETIME," the headline declares.
"This country cannot go down the tube — I just don't think it will," she said. "But we've got to come together. We've got to have unity. The parties have to come together and WORK together as one. This hand cannot fight this hand and expect for the body to be whole." -- (AP)
GOP’s vote plan seen as unfair
Some argue agenda to revise state’s Electoral College will undermine Democrats
Many Democrats see the drive to change the way Pennsylvania’s Electoral College votes are counted — a movement that seems to be gathering momentum — as a blatant attempt to block President Barack Obama from winning Pennsylvania in 2012. Republicans tout the plan as a way to give individual voters more power in the voting booth.
“They are determined that he is going to be a one term president,” said state Rep. Ron Waters (D-Philadelphia/Delaware), head of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus. “Many of my colleagues believe that voters gave them a mandate to carry out their agenda — not the voters’ agenda, but their agenda.”
Since 1804, Pennsylvania’s electoral votes have all gone to the candidate who won a popular majority in the state. In 2008 that was Obama.
Now, state Sen. Dominic Pileggi (R-Chester/Delaware) wants to change that.
Pileggi suggested changes to Electoral College rules earlier this week and is expected to introduce legislation that would allocate electoral votes by congressional district rather than through the winner-take-all system.
“There is no question that our current winner-take-all system for choosing electors does not reflect the diversity of Pennsylvania,” said Pileggi when he announced his plan. “This proposal will more fairly align Pennsylvania’s electoral college votes with the results of the popular vote.”
Pennsylvania will have 20 electoral votes in the 2012 presidential election; one for each member of the U.S. House of Representatives and one for each senator. Pileggi’s plan would give voters statewide the chance to choose two presidential electors. The others would be chosen based on the vote for president in each congressional district.
“There is no mistaking that this is nothing other than a blatant attempt by Republicans to have a lopsided, unfair playing field for national elections,” said state Sen. Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia/Montgomery).
Hughes went on to add to his concerns that by breaking up the block of Pennsylvania electoral votes the move would sideline Pennsylvania in national elections.
“Doing so makes Pennsylvania, a state that is at the forefront during national elections, irrelevant,” he said.
With its 20 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is among the six most influential states in presidential elections ranking with: Illinois, which also has 20 votes; New York and Florida, which have 29 each; Texas, which has 38; and California, which tops the list with 55. Obama carried all but Texas in the 2008 election.
Only two states currently break up their electoral votes: Maine and New Hampshire with four votes each.
But at the moment, the idea seems likely to sail through the state House and Senate, both controlled by Republicans, and has the governor’s support.
Gov. Tom Corbett, also a Republican, said this week that he would support the measure.
“It will allow the people across the state to be better represented when it comes to the vote for president,” Corbett said during a radio interview Thursday on WPHT-AM (1210) in Philadelphia. He added that the issue was not driven by partisanship but intended to give a wider voice to Pennsylvania voters.
This is a talking point shared by Pileggi.
“It will also make individual votes across the state more important, giving voters a more significant say in presidential elections,” he said.
The timing has raised suspicion among Democrats.
“Why change it now, except for there is an agenda,” he said. “It’s been good enough thus far.”
If adopted, the new system would dilute influence of Philadelphia and the surrounding counties, all Democratic strongholds.
“If they vote strongly like they did for Obama, [Republicans] know that once we set our minds and vote for a candidate that for the most part we can drive what takes part in Pennsylvania,” Waters said. “They want to do everything they can to minimize that power.”
Waters also cautioned that Republicans have more voting changes in mind — including voter identification cards.
“Why are we doing this?” he asked. “It’s only a way, in my opinion, to disrupt voters and say they are not even going to get involved.”
Contact staff writer Eric Mayes at (215) 893-5742 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
President’s jobs plan offers lifeline for Blacks
Summer jobs program, payroll tax cut could put many back to work
As the recession looms and families figure out how to pay the bills and keep their homes, no other segment of society has been hit harder than Black people. For more than 1.4 million African Americans, weeks have turned into months, and months into years.
It’s no secret, throughout President Barack Obama’s term in office, he has been criticized incessantly by pundits and those within the Congressional Black Caucus, who feel that he has not done enough to help African Americans in general.
