Obama Plan a Bust on Jobs

We need jobs where we are losing them--new jobs for working Americans in the private sector, not more government jobs which are a drain on taxpayers and the economy. From Heritage Morning Bell:

4 Million Jobs: "My bottom line is to make sure that we are saving or creating 4 million jobs." -Obama is not creating 4 million jobs. According to the Congressional Budget Office, under the most optimistic models Obama's Trillion Dollar Debt Plan would create only 3.6 million jobs and could produce only 1.2 million jobs. And one in five of these jobs will be a government job.

WSJ this morning notes the Japanese Lost Decade, which the president alluded to last night, but somehow missed the import--that the Japanese spent billions on supposed stimulus and it didn't work. Now their children have a crushing debt burden even as their population ages.

President Obama visited Elkhart, Indiana yesterday and will be in Peoria, Illinois Thursday. How can he square his green initiatives which are killing the auto industry and making Elkhart's RV's uneconomical, with job creation? How can he talk to the Cat people in Peoria when Congressional Democrats have inserted protectionist language in this porker disaster--which would shut down Caterpillar's exports and spark a trade war internationally--another job killer.

The president's plan is a bust on jobs. Mr. President, you can do better.

UPDATE: One of Rahm's moderate Democrats, Heath Shuler of North Carolina says the Democrat leadership has failed. Politico:

"In order for us to get the confidence of America, it has to be done in a bipartisan way," Shuler said in Raleigh following an economic forum, according to the AP.

"We have to have everyone — Democrats and Republicans standing on the stage with the administration — saying, 'We got something done that was efficient, stimulative and timely.'"

Here's the kicker: "I truly feel that's where maybe House leadership and Senate leadership have really failed."

Even NPR's Mara Liasson asked the president a question on whether he had learned any lessons from how this bill was crafted--whether he should take a more active role in working on actual bipartisan measures for the next major legislation--the president brushed her off. Senior Democrat Sen. Diane Feinstein said last week the president should have introduced his own bill in the House--but he's taken ownership of this one now, and turned harshly partisan. David Keene, The Hill, Obama's bipartisanship means agreeing with him. William McGurn, WSJ:

Barack Obama is no stranger to the cheers of roaring crowds. If his prime-time press conference last night is any clue, moreover, he intends to use this personal popularity to help Congress get a stimulus bill to his desk quickly. As he does, those who wish his presidency success might do well to whisper in his ear two words of tempering wisdom: "Nancy Pelosi."

In the public eye as well as on Capitol Hill, the California Democrat has become the mother of all stimulus packages. Whatever issues Mrs. Pelosi may claim with the Senate version, her leadership has defined the direction. Her intransigence has set the tone. And her penchant for excess helps explain why out of 535 members of Congress, only three Republicans seem willing to go anywhere near the thing.

It's early days, but already the president has set the tone, and it's not a hopeful one. Nor is it new.