Despite unemployment rising to its highest level since 1983 a defiant Vice President Biden assured Americans that recovery will come as he presided over a meeting of the administration’s Middle Class Task Force.
Biden acknowledged the Obama administration inherited an abysmal economy, but made it clear that they are determined to turn things around by the end of their first term.
He said: “We're working with the task force to lay a new foundation for economic growth, a future predicated on good education, high-quality health care, and clean energy innovation; and that future that doesn't leave the middle class behind.”
Biden asserted that the middle class will be in a much better position coming out of this recession than they were going in.
These are nice sentiments, but although we’re still very early into the Obama administration there still seems to be reason to worry…and criticize.
Despite 65% percent of Americans and 70% of doctors in support of it, a Senate panel has twice voted down proposals to create a government-run insurance plan. President Obama has said we can’t have job reform without health care reform. Well, what’s health care reform with a public option?
Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor, warns that job losses well surely reach the double digits next year and may remain there for some time. Reich advises that the government spend money to build America’s infrastructure – arguing such a move will create jobs.
I agree wholeheartedly, but there seems to be an elephant in the room that these donkeys fail to acknowledge – the factors and players that helped usher in the second greatest financial crisis in U.S. history. What is being done to make sure that a meltdown of this magnitude doesn’t happen again? FYI, working with the very people who created this mess isn’t an acceptable answer.
This means you Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner, and Larry Summers. I’ve noticed their change in tone in recent months, but why should any of them be trusted now? Besides, if Obama's campaign was rooted in change why work with those who helped usher in policies that led us to the brink of financial catastrophe?
Cornel West asked this question in a recent interview with Democracy Now.
On his old Harvard colleague, Larry Summers, Dr. West said: “…here's somebody who has no history whatsoever of sensitivity to poor people or working people, who had been supporting deregulation for a long time as a Clintonite, in the Clinton administration. What is going on here? Or has Obama already become so comfortable with the establishment that you had to have an economist who was legitimate to the establishment in order for him to get his regime off the ground?
Anyone care to answer?
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Michael Arceneaux hails from Houston, lives in Harlem and praises Beyoncé’s name wherever he goes. Follow him on Twitter.