President Obama Says Jobs at Risk in 'Gamesmanship' Over Transportation

[cal04]

Source: Bloomberg

President Barack Obama renewed his call for Congress to extend legislation to fund highways and mass-transit projects he said would save "hundreds of thousands" of jobs.

Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address that while "there's a lot of talk in Washington these days about creating jobs," many are being put at risk "just because of political gamesmanship."

The law expires Sept. 30 and the president is seeking to head off a battle over differences between the House and Senate to avoid a lapse in funding and tax revenue as occurred when the two chambers couldn't agree on legislation to extend the authority of the Federal Aviation Administration.

(snip)
"If it's delayed for just 10 days, we will lose nearly $1 billion in highway funding that we can never get back," he said. "And if we wait even longer, almost 1 million workers could be in danger of losing their jobs over the next year."



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/03/bloomberg1376-LQX4U90UQVI901-7MSC9543GA54UJ39BDDV8TSPDU.DTL

[SHRED]

1. The House will give us nothing

They want to block Obama at every turn, force his failure, and if that means taking the country down they will do it.

Why hasn't the White House woken up to this?


--

[Mosaic]

16. Be negative, be first! Influence people!

I grow weary of negative people on the internet. I am suspicious of their real motives.

"Republicans say they support passing the bill" ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-government/obama-calls-on-congress-to-pass-transportation-bill-says-jobs-are-at-stake/2011/09/03/gIQAzzHOyJ_story.html

[DeSwiss]

26. When I grow weary of negative people, I just put them on IGNORE. Goodbye. n/t

[sarcasmo]

44. You must have a third of D/U on ignore.

[russspeakeasy]

2. unless, unless, unless. a republican objects.

:nopity:

[JJW]

3. More Bridge to Nowhere Projects?

I have doubts about whether any of the money actually ever goes into building or repairing roads.

[awoke_in_2003]

20. no, more like...

repairing the bridges we currently have (and are falling apart due to years of neglect)

[TomCADem]

30. My God, More Tea Party Talking Points Against Stimulus Spending!

Even on DU, you have "liberals" attacking infrastructure spending as unnecessary or corrupt. Our nation's transportation infrastructure needs to be maintained and updated, yet even on a liberal website, we get the left making the same arguments as the Tea Party. Is the left the new Tea Party?

[Fearless]

4. Stop "compromising"/giving in and take a stand for the American people!

[russspeakeasy]

13. He wants, so bad, to be liked...

:evilgrin:

[Shining Jack]

22. Well he miserably failed with me.

I sure as hell don't like him anymore. :(

[TomCADem]

34. I Also Heard That Psycho-Babble On The Cable News! Nice To See It On DU!

Lets ignore the substance of President Obama calling for infrastructure spending in today's Presidential speech, and get into weird meaningless psycho babble about President Obama wanting to be "liked."

[russspeakeasy]

43. "psycho-babble" ? would you prefer "psycho-bubble" ?

:evilgrin:

[TomCADem]

29. Amazing How "Liberals" Spam RW Talking Points

The President is giving a speech to a joint session of Congress, as he wished to do, yet DUers buy into right wing talking points over the timing of the speech.

[ClarkUSA]

35. WTF do you think he's saying? Do you and others here understand the function of Congress AT ALL?

Obviously not, as it seems many seem to think President Obama rules by fiat.

[ixion]

5. All politics is, at the core, 'gamesmenship'

so Obama had better stop whining about it and start playing.

[treestar]

14. Wait a minute. He came out and blamed the Rs and said he wanted something

And you are still bashing him instead of the Rs? This proves you are never going to like anything he does, ever, no matter what it is.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

17. No, we have faith in him. He'll find a way to capitulate to the Republican

Party.

[alp227]

37. Remember when a cartoon of a crying Spkr Gingirch was the cover of NY Daily News

during the '95-'96 shutdown?



I'd like Obama to be so tough that this kinda cover will be repeated this time with BOEHNER (who's had no qualms shedding tears in public).

[ixion]

19. it proves no such thing

and if he actually did something worthwhile, I'd applaud him for it.

[Shining Jack]

23. He would eat puppies for breakfast and you would still defend him.

[U4ikLefty]

28. The Republicans wanted him to eat 10 puppies.

He saved 5 puppies!!1!11

I count that as a win for Obama ;)

[Shining Jack]

41. Lol!

:)

[BNJMN]

21. Exactly, it's like he's stuck in 2008 repeating the same lines that got him elected.

Then throwing his hands up and saying, "See? Gamesmanship!" without any
of that 'fundamental change' we were promised.

If Perry got elected, we'd be damn well certainly wanting 'gamesmanship' to stop him from carrying out his plans.
Obama's 'message' is weak. Sometimes, I think he sincerely doesn't want to win re-election.

He's got it made as it is.
Ex-Presidential treatment is top shelf.

Why should he bother even caring?

[ixion]

27. "I think he sincerely doesn't want to win re-election."

I agree.

[BNJMN]

36. It's frightening.

But, for one thing, how well do we really know any politician's heart?
And for another, how well do we know what tat first night in the WH is really like?

[BeyondGeography]

6. Does he say who's playing the games?

Didn't think so.

