"We can do this without you": Obama Rolls Out a Jobs Plan That Doesn't Need Congress

[kpete]

Obama Rolls Out a Jobs Plan That Doesn't Need Congress
The president has asked federal agencies to find solutions on their own. His message to lawmakers: We can do this without you.



President Obama is either fed up with Congress or he's testing his own administration's mettle. Or both.

On Wednesday, Obama took a now-familiar path in adopting a program--this time a jobs and infrastructure effort--that can happen entirely within his domain. Obama directed several federal agencies to identify "high-impact, job-creating infrastructure projects" that can be expedited now, without congressional approval.

One week before he will make a major address to Congress on jobs, Obama is making sure they know he plans to move forward without them. The president has also directed the Education Department to come up with a "Plan B" updating the 2001 No Child Left Behind law in the absence of congressional action. The message to Congress is clear: Do your work or we'll do it for you.

Under Wednesday's order, the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, and Transportation will each select up to three high-priority infrastructure projects that can be completed within the control and jurisdiction of the federal government. The effort is labeled as a "common-sense approach" to spurring job growth "in the near term." In practical terms, that means speeding up the permitting and waiver processes for green-building or highway projects to get the government out of the way. One of businesses' foremost complaints with government infrastructure projects is that the paperwork is too cumbersome and creates unnecessary delays, according to White House economic advisers.

...................

the rest:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/09/obama-rolls-out-a-jobs-plan-that-doesnt-need-congress/244420/

[femmocrat]

1. Then why was it so necessary to address a joint session ?

He could have taken that message directly to the people and by-passed the Congress entirely.

:shrug:

[Fumesucker]

2. One also wonders why it hasn't been done already...

This isn't exactly a new problem, it's been an ongoing emergency for years now.

[leftstreet]

6. +1

[scheming daemons]

8. The $800b stimulus of 2009, according to Moody's kept unemployment from reaching 12%

Mark Zandi had a chart showing that, without the stimulus, unemployment would've peaked at 12% and would be above 10% now.


So he *DID* do something about jobs, and it worked.



Also... the HCR law, which has already started driving down healthcare spending, will create jobs by saving companies and individuals on health care costs.


Also... the Auto bailout saved at least 250,000 *AMERICAN* auto jobs, according to independent analysts.


This President *HAS* done things to spur job growth... up until the GOP took over the House.



He took an economy that was hemorraging 700,000 jobs a month and has it gaining private sector jobs for 14 straight months.... even though it is acknowledged that it isn't gaining them fast enough.


The car was going off a cliff, and he turned it just in time. But it is still leaking oil and needs a tuneup.




FDR took a decade to dig America out of its hole. Obama's had 2.5 years. He'll get us there.

[Fumesucker]

12. I'm reminded of that old Bill Cosby routine about Noah and the Ark..

How long can you tread water, Noah?

http://www.jr.co.il/humor/noah4.txt

Some of us are going down for the third time..

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Jav7FPZftEU/SmPY3ZSrs-I/AAAAAAAAAno/4MhB9HrTLzE/s400/Patience+my+ass.jpg

[Octafish]

39. Riiight.

Signed,
Drowned in Detroit

[Pholus]

14. Hey, this one seems to be a GREAT move on the part of the President -- Bravo!

[Llewlladdwr]

28. I saw a chart once too...

It explained that without a stimulus package unemployment would hit 9%+ but we could hold it to 8% with the plan.

Sometimes charts lie.

[Mr Dixon]

31. Sweet

Please kind Sir keep posting, you have made my day with that facts and not the Hate

[slay]

21. Cause now it's election time.

we'll get a few things here and there to try and make us forget all the other ways Obama has stabbed progressives in the back in his first term. I will NOT forget.

[Mr Dixon]

32. IMO

I'm sure you wont, perry is counting on your vote, please don't disappoint

[scentopine]

43. Perry is counting on you to piss people off so much, they vote for anyone but Obama -nt

[progressoid]

30. +1000

[Javaman]

41. Because he needs drama to get people convinced to vote for him again.

He now is putting on his "looking tough" suit and make up. Let's see how long it lasts under the glare of public scrutiny.

