Maxine Waters to Obama on unemployment: Treat blacks like Iowans

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Politico

Just hours before President Barack Obama addresses a joint session of Congress on his jobs plan, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is demanding the nation’s first African-American president prove he cares as much about unemployed blacks as he does about Iowa’s swing voters.

“There are roughly 3 million African Americans out of work today, a number nearly equal to the entire population of Iowa. I would suggest that if the entire population of Iowa, a key state on the electoral map and a place that served as a stop on the president’s jobs bus tour were unemployed, they would be mentioned in the president’s speech and be the beneficiary of targeted public policy,” Waters said in a statement to POLITICO on Thursday.

“So, one question to be answered this evening is, are the unemployed in the African-American community, including almost 45 percent of its youth, as important as the people of Iowa?” Waters asked.

In recent weeks, Waters and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus have become increasingly critical of the president’s economic performance and have publicly called on him to focus on black unemployment.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/62979.html#ixzz1XMzud1Bb

[dennis4868]

1. I'm still waiting for Maxine Waters

bill that will create jobs that can pass the TEA PARTY HOUSE and the 24/7 FILLUBUSTING SENATE....where is it Maxine? As a congresswoman you have the right and power to propose bills.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. Sure you are.

I'm waiting for a jobs bill from the WH that will actually create jobs without giving billions away to the 'job creators'.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RaleighNCDUer]

28. The stimulus was entirely inadequate to the task, which is why we are facing

the current crisis.

It needed to be twice as big with NO tax cuts.

THAT would have made a difference, instead of merely prolong the agony.

[Name removed]

39. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JDPriestly]

30. If 45% of African-American young people are unemployed, the stimulus

did not create nearly enough jobs.

The current unemployment is due to an upheaval in the way our economy works. The internet has emptied a lot of retail stores. Outsourcing and free trade have all but eliminated manufacturing jobs.

During the Bush regime, most of the claimed job "creation" was in the service sector. Service sector jobs disappear when consumers tighten their belts. People cook at home, entertain less, and don't spend as much money at the hairdressers, even hire fewer lawyers and financial advisers. And on top of that, a lot of service jobs such as data entry and record keeping have been outsourced or are now digital.

In addition, a lot of entry level jobs that young people used to take when they entered the job market are filled by immigrants (many of them legal).

We need to reduce overall the number of hours in the workweek to 25-30 and encourage employers to hire more people. The full work week should be 25-30 hours. After that, the employer should pay overtime.

[dennis4868]

40. blah blah blah...

OF COURSE EVERYTHING YOU SAY IS RIGHT but getting legislation through a congress is a totally different thing when everything is fillubustered....of course the stimulus was too small but it nearly did not make it through congress in its current form because of repub (and DINOs) obstruction....Obama actually proposed a bigger stimulus and it was dems in congress who told him to reduce it and add more taxes because that the only way they could get it through the congress at the time. OBAMA IS NOT A KING! Say it with me...OBAMA IS NOT A KING! :-)

[RaleighNCDUer]

42. OBAMA IS NOT A KING

He's not much of a president, either.

[Name removed]

50. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Cool Logic]

63. .

[JDPriestly]

54. You are right, of course, dennis4868. I forgot, Obama is a wimp, not a king.

[zalinda]

41. And one other problem

we don't estimate the economy the same way. It used to be that it was based on GDP, now it's based on the ups and downs of Wall street. This is why the economy looks rosier on paper than in actual real life, here on the streets.

zalinda

[TwilightGardener]

2. I don't know that this is helpful, though I understand she's looking after

her constituents.

[Divernan]

23. A black congressperson criticizing Obama's policies - leaves you between a rock and a hard place.

They're Obama's constituents as well, you know. The further down one is on the socioeconomic scale, the more damage one receives from his policies. In that regard, it is true that his policies hurt blacks more than whites.

[TwilightGardener]

26. What policies are hurting them? I mean actual legislation

that Obama championed and Congress passed? Extended unemployment? Stimulus measures? Health care reform? I don't think there's very many actual policies from Obama that are hurting them--I think it's the lack of ability to get them HELP that is hurting them.

[Divernan]

29. I agree with Maxine Waters, not your spin. Policies preceed legislation.

Expanded war - trying to renege on the promise to get all troops out of Iraq; prosecuting whistleblowers but nor prosecuting banksters; backing off on the Clean Air act; putting Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid on the bargaining table; refusing to allow the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy to expire; packing his cabinet with blatant corporate interests; cuts to the child nutrition programs; there are many, many actions taken by Obama which have further worsened the economy for the less wealthy and the impoverished.

[TwilightGardener]

32. I don't believe that Obama's actions worsened the economy. I believe

he just hasn't gotten enough through to HELP the economy recover to where it needs to be. I think Waters understands what he's up against, but she wants him to remember the plight of her constituents, who are the most desperate.