So when he went before Congress last week with his $450 billion jobs bill, many wondered how this bill — providing it passes the GOP-controlled House intact — would significantly help people of color, particularly African Americans.
“It will be an extraordinary benefit to well over a million and half African American people…who are unemployed, because of the way the program is structured,” said U.S. Rep. Chaka Fatah, a Democrat who represents Pennsylvania’s second congressional district. “It will provide benefits to the long-term unemployed. There is a tax benefit to a company that hires someone who has been unemployed for more than six months. The bill also focuses on veterans and there are parts of the program that will help young people who are out of work as well.”
Here are some reasons why the president’s new Jobs Bill can help African Americans:
• The extension of unemployment insurance will benefit 1.4 million African- Americans and their families. At the same time, the president is proposing bipartisan reforms that will enable that — as these families continue to receive benefits — the program is better tailored to support re-employment for the long-term unemployed.
• Targeted support for the long-term unemployed could help the 1.4 million African-Americans who have been looking for work for more than six months: To help them in their search for work, the president is calling for a new tax credit for hiring the long- term unemployed.
• A commitment to rebuilding and revitalizing communities across the country will target investments to the communities hardest-hit by the recession. The president’s investments in infrastructure include a school construction initiative with a significant commitment to the largest urban school districts, an investment in revitalizing communities that have been devastated by foreclosures, and a new initiative to expand infrastructure employment opportunities for minorities, women, and socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.
• Support for subsidized jobs and summer/year-round jobs for African-American youth — for whom unemployment is above 30 percent. In an environment with an unemployment rate of 32.4 percent for African-American youths, the president is proposing to build on successful programs like the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund to create jobs and provide training for those hardest-hit by the recession.
• An extension and expansion of the payroll tax cut for nearly 20 million African-American workers. By extending the payroll tax cut for employees next year and expanding it to cut payroll taxes in half, the president’s plan will help increase the paychecks of nearly 20 million African-American workers.
The early response to the bill has been favorable amongst Blacks, who had grown weary with the president throughout the years. Many felt he was indifferent to their needs.
Many hope the president’s Jobs Bill will translate into reduced misery for them over the coming months. While the country's unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent, Black unemployment has hit 16.7 percent, the highest since 1984. Unemployment among male blacks is at 18 percent, and black teens are unemployed at a rate of 46.5 percent.
“Particularly in the African-American community, which often times has been expected to flourish and thrive without any investment at all and have done so in spite of a lack of resources, I think this (jobs bill) will be something that will be welcomed in our community and will be significant,” said Cindy Bass, the nominee for City Council for the Eight District. “I think it will be beneficial when it comes to employment readiness and opening up job opportunities for people of color. More than we have seen in quit sometime."
Prominent African-Americans like Kenneth Chenault, chairman and CEO of American Express and Mayor Michael Nutter, quickly applauded the plan. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who has been one of the most vocal advocates for dealing more effectively with Black unemployment, was enthusiastic.
For the president, it was a welcome change in tone after a steady drumbeat of criticism from members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who held their own job fairs and town hall meetings while protesting that Obama's jobs tour across America last month bypassed black communities.
The caucus' urban blitz cleared a path for the country's first Black president to act, Waters said.
"I can see that our handprint is all over it," Waters said of Obama's plan. "We upped the ante a little bit by pushing, being a bit more vocal. This was not done in a way to threaten the president but to make it easier for him. We think we helped him to be able to formulate a response."
The jobs plan was praised by Ralph Everett, president and chief executive of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a nonpartisan black think tank.
Although the president did not specifically mention high unemployment among blacks, black people "are sophisticated enough to understand" how their communities will benefit, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Friday.
"Obviously there is a debate raging, saying that we should come out and say this expressly for the Black and Latino community," Kirk said. "But this president got elected spectacularly on his premise that we are not a black America, a brown America, a white America. We are one America."
The White House moved quickly to capitalize politically on the good will, emailing an extraordinary blast of supportive statements from elected officials, union leaders and interest groups within minutes after Obama spoke Thursday night.
