The Source of Obama’s Trouble

By BOB HERBERT,NYT

 It’s all about Jobs

The Obama administration and Democrats in general are in trouble because they are not urgently and effectively addressing the issue that most Americans want them to:the frightening economic insecurity that has put a chokehold on millions of American families.

The economy shed 36,000 jobs last month,and that was trumpeted in the press as good news. Well,after your house has burned down I suppose it’s good news that the flames may finally be flickering out. But once you realize that it will take 11 million or more new jobs to get us back to where we were when the recession began,you begin to understand that we’re not really making any headway at all.

It’s also widely known by now that the official employment statistics drastically understate the problem. Once we take off the statistical rose-colored glasses,we’re left with the awful reality of millions upon millions of Americans who have lost — or are losing — their jobs,their homes,their small businesses,and their hopes for a brighter future.

Instead of focusing with unwavering intensity on this increasingly tragic situation,making it their top domestic priority,President Obama and the Democrats on Capitol Hill have spent astonishing amounts of time and energy,and most of their political capital,on an obsessive quest to pass a health care bill.

Health care reform is important. But what the public has wanted and still badly needs above all else from Mr. Obama and the Democrats are bold efforts to put people back to work. A major employment rebound is the only real way to alleviate the deep economic anxiety that has gripped so many Americans. Unaddressed,that anxiety inevitably evolves into dread and then anger.

But while the nation is desperate for jobs,jobs,jobs,the Democrats have spent most of the Obama era chanting health care,health care,health care.

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