[RaleighNCDUer]

34. His primary policy - putting the interest of the Republicans and the banksters

ahead of the interests of his base - is what is hurting them. It is less what policies he's passed (with the exception of free trade agreements, bank bailouts, etc.) that is hurting them, than the policies he's NOT pursued. And it looks a lot more like "won't" than "can't". Not a lack of ability, but a lack of will or interest.

[TwilightGardener]

37. We agree, then--not enough done, for many reasons (mine differ from yours).

Not enough WILL get done, either, with this Congress.

[quakerboy]

62. I have a few

The Administrations recent decision to postpone environmental changes hurt the AA community. Since, as I understand it, AA tend to live higher in proportion in the urban areas, where the air quality tends to take the worst beating. Thats direct physical harm.

The supposed payroll tax holiday is another. The extra 7 bucks a week in a working mans pocket is nice, but balanced against the long term harm to SS, it is harmful. All the more to those who cannot find steady employment(and therefore do not have the option to cultivate long term retirement savings) and who will be most reliant on SS as they age. That would be long term harm

Then there are the free trade agreements. Sending yet more jobs overseas. That would be mid long term harm

Also the Obama Justice Departments take on Marijuana and drug laws. When it comes to jobs, convictions generally make them a bit harder to find. That would be immediate harm.

Its not just lack of help. Although that is a major part of the problem now. There are also things started or continued by this president that have done harm

[Hell Hath No Fury]

3. I (heart) Maxine!

:applause:

[Autumn]

4. Go Maxine!!

:applause: :patriot:

[Cali_Democrat]

5. Go Maxine!

:applause:

[Lorien]

6. The President is supposed to be setting the agenda. The President is supposed to frame

the debate. The President is supposed to LEAD on the issues. This President has followed the GOP lead each and every time. For a guy who admires Reagan and can give one hell of a speech, he sure has missed the boat when it comes to using his powers of persuasion for anything that doesn't benefit the uber rich.

The fact is that Obama could get aggressive and have America behind him 100% on issues that matter to them in just a matter of weeks if he felt like it. But that's not his agenda. He could easily strong arm and bully the repugs the way BushCo did the Dems and get progressive legislation passed-including more programs that would benefit the unemployed. But that's not his agenda. Obama is no victim, he's doing and getting exactly what he wanted.

[Ineeda]

7. One of my favorite JFK quote on this:

(which has been appropriated and misused by conservatives) “No American is ever made better off by pulling a fellow American down, and every American is made better off whenever any one of us is made better off. A rising tide raises all boats.” IMO, a rising tide will help black, white, poor, rich.

[tblue]

8. I have more sympathy for the community

than for any politician. Obama will never be poor and hungry or lose his home. Or desperate and hopeless and forgotten. He might be sad or embarrassed for a time. Heaven forbid.

I love Maxine. She's trying like the dickens to fight for something that should be fought for by at least SOMEBODY. I will never take sides against a courageous hero willing to stick her neck out to save people. Ever!

He's not weak and he's not helpless. He has more tools at his disposal than any one person on the planet. She's just asking him for help because she believes in him. He doesn't have to win, he just has to fight as hard for this as he does his reelection.

[emulatorloo]

9. "Obama will never be poor and hungry or lose his home." Obama's mom received welfare/food stamps.

You act as if he were brought up in massive wealth. That's revisionist history.

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. She was a graduate student whose mother was a bank vice president

They weren't in any danger of going hungry.

[emulatorloo]

14. So she was a welfare cheat? Is that what you are trying to say?

And Obama was a child of priveledge?

[Divernan]

17. Attending the most elite private school in Hawaii? Yup, that's being privileged.

And he was living with his white grandparents, one of whom was a bank vice-president. This does not qualify Obama to claim being a kindred spirit with children raised in poverty.

[KamaAina]

44. Obama attended Punahou on a scholarship

As befits its historic role as an Ivy League (especially Yale) feeder school, Punahou uses some of its massive (for a secondary school) endowment to defray the cost of its education.

[closeupready]

45. So what. Irrelevant. Many of his fellow students were undoubtedly some kind of legacy

students - children of those who attended Punahou or those Ivy League universities to which the school would feed college students.

Therefore, the notion that he can empathize with those who grew up, for example, in Woodlawn or Cabrini-Green, is sheer nonsense.

[KamaAina]

46. Sure they were. So were many of my fellow students at Yale.

The point is that O's background deserves to be considered on its own, and that attending Punahou does not necessarily make him one of the elite.

[closeupready]

47. lol - no offense, but if you are part of the elite class, you are part of the elite class.