[Horse with no Name]

42. It wasn't time for re-election and I guess he was afraid folks would forget

:shrug:

[Fumesucker]

3. Dupe, self delete..

[scheming daemons]

4. Addressing a joint session, on national TV, *IS* taking it to the people

[Tx4obama]

5. Because NOT everything in Obama's job plan can be done without Congress.

There will be several things regarding his jobs plan that Obama will outline in his speech directed to The Congress.
I think everyone should wait till they hear the speech before jumping to conclusions :)

[Dragonfli]

7. He needs them for "free trade" for example /nt

[Tx4obama]

10. See comment #9. n/t

[sad sally]

16. These "high-impact, job-creating infrastructure projects"

would have to come from funds that were appropriated in the 2011 budget and if they weren't planned, funds will have to be reprogrammed - government agencies can't just spend money on whatever they feel like (except for the secret agencies).

There are only 30 days left in the 2011 budget, so it's really inefficient to think agencies are going to try to get any funds reprogrammed at this late date, especially since that takes congressional approval.

FY2012 budget starts October 1, 2011, but none of the dozen spending bills for agencies have passed, so where is the money coming from for these projects? It sounds a bit like pie in the sky talk.

Add to that, all these agencies mentioned - Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Transportation and Education, plus the others not mentioned - have been tasked by President Obama to come up with 5% and 10% cuts for fy2012 in order to meet the President's promise to cut trillions from the debt. Something just doesn't add up.

[riderinthestorm]

18. =1(00000). Yup, the real hard facts. Thanks for posting. nt

[Joe Fields]

24. Excellent point.

I was thinking the same thing, only you framed the issue much better.

[jmowreader]

I think we would all love it...

if the "joint session" turned out to be a joint ass chewing. Congress NEEDS it.

[jmowreader]

44. I think we would all love it...

if the "joint session" turned out to be a joint ass chewing. Congress NEEDS it.

[Tx4obama]

9. Here's a link to an article that has 'some' of the details of Obama's speech

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/01/obama-jobs-plan-jobs-speech_n_945529.html

[Dragonfli]

11. Sounds like this plan (link below), interesting

http://www.industryweek.com/articles/u-s-_chamber_of_commerce_unveils_job-creation_plan_25482.aspx?Page=2&SectionID=3

[AC_Mem]

13. Good!

I hope it makes boner cry!

:)

Annette
looking forward to listening to what the President has to say!

[Tx4obama]

15. K&R n/t

:kick:

[Bluebear]

17. So if congress isn't needed, this was not done 2 years ago why??

[sad sally]

19. That's the thing, you see, congress is needed. Appropriations come

from congress and with 30 days left in the fy2011 budget, and not a one spending bill for fy2012 having been passed, and with all these agencies tasked with coming up with 5% and 10% cut scenarios in order to meet the President's promise to cut spending, plus major natural disaster money needed to repair many many shattered States, unfunded wars, where is the money coming from for these projects?

Most all agencies (except defense and the secret ones) are operating under the assumption that there won't be a fy2012 budget passed for months - just like 2011 - and they'll be operating on continuing resolutions, so how can they come up with new projects?

[scheming daemons]

22. The stimulus was done two years ago... and it worked..... but it has now dried up

It's time for another one.

[michreject]

25. I tried looking that figure up and couldn't find it

Most of the articles I read said that between 100 and 150 billion remains unspent.

http://www.thewashingtoncurrent.com/2011/08/could-unspent-stimulus-money-be-used-to.html

[progressoid]

29. The stimulus worked for Wall Street.

It didn't do jack shit for the rest of us.

[phleshdef]

33. Tell that to all the cops and firefighters and other public employees whos jobs were saved by it.

You obviously don't know the difference between the stimulus and the bailout. Thats a sign that you have no business harboring an opinion on the matter.

[progressoid]

35. I stand corrected.

The bailout helped wall street and the stimulus helped public employees.

Great for them.

Shit for the rest of us.

[inna]

38. it did help, actually - but not nearly enough.

still, the result is net positive - unlike many of this administration's policies/proposals that are downright harmful.

[Shining Jack]

51. Obama is not a dictator blah blah blah.

Sick of this shit, he does what he wants when he's told to want to.

[FredStembottom]

20. Tiny. little hope-y flicker as I read this.

It needs a lot of tending to grow into fiery enthusiasm.:shrug:

[LatteLibertine]

23. Heavy infrastructure investment is

such an obvious thing to do. We should have been pushing it much sooner. The nation needs it and it would create all kinds of employment.

[Blue Meany]

26. Maybe he can find some revenue by suing banksters,

directing the IRS to focus tax enforcement on the rich and corporations, and adding fees for services received by "corporate persons" who pay no taxes.

[WDIM]

27. Why did he wait till now?

Shouldn't they have already made the High-Priority a High-Priority?