On Friday, while the president pushed his American Jobs Act in Richmond, Va., his aides promoted targeted relief to Hispanics, teachers, police officers, construction workers, small businesses and others.
Administration officials said the plan would extend unemployment benefits and provide support for 1.4 million blacks who have been unemployed six months or longer. It also would provide summer and subsidized jobs for youth; help boost the paychecks of 20 million black workers through an extension and expansion of the payroll tax, and benefit, in some way, more than 100,000 black-owned small businesses.
"With over 16 percent of African-Americans out of work and over 1 million African-Americans out of work over six months, I think the president believes this is a serious problem and the onus is on us to do everything we can to tackle this," Danielle Gray, deputy director of the National Economic Council, told reporters.
White House adviser Valerie Jarrett promoted Obama's plan on Steve Harvey's syndicated morning radio show, saying it would help "every part of our country, but particularly those who are the most vulnerable, who have been struggling the hardest, who have been trying to make ends meet and all they need is a little help from their government."
A factor in the early enthusiasm in Obama's plan with blacks is that most accept that, as the country's first black president, there are limits to what he can do about their specific problems — especially as he heads into the 2012 campaign.
“Obviously the president cares about the African American community as he does all Americans,” said Fattah. “This bill will benefit the African American community and the broader community as whole, because the minute someone goes to work, they start spending money. And that’s what stimulates the economy. It will have significant benefits in cities like Philadelphia, Detroit, Cincinnati, Chicago and the likes. I think what the president has done is structure a program that deals with the hardest hit communities.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Obama praises King legacy
ANALYSIS
WASHINGTON — Standing beneath the looming presence of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., President Barack Obama carved out his own version of Black leadership with a message of racial unity.
A sense of inescapable Blackness surrounded Sunday’s dedication ceremony for the King memorial. The 30-foot-tall granite likeness is the first on the National Mall to honor an African American, joining memorials for two white presidents who owned slaves and a third who ended such bondage.
Obama responded by stirring the loyalty of his restive Black base while reaching to include all Americans, linking himself to King’s “constant insistence on the oneness of man” and the slain leader’s efforts to help not just Black people, but all those in need.
He used the colorblind suggestion that Americans look at the hard times King conquered, and understand the challenge of navigating the troubles of today.
“At this moment, when our politics appear so sharply polarized, and faith in our institutions so greatly diminished, we need more than ever to take heed of Dr. King’s teachings,” Obama said. “He calls on us to stand in the other person’s shoes, to see through their eyes, to understand their pain.”
At times, it seemed as if the shoes to which Obama alluded were his.
He drew subtle parallels between himself and the man in stone behind him, the “Black preacher with no official rank or title” who helped shape “an America that is far more fair and more free and more just” than it was in 1963, when King delivered his iconic “I Have A Dream” speech on that same Mall.
“Even after rising to prominence, even after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King was vilified by many ... He was even attacked by his own people,” Obama said.
The Black Nobel Peace Prize winner, who never held elected office, as seen by the Black Nobel Peace Prize winner elected to the highest office in the land.
“We are right to savor that slow but certain progress,” Obama said. “... And yet it is also important on this day to remind ourselves that such progress did not come easily; that Dr. King’s faith was hard won; that it sprung out of a harsh reality and some bitter disappointments.”
Unlike his other infrequent remarks on race, which were mostly responding to problems, Obama set his own terms on Sunday.
He did not explore America’s racial dynamics or cite lingering racial barriers, as he did during the 2008 campaign to counteract remarks by his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Nor did he chide his Black critics, as he did in a speech before the Congressional Black Caucus last month.
Fifty-nine words into Sunday’s remarks, Obama uttered the word “Black” — something his African-American critics have hungered for him to do more often. He called out the names of deceased movement luminaries such as Rosa Parks, Dorothy Height and the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. He let his body language speak, too, rocking pensively to Aretha Franklin’s stirring performance of “Precious Lord Take My Hand,” and linking arms with his wife and the vice president to sing “We Shall Overcome.”
In the process, he satisfied at least one of his strongest Black critics.
“He was sho’ nuff Black,” said Michael Eric Dyson, a Georgetown professor who in the past has said that Obama “runs from race like a Black man runs from a cop.”
