White House Cranks Up the Job Talk

Posted on Feb 11, 2010

Flickr / clementine gallot

A makeshift unemployment office at the “Unemployment Olympics” held in Manhattan’s Tompkins Square Park in March 2009.

The Obama administration is homing in on the employment issue, a prime concern for millions of Americans and one that could have a considerable impact on this year’s midterm elections. Not like that’s what the White House is worried about or anything.

Regardless of Team Obama’s motivation or intent, the Council of Economic Advisers released a report Thursday detailing the administration’s efforts over the last year to help the U.S. economy recover from the economic catastrophe of late 2008 and the ensuing bailout and unemployment debacles.  —KA

The New York Times:

Casting its first year as positive, the administration’s 462-page report served as a summary of its logic and a pitch for Obama’s future agenda.

Recognizing voters were likely to hold Obama to account for the economy, the White House team cast blame on their predecessors and unpopular Wall Street bankers.

‘‘I think there’s just no way to understate how huge the economic challenges facing the country have been this past year,’’ said Christina Romer, head the Council of Economic Advisers. ‘‘So everything obviously from the financial crisis, the terrible recession, but the longer-run problems—the stagnating middle-class incomes, soaring health care costs, the failure to invest in education, innovation, clean energy—we certainly inherited an economy with a number of economic problems.’‘

It’s not clear whether the it-didn’t-break-on-my-watch message would resonate with voters. Republicans were quick to describe the document as propaganda masquerading as governing.

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