Live Blog: The Jobs Speech

Well, what kind of bedtime story will be read from TOTUS tonight?

The US labor market is in shambles and we need a big, bold plan like the sort FDR delivered during the Great Depression.  How likely are we to get even a smidgin of that?

Here’s some thoughts from some Congressional Democrats:

Millions of people are waking up every morning without a job and with dwindling hopes of finding one. Their faith in the American Dream is flagging. Their aspirations for a middle class life are being dashed.

This is a national emergency. Unemployment is unacceptably high, more than 9 percent, with more and more Americans slipping into poverty. The number of children in poverty has climbed to nearly 15 million, a moral outrage that must be remedied. Economic despair is afflicting Americans of all stripes — urban and rural, blue and white collar, those with advanced degrees, high school diplomas and GED.’s alike. They haven’t failed; their leaders have failed them.

For communities of color, the pain is even more acute – a 15.9 percent unemployment rate for African-Americans and 11.3 percent for Latinos. Youth joblessness is also persistent (a staggering 25 percent unemployment rate for those age 16 to 19), as qualified young people move into a job market that has nothing to offer them but rejection letters and crushed hopes.

The size of the federal budget deficit is not keeping the American people up at night ; they’re worried about how to pay for groceries. That’s what members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus found when we traveled across the country on a jobs tour this summer, listening to struggling Americans and seeking to elevate their voices over the misleading noise from Washington. Members regularly heard from families struggling to stay afloat, losing their homes, and emptying their savings just to pay the bills.

It’s time for their challenges to become the nation’s challenges. Republicans have proven uninterested in real job-creation efforts. An early glimpse at their so-called jobs agenda reveals little more than additional tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations, a rollback of environmental regulations and continued attacks on labor rights.

It’s up to the president to offer an ambitious proposal designed to have an immediate and lasting impact. All members of Congress should support a plan that can create good jobs — putting money in people’s pockets that they can pump back into the economy.

This was written by REP. BARBARA LEE & REP. KEITH ELLISON & REP. LYNN WOOLSEY & REP. RAUL GRIJALVA at Posted at Politico.
Other Democrats are equally outspoken. But will they act to see the President doesn’t propose yet another luke warm Republican plan that they’ve jettisoned in the past?  Maxine Waters wants to know if Obama is more concerned about high unemployment in the black community or Iowa primary voters?

We’ve heard Democratic criticism on the President’s plans in the past.  But when the time comes to fight for Democratic policies, they all fold and vote like sheep.  Let’s sit back and listen to what will undoubtedly be another speech with a few bad ideas that get passed and a few good ideas that will never have a chance of getting beyond rhetoric.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Teleprompter of the United States …