“He dipped down into the resourceful pool of Black oratory, soared high, and expressed the courage of Blackness against the bastion of white supremacy and injustice and transcended color to join us all together,” Dyson said after the speech.
Rep. John Lewis, the Georgia Democrat who worked shoulder-to-shoulder with King, said Obama did with King’s memory “exactly what I hoped he would do.”
King “truly believed in the dignity of all human beings. It didn’t matter if you were Black, white, Latino, Native American,” Lewis said.
Along with many other speakers at Sunday’s ceremony, Lewis noted that at the time of King’s assassination, he was working to build a multiracial coalition that would bring a “poor people’s campaign” to the National Mall.
“There was a parallel (in Obama’s speech) with what he’s going through now, too,” Lewis said. “When President Obama was running for office there was a low moment in his campaign, and he said, ‘I have to go back to my authentic self.’ I think what we saw here was authentic Obama. It was very powerful.”
Powerful without dwelling directly on Black or white, said Colin Powell, the Republican and first Black secretary of state under President George W. Bush.
“This wasn’t a speech about race,” Powell said. “It was a speech about the future of America. He touched all the bases: where we have been, where we are going, where we are now, and where we have to be.”
Not everyone was impressed. David Kairys, a Temple University law professor and civil rights attorney who attended King’s 1963 March on Washington, wished Obama had provided a clear reckoning of remaining racial problems.
“This specific occasion is about the struggle against racial oppression,” Kairys said, then mentioned that Black unemployment is twice the white rate and Blacks still suffer disproportionately from many social ills.
“We eliminated the worst forms of explicit racism and it became taboo to be racist, but the results of segregation and Jim Crow were basically left in place and just continued over the last 40 or 50 years,” he said. “That’s at least worth some kind of direct comment.”
Yet he understood, in some way, why Obama made that choice: “To be fair, he’s running for re-election. Also, he never told us he was going to be a champion against racial oppression. This (speech) is probably who he really is.”
Most others were more complimentary. Even the conservative talk show host Mike Gallagher, who is determined to defeat the president in 2012, said that the way Obama honored King’s legacy was “brilliant.”
“It was a beautiful, powerful message about what can be achieved in this country,” Gallagher said. “I really appreciate the fact that he acknowledged as a Black man how much progress we’ve made. ... And it kills me to say this, because I think Obama is wrecking the country.”
Paul and Carol Cooper, a white retired couple from Kingston, N.Y., heard King’s “Dream” speech in person in 1963. Before Sunday’s speech, they had hoped Obama would discuss the work still undone to fulfill King’s dream.
On Sunday, Paul Cooper called Obama’s remarks a “classic.”
“Obama showed us repeatedly,” he said, “that King belongs not merely to Black people, but to the whole country.” — (AP)
Former Obama aid leads tea party counter-punch
Rebuild the Dream hopes to boost Democrat’s fortunes
Seeking to match the intensity and scorched earth politics of the Tea Party movement, liberals are scrambling to muster their own form of grassroots punch to offset Republican momentum in 2012. It’s a colorful patchwork of efforts seeking an opportunity to coalesce around one central theme, and it remains to be seen just how much Democrats and their leader, President Barack Obama, can gain from it.
Among plans to even the 2010 midterm score and take back lost ground is Rebuild the Dream, a new mix of progressive groups and organizations tightly wrapped as one of MoveOn.org’s more ambitious projects heading into next year’s cycle. But, it’s also a fresh new attempt by former Obama administration official Van Jones, the controversial White House environmental adviser fired from his gig in 2009, to recast himself as a leading voice in the Democratic universe. Observers say Jones is eagerly waiting for his political stars to align, teaming up with MoveOn.org not only as a way to bring muscle back into a deflated liberal movement, but to also use the opportunity as a platform for future ambitions.
The Jackson, Tenn.-born and Yale Law educated Jones has never shied away from the spotlight of controversy as an up and coming activist and lawyer throughout the years. And, over the past decade he’s been busy cooking up a menu of civil rights and environmental justice joints, from the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in 1996 to ColorofChange.org (which he co-founded) in 2005. More than likely, it was the much-hyped Green for All non-governmental organization and his best-selling “The Green Collar Economy” which caught the attention of Obama hacks.
