Posted by
flagwaver on Thursday, March 18, 2010 9:02:50 AM
When President Obama assumed office in January 2009 he inherited an economy that was on the verge of implosion. Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac were either collapsing, or on the verge of collapse. Former President George W. Bush and the Democratic Party controlled Congress had rushed through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), better known as the bailout package that was supposed to stabilize the economy, relieve financial firms of their so-called “toxic assets”, and prevent further economic collapse. Also, in the opening days of his presidency Mr. Obama proposed, and the Democratic Party controlled Congress passed the $787 billion Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the Obama stimulus package.
We were assured that the economy was the first priority of the President and his staff, and the President himself sold us on that idea when pressing for passage of the stimulus package. On January 10, 2009 then President-Elect Obama was quoted as saying, “That work [restarting the economy] begins with this plan; a plan I am confident will save or create at least three million jobs over the next few years.” And in the days before his inauguration, the Obama economic team released a report predicting that the stimulus package would hold the unemployment rate below 8 percent through 2010, so congressional approval was vital to the economic health of the nation.
Yet we have seen this president seemingly lose his focus on rescuing the economy and improving the economic situation of the people and direct his energies almost wholeheartedly to the health care reform debate. It seems that the vast majority of his time has gone towards pushing a massive overhaul of the health care system and the health insurance industry, changes by the way that polls show is opposed by about 53-57 percent of the population, and the economy has been given short shrift. I do not want to get into a debate about the reforms that President Obama wants in the healthcare system, but would like to focus on the more pressing issue: addressing the unemployment epidemic that the Obama administration and the Congress have virtually ignored to wage the healthcare battle.
The national unemployment rate in February, one year after the passage of the stimulus, according to the Department of Labor stood at 9.7%. Unofficially, when factoring in discouraged and underemployed workers the percentage was closer to 17 percent. And the numbers for African-Americans were even worse; according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics African-American unemployment was officially 15.8%, with Black men at 17.8%.
Where is the leadership from the Obama administration on this issue? I well understand that a president has limited ability to change situations such as this, but I also understand that what a president deems important becomes an issue of national focus. And to this point President Obama has given passing lip service to the overall issue of unemployment, but has barely mentioned the epidemic that exists in the community from which he so proudly claims to belong. It would be nice if our “first Black President” would use some of his famed oratorical ability, and soaring intellect to address this issue, which unlike the healthcare battle, is of vital importance to the nation and the Black community in particular.