[JJW]

7. Wasn't Federal & State taxes on gasoline

supposed to fund all of this. So what happened to all of that money?

[dbt]

8. Would this be the same Obama who couldn't be BOTHERED

about jobs for the first year or so of his Presidency? Sir, I need to remind you AGAIN that if people don't have JOBS, health care is a MOOT POINT.

Hello? Is this thing on?

:freak:

[SharksBreath]

9. Yup. The smae WH that called Wisconsin a distraction.

[TomCADem]

32. Another Lie. President Obama Opposed Gov. Walker's Efforts to Roll Back Union Rights

All the Republican presidential candidates expressly supported Gov. Walker's efforts to strip employees of their collective bargaining rights. What is up with the disinformation campaign?

[No Elephants]

10. You post as though we have health care. We have neither.

Btw, if you're dead, a job is no good to you. So, we need both, but have neither.

We also need him to be strong on the environment because, if the planet isn't going to sustain life, both jobs and health care seem less important.

[dbt]

11. No, I post as though we needed health care before we needed

J-O-B-S. He wasted a year-or-better on something that was/would be a moot point if people DIDN'T HAVE JOBS. I am in complete agreement with your contention that we have neither jobs nor health care.

My next point is that Obama is either COMPLETELY FUCKING CLUELESS about the plight of working people or he chooses to ignore it in favor of huge donations from corporations.

Wow. Which one do I prefer LESS?

[BNJMN]

24. Jobs are slow coming, what we needed was campaign finance reform

in a very B-I-G way.

[treestar]

15. WTF

This thread is making some things very clear.

[Shining Jack]

42. I love puppies.

Puppies are cute.

[TomCADem]

31. That is a COMPLETE LIE! More RW Talking Points! Auto Bailout Alone...

...saved millions of jobs. Can you name a credible economist who says that the stimulus did not save jobs or an economist who says that the Obama administrations efforts to prevent the complete collapse of the credit markets did not prevent an immediate Depression. The econony only started going south again once Republicans won the 2010 elections.

Yet, even the "left" give Republicans a free pass and blames Democrats.

[Skittles]

40. the same one helping pimp jobs offshore, too

[Safetykitten]

12. Who uses this "gamesmanship" thing? If we only knew. How do we find out?

Is it something we can appoint a task force to? This "political gamesmanship" has been an enigma since he took office. We have to get to the bottom of who is doing this thing.

If we do not find out, we will never get anything done!

[BNJMN]

25. We should, perhaps, give a stirring speech abut gamesmanship.

Or tell people about it in a national address to make them aware of it's nefariousness.
Surely, this 'Washington' thing must be discussed at length, too. It seem dangerous and
worth a good speech as well.

[veganlush]

18. the communication of this White House is it's biggest downfall

...Fox "news" the the rest like to point out that the dems have control of two of the three legislative houses (as if the executive branch was legislative) and you know the low-information types out there are eating it up. So, they point out to their silly viewers, if the dems can't get anything done it's their own fault. I got news people, many, many people out there, and many of them that you/we call friends and/or family, couldn't tell you who their senators or reps are, let alone with branch controls the legislative agenda. The White House could have it ALL if they would just start an educate the voters campaign complete with charts and graphs. It really would make a huge difference. Poll your friends/relatives/neighbors how many of them know that the republicans have total control over what gets voted on? The stupid fuck voters of the 2010 gave the repugnants control over the legislative agenda. Why isn't the President and the rest of the dems shouting it from the rooftops, along with a full explanation of HCR while they're at it. If they simply took the time to explain HCR most voters would be all for it.

[TomCADem]

33. Sorry, But No Magical PR Strategy Is Going To Make Fox Objective

The corporate media is corrupt. If we continue to hold our breath and expect that some magical PR strategy is going to fairly cover Democrats or liberals, we are mistaken.

[BNJMN]

38. So.... do interviews outside the corporate backed media. What's so hard to understand about that?

Instead they do nothing. And people like you excuse them.

I'm sure Democracy Now! FSTV, Current TV and a slew of others would pee themselves with glee at a chance to interview the president.
But, we get speeches condemning 'gamesmanship' and 'Washington' instead.
That was a good message......3 years ago.
Does he not realize he IS part of Washington now?

And all we get is a handful of interviews through the normal channels.
Where's the change? Where's the 'fundamental change to the way thing work in Washington'???

He's the GD president of the USA.
At that level we expect top shelf ideas and impressive, surprising plans.
Not excuses.

[Phlem]

39. Talk about your uphill battle,

cause after that I'm sure we're re-addressing our free trade deals that also eat up lots of american jobs.

I' don't know, maybe we could have an displaced worker tax for every american job being out sourced?

Or at least pay the out sourced job in american dollars with cost of living and all the benefits an american worker would get, might encourage re-hiring back here where the money needs to circulate.

What a mess.

-p

[lunasun]

45. Oh but they ARE addrssing our free trade deals -maybe this month -adding Columbia

Panama and Korea most likely......like we make so many things here some one in Panama wants to buy besides what large corporate agriculture here sells to them :dilemma: it is a one way direction for most jobs and it is taking place in Washington Sept/Oct