Unless you live in an alternate universe. :D

Meanwhile, those who grew up in South Central LA (coincidentally, the district part of which Maxine Waters represents), the South Bronx or Cabrini-Green skipped over crack vials and passed through metal detectors on their ways to classes. Did you have to do that? Did your legacy classmates?

[KamaAina]

48. I'm somewhere in between

no crack vials, but no limos on prom night either. Can't really speak for Barack. :-)

[closeupready]

49. OK.

:hi:

[Divernan]

16. While she was a Ph.D. student & he was enrolled in the most elite school in Hawaii!

In the comments below that during an interview with Joe Klein that appeared in the October 15, 2006 edition of Time Magazine Obama claimed:

I was going to a fancy prep school, and my mother was on food stamps while she was getting her Ph.D.
This would be circa 1974-1977, which when the young Barack was attending one of Hawaii’s most elite private schools and in fact living full time with his grandparents.

And, as we have previously noted, his grandmother was the vice-president of the Bank Of Hawaii.

So, even if this is true, it greatly undercuts Mr. Obama’s claim to know firsthand what it is like to struggle.

For Barack was not living with his mother at the time she was on food stamps, but with his upper middle class, white and well-off grandparents.

Furthermore, collecting food stamps while getting a Ph.D. is what I would call scamming the system. Food stamps were not intended for doctoral students.

[emulatorloo]

22. "Mr. Obama’s claim to know firsthand what it is like to struggle."

I think you are seriously over-reaching to fit a scenario you've got worked out.

JMHO, carry on.

[Divernan]

25. He campaigned in 2008 with "My mother was on food stamps."

He was the one who was seriously over-reaching! To deny this would be to be close-minded.

[Autumn]

33. It's not an over reach to fit a scenario.

I have that issue of Time and that's the truth from Obama, unless Obama was seriously over-reaching.

[tblue]

20. He WILL NEVER be poor. I never said he never was.

Address that, if you will, not what you made up that I said. Obama will be fine. You don't agree? You think he'll end up poor and hungry? A lot of black folks are not fine and won't be. If he's not in a position to help them then who is? I care more about them. Sorry if I wasn't clear. People first! The least of us first! And fighters like Maxine Waters!

[emulatorloo]

21. Your assertion implied he is incapable of feeling empathy with those who struggle.

That is what I was responding too.

Yes he will never be poor again.

[Divernan]

27. Oh, admit it. You opened a can of worms throwing in the "His mother was on foodstamps" bit.

[Divernan]

31. He has a daughter w/ asthma & axes clean air regs? That is NOT empathy.

[RaleighNCDUer]

35. Just like Scarlett O'Hara.

As God is my witness...

[sabrina 1]

36. That is not how I read the comment. What I read and agree with

was that the commenter is far more concerned about the poor than about any politician, such as the President. The President, s/he said, will not go hungry. That is true, no politician and certainly no former president, will ever go hungry in this country. So, like the commenter to whom you responded, I am way, way more concerned about the poor in this country than I am about any politician. One in five children going to bed hungry in this country is a national disgrace and a crisis.

The only way to end that is to create jobs and stop firing people who work in the public sector just because Republicans stamp their little feet over it. They are WRONG, someone needs to stand up firmly and strongly and the American people would cheer, across party lines, and tell these Republican morons to go get a real job and stop feeding at the government trough since they despise it so much. Meantime those who view it as a public service, need to get busy, get the people on their side, and start putting American jobs first.

Someone asked what policies have harmed American workers. NAFTA for one, and now we are hearing that the President is going to be pushing for more 'free trade' agreements. This is bad for the American people. I thought everyone who can think knew that.

[No Elephants]

69. "Will" applies to the future, not how he was brought up. And his mom

while she was on welfare, also lived with her parents, both of whom worked, his grandmother as a bank officer and his grandfather as a salesman.

Obama was never in danger of going hungry or homeless. He attended a pricey private Hawaiian high school as well.

[benjahmeen]

10. uhh

This is a rather racist remark by maxine waters, and it kind of disgusts me. Lots of people are without work and to focus on giving job to one color instead of the other would do nothing but create even more division amongst us.
We all also have a certain level of self responsibility when preparing ourselves for jobs. Shame on you maxine!

[Dragonfli]

24. Think of it like triage, the worst hit are the worst hit, or do you dispute the numbers? /nt

[RaleighNCDUer]

38. While 1300 people drowned in New Orleans, 3 people drowned in lakes

in Minnesota.

Obviously, Minnesota needs help just as much as New Orleans.

You may now return to FR.

[timefortherevolution]

13. Frankly, I don't want to hear one more dam speech. His actions have

rarely backed up his words.