[McCamy Taylor]

34. K&R

[yodermon]

36. He's waiting so that it is ABUNDANTLY CLEAR to even the most low-information voters

that the GOP/Teabaggers are fully 100% responsible for this fiasco.

[Shagbark Hickory]

37. Hilarious. Those of you saying "good" never learn... This is how it always begins.

Obama hints on doing getting something done then the dinos and pigs say NOT SO FAST, OBAMA! Then they voice their disapproval with his plan and then he lets them have their way in the name of bipartisan sportsmanship.

[Shining Jack]

52. 'xactly.

[sofa king]

40. Awesome!

I've been sitting on this for almost a month, but now the cat is out of the bag and it's safe to say this without concern for screwing up the plan by yakking about it.

The President gamed that debt deal so thoroughly that I think he can now do pretty much whatever he wants.

Part of the swindle was that the President freely gave away "discretionary spending," that is, money allocated to the Executive Branch but not specifically directed to any program. On the surface, that is bad for the President, which is why the Republicans bought the deal. In just the past week, several Republicans tipped their hand that further cuts to the President's discretionary spending was going to be their next target.

But discretionary spending doesn't mean shit anymore, because at the same time, the President made sure to tuck in an unusual agreement: the President snookered Congress into delegating the authority to fund much of the Executive Branch to the President himself, through the ruse of raising the debt ceiling. And, they basically reversed roles. Now, Congress can only register a "vote of disapproval," effectively a veto, but the President can veto that, and Congress can only override the veto with a 2/3 majority vote in both houses of Congress, which is never going to happen.

So now, I'm pretty sure, the President can devise pretty much any job creation program he wishes, totally outside of the review of Congress, pay for it himself, and thwart any attempt to stop him.

Interestingly enough, I think that there is plenty of precedent to do just that, thanks to the Bush Administration's creation of a number of shadowy domestic surveillance bodies that were studiously ignored by Congress, as well as a nice stack of Republican-backed Supreme Court decisions that backed up old Georgie no matter what he did. But this President is not an asshole, so rather than spy on our citizens, he seeks to employ them.

Oh, and to all of you who bored me all summer long with your sarcastic multi-dimensional-chess/rope-a-dope comments: THIS IS THE FUCKING ROPE-A-DOPE, and you whiners have been working for the Republicans all summer long. You should be deeply ashamed of yourselves, and I will be there to publicly embarrass you with your prior comments if you continue.

[Zanzoobar]

45. Wile E.Coyote, Super Genius!

I cannot wait to see him break out those Acme boxes.

[Auntie Bush]

46. How did you know Obama's plan? Are yousome kind of Gov official?

Just wondering. :shrug:

[sofa king]

54. I am a sorcerer with powerful magic.....

My ability to predict the future comes through a strange and secretive ritual, of which the Republicans and many posters here are totally unaware....

But I'll tell you what it is. I actually read the legislation, including the sunset dates, and then compared those dates to a magical device called a calendar. Similar to astrology, a calendar allows one to guess when a particular law will be in effect, and when it will end. Reading the legislation allows one to guess what a law will do and how it works. I am merely an apprentice in using these incantations compared to the President.

But seriously, for some reason the Republicans have a real problem anticipating the consequences of the agreements they enter into with the President and the Democrats in Congress. It's all written out for anyone to see, for example at THOMAS. I assume that they have legislative analysts, as I used to be, who are supposed to warn them about these things, but for some reason they did not heed the warnings.

I think that the Republicans assumed that further obstruction, hostage-taking, and disingenuous bargaining would allow them to reverse the unfortunate (for them) details to which they previously agreed. But every time the negotiations go behind closed doors, they come out backing the President's new plan. The pivot around which the negotiations seem to turn is Republican greed. Greed can be easily turned against the greedy, I guess, though I don't know how to do it myself.

[myrna minx]

53. Are you a staffer? How would you know this for a month? n/t

[myrna minx]

47. I hope we can gat a big jobs program - people are really hurting. K&R n/t

[Zanzoobar]

48. People are hurting. Politcians are not.

There's a difference.

[russspeakeasy]

49. What the hell has he been waiting for....

I'll believe it when I see it....no more fucking lectures ...just do it.:beer:

[Shining Jack]

50. +1

[Motown_Johnny]

55. and where does the money come from?

Congress holds the purse strings


Unless they are reallocating funds they already have I don't see how this can be done, and if they are just moving funds around is it really going to do any good?