But, in line with usual form, the ever so cautious and temperamental Obama White House put Jones under the proverbial political bus as Republicans used the activist for target practice.
Since being canned, Jones has struggled to regain his footing, signing up as a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and pressed to find new ground to stomp on. With many, particularly in the African American community, not feeling the allure of “green jobs,” Jones partners up with Moveon.org to raise both money and noise.
“We voted for peace and prosperity, not war and austerity,” was Jones earlier in the summer during a star-studded launch rally for Rebuild the Dream backed by organic grooves from Philly’s own The Roots. “It’s not about a fight between rich and poor, it’s about something deeper. America itself is at risk.”
Jones has been fairly vocal about his plans for the American Dream Movement, despite being strangely unavailable for comment for this article. The Center for American Progress, typically fast on media response, has yet to respond to initial contact. And, when the Tribune touched base with fundraising outfit PowerPAC, listed as a Rebuild the Dream partner, Chairman Steve Phillips punted to Rebuild CEO Natalie Foster.
“She can best answer your questions,” noted Phillips in a cryptic email. Still, by filing, Foster and Jones was pretty much ghost.
Lack of response from a famously loquacious political activist like Jones adds a layer of mystique surrounding Rebuild the Dream and its goals. Ari Melber in The Nation dubbed it the “ … liberal alternative to the tea party” with subtle praise for Jones as the next biggest thing in the progressive world. But, it’s still not clear the American Dream Movement, with its conspicuous patriotic tones, will be an effective counter punch to the down-and-dirty tea party rank and file.
Hiram College’s Jason Johnson, author of “One Day to Sell” and a prominent political scientist, is skeptical.
“That stuff does not work if you don’t go to the mat for what you want,” argues Johnson. “That’s the thing about the tea party — they don’t have any real policy platform.”
“If [Jones] wants to create a movement like the tea party, then he has to obstruct until he gets what he wants. The movement is nothing but a bunch of words, means nothing if you’re not willing to use it as a vehicle to force the change you want.”
Johnson suggests Rebuild the Dream should be willing to “primary” Democrats into submission, similar to how tea party activists threatened Republicans in key Congressional districts with primary challenges.
ColorofChange.org Executive Director Rashad Robinson partly attributes some of RTB’s growing pains to it “still growing” and being relatively young. “I think they’re just getting started and it’s been less than a year.”
And while ColorofChange might be highlighted as a major partner in the RTB consortium of liberal titans like Sierra Club, Daily Kos, AFSCME and others, Robinson is quick to emphasize that “… our work is separate from Rebuild the Dream.”
But, Robinson cautions against Rebuild the Dream or any movement making this only about the election. “Voting is just a piece of … political participation,” argues Robinson. “Many on the left confuse an election with a movement. It’s not about a candidate.”
Obama signs 1st major patent law change since 1952
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — President Barack Obama signed into law Friday a major overhaul of the nation's patent system to ease the way for inventors to bring their products to market. "We can't afford to drag our feet any longer," he said.
Passed in a rare display of congressional bipartisanship, the America Invents Act is the first significant change in patent law since 1952. It has been hailed as a milestone that will spur innovation and create jobs.
The bill is meant to ensure that the patent office, now facing a backlog of 1.2 million pending patents, has the money to expedite the application process. It now takes an average of three years to get a patent approved. More than 700,000 applications have yet to be reviewed.
"Somewhere in that stack of applications could be the next technological breakthrough, the next miracle drug," Obama said. "We should be making it easier and faster to turn new ideas into jobs."
The president signed the bill after touring Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., where he examined student projects, including a wheelchair that responds to brain waves. Obama at one point had to step aside as he admired the technological displays. "I don't want a robot to run over me," he said.
The law aims to streamline the patent process and reduce costly legal battles. It was backed by companies including Google and Apple as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Small-scale inventors are divided, with some arguing that the law will give the edge to big corporations.
Obama was joined at the signing ceremony by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the two main sponsors of the legislation. -- (AP)
Jobless rate for Blacks highest level in decades
Long-term unemployment impairs recovery
The Black unemployment rate has surged to a 27-year high.
