White House Plans Sham Jobs Forum

by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

“The administration is determined to keep spending down, now that Wall Street has already gotten its trillions.”

Don’t expect anything meaningful from next month’s White House Forum on Jobs. In announcing the December event, a noncommittal – even reluctant-looking – President Obama said it was the government’s “obligation to consider every additional responsible step we can” to deal with joblessness, officially standing at 10.2 percent overall and 15.7 percent for Blacks. There was the palpable sense that the Administration felt bum-rushed by congressional Democrats who are beginning to panic at their prospects for re-election during a jobless recovery-for-the-rich.

On the heels of the initial announcement, the White House felt compelled to narrow the forum’s scope and tamp down expectations among the Democratic base. The event would not be an occasion to discuss a second stimulus package, said an Obama aid. The president was telling the Left, Don’t even think about a big, new jobs program, it ain’t happening. For Obama’s soul mates in the finance capitalist class, the clarification was reassurance that the administration is determined to keep spending down, now that Wall Street has already gotten its trillions.

Although the double-edged message from the White House was quite clear, the most prominent voices in civil rights and labor chose to pretend they hadn’t gotten the drift. Obama should act to “directly create jobs that put people to work helping communities meet pressing needs, especially in distressed communities facing severe unemployment,” said a joint statement by the leaders of the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, the AFL-CIO, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Economic Policy Institute, and the Center for Community Change.

“There was the palpable sense that the Administration felt bum-rushed by congressional Democrats who are beginning to panic at their prospects for re-election during a jobless recovery-for-the-rich.”

Diehard Obamites, with only their own wishful thinking as a guide, still cling to the notion that the president secretly longs to be forced to come to the aid of workers and people of color. If they beg respectfully enough, and withhold judgment on the administration’s actual record and behavior long enough, it is fervently believed that the president will hear the voices of his better angels.

But Obama has already baldlye stated his views on targeted aid to Black America and other “distressed communities facing severe unemployment.” Back on April 29, at the president’s “first 100 days” press conference, BET reporter Andre Showell used very similar language to ask Obama’s intentions regarding Black unemployment that was, “as you know, in the double digits.” Showell phrased his inquiry, this way:

“My question to you tonight is given this unique and desperate circumstance, what specific policies can you point to that will target these communities and what's the timetable for us to see tangible results?”

Obama responded with a version of the old canard that a “rising tide lifts all boats”:

“So my general approach is that if the economy is strong, that it will lift all boats as long as it is also supported by, for example, strategies around college affordability and job training, tax cuts for working families as opposed to the wealthiest that level the playing field and ensure bottom-up economic growth.”

“The six civil rights and labor organizations seem not to take their president seriously.”

Obama is philosophically opposed to targeted programs that might directly impact on Black unemployment, and he has served notice he will entertain no proposals at the Jobs Forum for a new, general economic stimulus. But the six civil rights and labor organizations seem not to take their president seriously. What is certain is that Obama will not take them seriously as long as their mild-mannered requests are unaccompanied by credible threats to his administration’s and party’s political health.

The Six Petitioners, if I may call them that, also “urgently call for” extended unemployment benefits, “substantial fiscal relief to state and local governments,” new investment in infrastructure, expanded public service jobs, and transfer of Wall Street “troubled asset” bailout money to small businesses that would likely create jobs. Of these, only extended jobless benefits and token aid to small business stand a chance of garnering meaningful support from the White House. And Democrats in Congress will not move decisively without the president’s approval.

What Obama appears to be planning for December is a talk-fest designed to give the impression that his White House is an honest broker seeking consensus solutions to a national jobless crisis that requires both “new ideas” and “cherished values” – and other such nonsense. Even Obama had difficulty summoning up enthusiasm for the charade, when announcing the event. The First Black President’s empty diversions no longer hold his own attention.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

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