Black Jobs Dilemma; Congressional Black Caucus, Yes Barack Obama…

by Staff August 19, 2011 2 Comments Misc. News Opinion Politics Weekly Columns

Like Love Haha Wow Sad Angry

(ThyBlackMan.com) Congresswoman Maxine Waters minced no words when she said that members of the Congressional Black Caucus are “frustrated” and impatient that President Obama is not doing enough to tackle the crisis problem of black unemployment. This is hardly the first time that Waters and other members of the Caucus have gently chided Obama on the jobs issue. But this time their criticism has taken on even greater angst, with a tinge of antagonism to boot. The unemployment lines have gotten longer, the time that the unemployed have been unemployed has stretched out from weeks to months with little end in sight, and many major businesses have flatly said they’re not hiring. Worst of all, Congress has made it clearer that it will pinch pennies even tighter, and that means even less likelihood for increased federal spending on job creation initiatives.

This drastically narrows the president’s options, and even though he’ll propose a jobs bill in September, almost certainly it will have little chance of getting around the Scrooge mindset in Congress. And it’s equally certain that his proposals will be race neutral and not specifically single out blacks for special spending initiatives and programs. This is in keeping with his firm position that spending more on jobs for all will help blacks, since they are the neediest and the hardest hit among the jobless.

This line won’t fly with many in the Congressional Black Caucus and many blacks who demanded that Obama roll his job tour buses and economic forums through Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and other hard hit inner cities neighborhoods. But there was never much likelihood of that. Obama’s eye is firmly set on re-election. And he can’t and won’t (publicly at least) depart from the race neutral formula that got him into the White House. He’s walking too fine a line to take that chance. Obama operates on the same principle that Democratic presidential candidates and presidents have operated on for the last three decades and that is to avoid like the plague the perception that Democrats inherently tilt toward the poor and minorities, but especially minorities, on policies and initiatives.

This political cross weighs even heavier on Obama. He would have had no hope of winning the Democratic presidential nomination, let alone the presidency, if there had been any sense among white independents that he embraced the alleged race-tinged politics of Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. His campaign would have been marginalized and compartmentalized as merely the politics of racial symbolism.

Polls continually show that he’s lost major support among white voters, and the sharpest drop has been among moderate and conservative white independent voters. They provided his margin for victory in 2008. No Democratic President, in this case him, or GOP presidential challenger can win without significant backing from them. The slightest hint that Obama is tilting toward African-American voters with a big, bold and aggressive jobs plan, or other special programs that primarily target blacks would likely blow any chance that he had of winning a significant number of independents back in 2012. It’s just too risky.

Even if Obama were willing to take the gloves off and specifically turn part of the battle for increased job spending into a battle explicitly to help the black poor, there would be little political gain. There is absolutely no chance that black voters will desert him in 2012. They are Democrats en masse, and will give any Democratic president, or presidential candidate, a lock down 85 to 90 percent of their vote. The top GOP contenders offer the worst choice of any GOP presidential candidate that has come down the political pike in ages. Their set-in-stone, laissez-faire business friendly, slash and burn of government services and programs, and silence or outright hostility to expansive civil rights and civil liberties protections, positions has sent massive chill through the black electorate. Their frustration, discontent and grumbles with and about Obama won’t move their vote dial even a tiny tick toward a GOP candidate. This would be tantamount to political suicide.

This especially includes the Congressional Black Caucus. With one exception, they owe their offices, position, authority, patronage, perks, and total allegiance to the Democratic Party. They will hector Obama to do more on jobs and poverty for blacks. But in 2012 they will be in full throttle on the circuit campaigning for the president. They have no choice. Still, it would have been nice for Obama to direct his bus driver on a detour through a few desperately needy and job starved black neighborhoods.

Written By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

One can find more info about Mr. Hutchinson over at the following site; TheHutchinson ReportNews.

Also feel free to connect with him through twitter; http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson

2 Comments

Warren says:

August 22, 2011 at 12:32 pm

This is a piece a friend of mine wrote about our current state of affairs. When will we have leadership which stops begging and put job creation on the right people?

The problem today is that we must challenge every group to do something about the problems (economic) that exist in the Black community. No one gets a pass today. The times demand it. We are challenging all of these organizations, every Church, every group, every Mosque, etc., in the Black communities around the country to do something about the unemployment among our people; the high levels of dependency on the welfare rolls, etc. It seems that these groups preoccupied with collecting big offerings for the pastor, for the Imams every week, but are not concern with this terrible unemployment picture among the poor; that includes all these Black secrete orders, these Frats, Shiners, Masons, Farrakhan, the Muslim groups..any Black organization existing in our community today.

We are not talking about just giving away food (free food). We are talking about a lot more than that. Categorically, these institutional leaders are just sitting, “selling pipe dreams” of a better world after we leave this one to the people, or they are preaching that “morals” aren’t important, morals don’t matter; just “git” money; worship money. But any sincere person will tell that you will be thoroughly destroyed without moral intelligence. Once you are defeated morally, you can be defeated in every other way. Most of these institutions have the people struggling under a Lazarah syndrome, begging the rich man to make a way for them; they have them, if not begging literally, on the corners; they look to, and seek crumbs from the government collected from the wealthy to keep the masses pacified, and unproductive.

These Church groups, Islamic centers never come with a business plan to build and employ people. It is always some new place to “pray.” The earth is a Masjid. We can pray in the park. We need business opportunity. These institutions always send the masses out with their hands out, looking for someone to give them something. They should show some leadership for once in your life. All we need is just to get anyone of them to encourage their communities to address these very serious concerns for material development, to set an example for the rest of us, and we can get motivation from that one group. The Quran instructions to us compete in the doing of good. If they could just get their people to do it; the rest will get motivation from that one.