The U.S. Labor Department recently reported that Black unemployment rose to 16.7 percent in August, while the rate for whites fell to eight percent.
Black unemployment has risen to its highest level since 1984.
Christian E. Weller, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, says there are varying reasons why high rates of unemployment continue to persist among African Americans.
Weller said the phenomenon of high unemployment spans across all subgroups of African Americans — whether you look at it by gender, age or educational attainment.
One reason has to do with economic impact on sectors that traditionally employed African Americans. For instance, Weller noted that Black men tend to be disproportionately employed in manufacturing, while Black women traditionally work in the areas of teaching and administrative jobs in local governments.
“To some degree this is a story about sectors — the sectors where African Americans have found job opportunities in the past — but those sectors are suffering more than other parts of the economy where African Americans are less represented,” said Weller.
“The other part is that unemployment sort of creates a vicious cycle. We have now had about 10 years of very high long-term unemployment. Once people lost their job, they were out of a job for long periods of time,” he said.
Weller says that when people are out of work for a long period of time, they start falling behind in terms of using their skills and keeping up with the latest technology being used in their fields — making them even less attractive to potential employers.
Algernon Austin, director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy, Economy Policy Institute is concerned that government budget cuts could lead to more job loss for African Americans.
“Because the federal government wants to join in and make cuts, we’re going to continue to see shrinking employment in the federal, state and local levels,” Austin said.
“African Americans are disproportionately in the public sector — particularly Blacks with college degrees. I am worried about job loss for the Black middle class going forward.”
Economist Bernard Anderson says that there are both short-term and long-term solutions to the problem of high unemployment for African Americans.
He said the short-term solution is to get the economy growing faster.
“If it’s one thing we know about the variability of employment in the Black community, it is that there is a direct relationship between the rate of growth in Black employment and the rate of growth in the economy as a whole. They will be employed if the economy is growing faster and there is a significant increase in the demand for labor,” said Anderson.
“The long-term solution is for Black workers to become more employable in those industries that are likely to grow fastest,” he said, noting this will require more education and more training.
“There aren’t many jobs available in this economy for people who don’t have a good education.”
According to the Labor Department, the nation’s general unemployment rate is 9.1 percent. The number of long-term unemployed — those jobless for 27 weeks or more — was six million in August and accounted for 42.9 percent of the unemployed. There was zero net increase in jobs during the month of August.
Contact Tribune staff writer Ayana Jones at (215) 893-5747 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Obama calls on Congress to act on jobs bill
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama bluntly challenged Congress Monday to act immediately on his new jobs plan, brandishing a copy of the legislation in the Rose Garden and demanding: "No games, no politics, no delays."
Surrounded by police officers, firefighters, teachers, construction workers and others he said would be helped by the $447 billion package, the president said the only thing that would block its passage would be lawmakers deciding it wasn't good politics to work with him. "We can't afford these same political games, not now," Obama said.
The president said he was sending the package to Congress later Monday, after unveiling it last week in a speech to a joint session of Congress. Then he's heading out to try to sell it to the public, on Tuesday in Ohio — home state of House Speaker John Boehner — and Wednesday in North Carolina.
At the same time, the Democratic National Committee is backing up the effort with a new ad campaign in politically key states from Nevada to New Hampshire.
The centerpiece of the plan cuts payroll taxes that pay for Social Security, giving a tax break to workers and businesses. There's also new spending for teachers and school construction, and an extension of jobless benefits, among other elements. Republican lawmakers who control the House have promised quick review of the legislation and seem open to the tax-cutting elements, but some have already rejected new spending.
Boehner had a measured response to Obama's comments Monday, pledging to review it carefully.
"The record of the economic proposals enacted during the last Congress necessitates careful examination of the president's latest plan as well as consideration of alternative measures that may more effectively support private-sector job creation," the speaker said in a statement. "It is my hope that we will be able to work together to put in place the best ideas of both parties and help put Americans back to work."
