Reply #74: All of that has been hashed over here, over and over again

[bhikkhu]

People are afraid that the president will sign "free trade" deals that outsource jobs and hurt the economy. One of the historical roles of the president (one of the founding issues behind the constitution itself) is to manage trade agreements. Obama has a goal of doubling the value of US exports, and so far he's done well - exports hit a record level last month and related job creation is supposed to be about 500k. So on trade he's done well, and that's just a part of the job. Fear of bad trade agreements is based on fear of what other presidents did, not what Obama is doing.

The whole story of how he "held Social Security and Medicare hostage" is bull, from republican sources. Supposedly he demanded that they be cut, and the repugs declined. Whatever...His own words on the matter are nuanced and confidence inspiring if you read them in full. Of course you can cut and paste and edit things down if you are looking for something to fear, but why would anyone here do that?

I don't know quite what you mean by Third Way and so forth, but I assume it is objection to policies which in some cases benefit businesses as employers - such as the bailout of the auto industry that saved a whole sector of US manufacturing, and hundreds of thousands of good jobs. Other things are similar - preventing people from losing jobs sometimes means helping businesses. If you look at them as employers rather than CEO's, it might make more sense, but in any case job creation fails if businesses and jobs are going under faster than new jobs are being created. That was the case for months before and right after the election, when millions of jobs disappeared.

Currently the job situation in the private sector has improved steadily for 21 months straight...there's a long way to go, but it is encouraging to see it going in the right direction.