Like Taibbi said, I don't believe a word he says anymore.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[closeupready]

18. Love her.

Keep on keeping on, Maxine! K&R

[These Eyes]

43. As much as I respect Maxine Waters...

And I can certainly understand her frustration, she's off on this one. The unemployment rates for African Americans has always been higher than that of whites, especially for African American men. When things are bad, they're even worse for African Americans. You can't expect the president, just because he's black, to be able to eliminate institutionalized racism, which is where the problem lies. Contrary to popular belief, we do not live in a post-racial society. I understand why some would be hopeful that things would change because a black man was elected president. I know I was, but I was also realistic. The elimination of the problem comes down to more than a just a change in policies. There must be a change in mindsets. Yes, I know we have anti- discrimination laws, but those laws don't keep HR personnel from weeding out applicants based upon "ethnic"-sounding names, attendance at historically black colleges, or places of residence. They don't keep banks from finding ways to reject loan applications for aspiring black entrepreneurs. It's more complicated than just who's in office.

I know some folks love to find any reason to find fault with the president, but the disparity in the unemployment rate for African Americans did not start with him and will not end with him. Even in a booming economy, unemployment rates for African Americans will be higher than their white counterparts.

[Divernan]

52. The main problem producing unemployment is institutionalized corporate welfare, not racism.

What's good for GM & other Big Corporations, is no longer what's good for America.

[These Eyes]

57. The OP was referring to unemployment numbers among a specific group.

To act as if racism has nothing to do with it is naive.

[Divernan]

61. Easier & more immediately effective to regulate corporations

than to attempt to reverse lifelong racism in corporate HR offices.

OF COURSE the HR people and others hiring are often racist, but that is extremely difficult to prove. Lyndon Johnson had the right idea, speaking about how to force integration. Grab them by their dicks and their hearts and minds will follow. That's how Obama should handle the corporations.

I don't expect Obama to reverse/eradicate racism. I expect him to regulate corporations - The Corps. have spent their bailout funding to buy back their company's stocks, which drives up the prices and allows them to cash out their stock options at much higher prices. The corporations have invested more overseas via outsourcing to escape paying US taxes on their profits. Anyone got that list handy of all the Fortune 500 companies which paid no taxes?

Obama could grab them by their tax status and offer them bailout money/tax breaks conditioned upon payment AFTER they have actually hired people. And you can also force corporations to hire and promote proportional to the percentage of minorities in the area which they serve. The feds/courts did this with AT&T back in the 70's. AT&T corporate headquarters and each of the Baby Bells had to hire managers such that women and minorities were proportionally represented in the first three layers of management.

That was immediately effective.

[These Eyes]

71. Thank you for your thoughtful response.

[RaleighNCDUer]

53. The answer to institutionalized racism is institutionalized targeting

of the most disadvantaged population - when you have 7% unemployment in the middle-class, and 45% unemployment for urban blacks, you DON'T concentrate on rescuing the middle class.

[BumRushDaShow]

55. +infinity for an excellent post!!! Wish I could rec it. n/t

[These Eyes]

59. It's amazing to me that some people think that racism plays no part in anything ever!

[EFerrari]

56. If everybody in government made the same excuse, there would be no

Civil Rights Act or Voting Rights Act.

[These Eyes]

58. It's not an excuse it's reality.

It's not about all about laws. It's about the mindsets of those hiring, of the decision-makers. Do you really think that if an employer has a group of equally qualified applicants in front of him or her, that laws will keep him or her from weeding out an applicant based upon color?

[EFerrari]

60. No, you miss the point. Government is not HELPLESS

in the face of institutionalized racism, which is why we have EEO, and the two acts I referenced. You don't throw up your hands and rationalize doing NOTHING.

[These Eyes]

70. No, you missed the point.

Nowhere did I say that nothing should be done. Nowhere! I'm aware of the acts you referenced and EEO, yet the disparity in employment still exists. I take issue with the notion that somehow this president can eliminate the disparity. We have the Americans with Disabilities Act, and yet nearly 70% of individuals with a disability and are not institutionalized, are unemployed. Employers know how to get around a law. You can sign as many acts into law as you want, but until the mindset is changed, racism and discrimination will still exist.

[Vidar]

51. Give him hell, Maxine! He richly deserves it.

[Cool Logic]

64. Waters clearly does not understand how the legislative process functions...

Pitiful...

[Doctor_J]

65. Snap!

:thumbsup:

[lbrtbell]

66. Maxine, that's a low blow

I don't support a lot of what Obama does, but she knows damned well that every Presidential candidate has to focus on Iowa.

[JoeyT]

67. This is hard to refute.

We can't use the "She hates him because she's a racist!" line, the "Doesn't know how government works!" doesn't make any sense, not that it ever does, she's an elected Democrat, so we can't scream about how people need to support elected Democrats, even though it only ever seems to apply to one of them.

I guess we can claim she just wants a pony and never loved him anyway.

[Zorra]

68. Why would Obama cater to unemployed African Americans?

A lot of them don't even golf.