The way things stand now, the corrupt element in the government that wants to see the poor masses unproductive and weak; their trick is working when we are afraid to try and address these concerns for ourselves. What trick is that? Just take a look at any Black organization that tried to go for its self, addressing its own problems of material development. You can go way back in our history and see this. And you don’t have to look way back to see this strategy by government! Last year Imam Lukman in Detroit was employing his people; they had product they were selling, they had trucks, and a nice warehouse, and what happened to him? Study any of these Black groups trying to do for self in the history of our people. Historically, the government sends in infiltrators, demonizes the leader, frame the leadership, then murders, or imprisonment him for the rest of his life. Check the record.

The government was in touch with Jim Jones and his community that perishes along with some 600 other members of the poor African American community, mostly totally Blacks in the jungles of Guyana back in the 70s. Several of those members who were in the leadership there walked away (CIA). Our government pursued them outside of America, and killed them rather than allow them to set and example for other members of the poor hear to go to extreme measures to better themselves. This strategy by the government is dictated to the by “Big Business Barons.” That is who hates the poor, and don’t want them to compete for the economic power of America.

They know if we get wealth, their game is up. We have the knowledge today, now we must get the wealth to implement what our collective soul yearns for. The wicked elements in the government are caring out the dictate of the Big Business Baron that sees us as nothing but disposable lab rats. And are hell bent upon us never trying to do something for ourselves. We are only to be consumers; wait until I (Baron) decide what is best for you. This behavior on the part of our government is designed to kill in our people the kind of thinking to do for self that will make us free and independent. Research for yourself; find any Black group that tried to establish themselves independent of welfare, and look at their fate. But we must keep trying. We cannot be discouraged.

We have to throw numbers at the wall. Every group has to attack the wall of dependency and complacency together; and we must do it now, today. These Barons look invincible, but their weaknesses are they are “greedy, and wasteful.” We can compete with them. Some of us will make it over on the bodies, and in the blood of others. But we will get over the wall of under establishment, the wall of dependency, and the wall of mental enslavement. Some will make it to the promise land of dignity, independent community life, and freedom if we work collectively living off our captivation and preoccupation with labels and difference where we can hold our heads up with dignity along with other ethnic groups in America that are making a good future for themselves.

This is our destiny. God is with us.

Reply
James Davis says:

August 19, 2011 at 4:34 pm

I will be traveling to Miami to present the following plan to end this recession. The Davis Deficit Neutral Stimulus Plan wil bring these high unemployment numbers to an end, if I, First, have the opportunity to present and Second, if its embraced.
The plan is about how to get our economy moving and creating the needed jobs to pull us completely out of this recession. This economy needs to create 250,000 to 300,000 jobs monthly to sustain a healthy economic recovery.

There is a viable solution, however. The solution to this problem, in one word, is Stimulus!! The economy needs to be stimulated, much as it was in the last economic upswing, by us, the consumer. When money is placed directly in the hands of individual citizens, that money by the federal government’s own calculation turns over at least 2 times, maybe 3 times. The solution, I speak of, rests with the baby-boomers, who are estimated to be 68-72 million who are retiring over the next 20 years at a rate of approximately 9,600 per day. They do not currently have the option of taking down “partial distribution payments” from the Social Security Trust Fund. While this has long been a requirement for private sector pension plans to offer this option to potential retirees, government sponsored Social Security is not required to offer this option, to potential Social Security retirees. ( I feel it s/b offered to all retirees @ 66 years of age who are taking down “full” retiree benefits ).

Imagine, the economic impact, if the laws governing the largest retirement payor in the world, Social Security, were altered to allow “PARTIAL DISTRIBUTION” payments. This modification would make it possible for retirees to take up to a suggested 20k or 40k in a partial distribution payment from their Social Security Retirement Trust Fund, as they retire, leaving the remainder of their retirement funds to be received in monthly annuity checks. For example, if my principal is $170,000.00 ( the amount my monthly Social Security check of $1,000.00 is based on ), and I chose to roll over a principal of $150,000.00 to Social Security, taking down 20k to use as I choose, Congress could alter the laws to allow me to do this. This plan will not add to the deficit, keep in mind, my monthly Social Security check will be reduced correspondingly because it now based on 150k rather 170k. This plan will not bankrupt the Social Security Trust Fund, because the Social Security Trust Fund owes these boomers the money anyway. All Social Security will be doing, is giving an advance payment option of up to 20k or to 40k to eligible recipients as they retire. IT’S THEIR MONEY. To incentivize the plan, the government could waive the taxes on the first $20,000.00, or if they do tax it, tax it at a reduced rate. By extending the partial distribution option, which is required among private pension funds( private pension plans must present this option, among other options also, at the time you are thinking of retiring and rolling over your retirement funds), to Social Security and modifying the taxation on the first 20k withdrawn from a retirement fund, Social Security included, Congress effectively creates a pool of capital big enough, to stimulate the economy, creating jobs. Boomers could dump as much $192,000,000 million dollars into our economy each day, based on the 20k advance, ( $20,000.00 x 9,600 ) which amounts to approximately 70 billion a year, AS THEY PURCHASE PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND REDUCE DEBT TO COMFORTABLY RETIRE. Imagine, that number doubles to $384,000,000 million per day pumped into the economy if the take down amount of the advance is raised to 40k.

Our objective should be to have Congress enact legislative changes to Social Security to make this possible. And put our country back to work !!! Go to http://www.sslumpsum.com for more information. Let’s start this conversation.

Reply