The White House detailed the specifics Monday on how the legislation would be paid for. It would rely on a series of tax hikes that have all previously been proposed by the White House and rejected by Republicans. They are:
—$400 billion from limiting the itemized deductions for charitable contributions and other deductions that can be taken by individuals making over $200,000 a year and families making over $250,000;
—$40 billion from closing loopholes for oil and gas companies;
—$18 billion from requiring fund managers to pay higher taxes on certain income;
—$3 billion from changing the tax treatment of corporate jets.
White House budget director Jacob Lew said that Obama will also include those tax proposals in a broader debt-cutting package he plans to submit to a congressional supercommittee charged with finding $1.2 trillion in savings later this year. He said that the supercommittee would have the option of accepting the payment mechanisms for the jobs bill proposed by Obama, or proposing new ones.
In his Rose Garden comments, Obama adopted a newly sharp tone that has pleased dispirited Democrats, deriding Republican opposition at a time when the economy has stalled and unemployment stands at 9.1 percent.
"Instead of just talking about America's jobs creators, let's actually do something for America's jobs creators," Obama said. "We can do that by passing this bill."
But despite his suggestion that the GOP is playing politics, Obama himself has a huge political stake in success of the legislation. The 2012 presidential campaign is ramping up with Republican hopefuls attacking Obama at every turn over his stewardship of the economy, and polls showing deep public unhappiness with his economic leadership.
The new DNC ad campaign was to air beginning Monday in eight swing and early voting states, urging viewers to "Read it. Fight for it. ... Pass the President's Jobs Plan." -- (AP)
Obama: Congress has no reason to wait on jobs bill
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Imploring Congress to follow his lead, President Barack Obama on Tuesday lobbied lawmakers to adopt his nearly $450 billion jobs plan, promising it would help workers in the construction industry and rebuild schools in crumbling condition. Said Obama: "My question to Congress is, what on earth are we waiting for?"
From a high school in the critical electoral state of Ohio, Obama delivered a fiery speech to plug his plan. The outdoor audience was receptive to the point of adopting his refrain and chanting it back to him, shouting: "Pass this bill!"
The event had the feel of an Obama re-election event, right down to the music that played as Obama came out to speak, suit coat off and sleeves rolled up on a sunny day. He tailored his latest pitch to how his proposed legislation would help education, built around a $25 billion spending initiative for school renovations.
In Ohio alone, Obama said, the bill would create jobs for tens of thousands of constructions workers.
Yet Republican lawmakers who control the House flatly oppose his plans to pay for his plan by raising taxes on wealthier Americans.
In trying to win over the voting public and build pressure on Congress, Obama has made his pitch in Virginia, the home state of House Republican Leader Eric Cantor, and Ohio, home of House Speaker John Boehner. He will travel on Wednesday to North Carolina.
Republicans on Capitol Hill say the president is merely repackaging ideas they have already rejected. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Obama was essentially daring Republicans to vote against his ideas again. "I think most people see through all this," McConnell said.
Obama's jobs package would offer tax cuts for workers and employers by reducing the Social Security payroll tax. Spending elements include more money to hire teachers, rebuild schools and pay unemployment benefits. There are also tax credits to encourage businesses to hire veterans and the long-term unemployed.
He proposes to cover most of the cost, nearly $400 billion, by limiting the deductions on charitable contributions and other items that wealthy people can take. There's also $40 billion from closing oil and gas loopholes, $18 billion from hiking taxes on certain income made by fund managers, and $3 billion from changing the tax treatment of corporate jets.
"We've got to make sure that everybody pays their fair share including the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations," said Obama outside Fort Hayes Arts and Academic High School. "We've got to decide what our priorities are."
Boehner and other Republicans grew notably more skeptical Monday once the White House announced plans to pay for the costly measure entirely with tax increases on the rich and corporations. In turn, Obama renewed his attack on the GOP, contending they're standing in the way just to deny him a political win.
The crowd booed.
"This isn't about giving me a win, it's about giving the American people a win," Obama said.
On the public works projects, Republicans have made clear they're eyeing such new spending askance, but Obama said such the money is needed to repair aging classrooms and bring students high-tech equipment, as well as employ construction workers and others.
The Fort Hayes campus that includes the high school underwent a $60 million renovation adding improvements including modern graphic design classrooms, one of which Obama toured before making remarks.
For Obama, some progress on the economy has become a political imperative as he approaches his re-election campaign with the economy stalled, unemployment at 9.1 percent and polls showing the public unhappy with his stewardship of the issue.
Obama's top campaign strategist, David Axelrod, said Tuesday that the White House wants Congress to act on the entire bill rather than approaching it piecemeal. "We're not in a negotiation to break up the package," he said on ABC's "Good Morning America." ''It's not an a la carte menu."
But later Tuesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney made clear that the president would sign elements of the package into law in pieces, if needed, if that's what lawmakers send him. He said the White House would prefer the bill is not changed but that "we understand how Congress works." -- (AP)
Obama understands ‘The Art of War’
Back when I was in the military, Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” was pretty much required reading. Commanders quoted from the book freely and often, and everyone, down to us lowly deck swabbies, were supposed to understand its metaphors and hidden meanings.
An all-time favorite passage was, “Every battle is won or lost before it is ever fought.”
Translation: A well-planned strategy of deployment, mapped out to the smallest detail, is as much a guarantor of success as a hastily formed plan is a guarantor of failure.
Every smart military commander knows this. Smart politicians know it too. In fact, you’ll often hear politicians quote Sun Tzu, although few of them seem to understand the practical modern day applications.
President Barack Obama understands.
In fact, I’m going to give the brother his just due. Obama is the smartest man in Washington, bar none. He just ran rings around the Republican leadership, beat them to a pulp at their own game, and left them confused and wondering what to do next. On the deficit, the GOP’s core issue and dog whistle talking point, Obama just pulled off what could be the greatest smackdown in congressional budget history.
Start putting the pieces together, and watch the man’s genius at work.
That bitter fight a few months ago over raising the debt ceiling triggered the formation of the debt supercommittee, six Republicans and six Democrats whose job would be to cut through the gridlock and figure out a way to cut $1.2 trillion from the national debt.
As you recall, the GOP threatened to hold the entire government hostage over the raising of the debt ceiling, a routine formality afforded without much debate to every president in modern history. In fact, those same Republicans had no objection to raising the ceiling under Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush seven times.
See, it all goes back to the GOP’s core strategy, as outlined more than two years ago by Sen. Mitch McConnell and others: to make sure that Barack Obama is a one-term president. Not to make America a better country, not to serve their constituents to the best of their abilities, but to do everything in their power to nullify Obama’s initiatives and policies, no matter how worthy or necessary.
Knowing that, Obama would have to know the supercommittee would crash and burn through their deadline this week without having accomplished a single thing. They were, predictably, handcuffed by the deadlock they willfully created.
So what happens, and how does that benefit the president?
Now, those spending cuts the GOP were dead set against go into effect automatically in January 2013, after next year’s elections for president, and for congress. That means large cuts to the defense budget, but no cuts at all to Medicare and Social Security, the Democrats’ bread and butter. And as a bonus, also in January 2013, the federal tax rate shifts back to the rates during the Clinton era, before Bush’s millionaire tax loopholes.
By banking on the GOP’s hatred of him, and by betting on their willingness to act against their own interests, he got what he wanted without much sacrifice on his part. Knowing their blind allegiance to a pinhead demagogue named Grover Norquist and a no-taxes-forever pledge he made them sign, Obama watched while the GOP members of the supercommittee backed themselves, and their party, into an uncomfortable corner.
They were now, like it or not, the party of the one percent. While they have always been the unflinching champions of greedy bankers and corporations, they were forced, maybe for the first time, to admit it in front of the nation.
By publicly defending the very thieves who sank our economy in the first place, and by demanding that the middle class, not the richest one percent of Americans, shoulder the burden of fixing that economy — the GOP has put themselves right where the president wants them — shooting blindly in every direction.
Couple that with the pitiful collection of dullards and maniacs they’ve decided are their best chance of beating Obama next fall, and you can see how the president must have seen this coming eight or ten moves ago, and like a chess grand master, skillfully maneuvered his opponent into a position of vulnerability.
He fooled the entire leadership of the Republican Party. They will never give him credit for it, but he made them all look foolish, and gave himself another leg up on his re-election campaign.
I’ll give him credit, though. Barack Obama is the smartest man in Washington.