Don’t you think Obama should make the 15 million unemployed a higher priority than health care?
The number of unemployed is greater than the number of truly uninsured. Would you rather be unemployed or uninsured? Which circumstance would have a more immediate, profound and genuinely devastating affect on your life?
About 15 million people are now collecting unemployment. It is estimated that, perhaps twice this number, is also unemployed, exhausted their benefits and/or have given up looking for work.
The number of truly ‘uninsured’ is considerably less. If you remove illegal immigrants, those between jobs and opting NOT to pay COBRA, those who voluntarily choose NOT to buy private insurance (middle income folks all). The number of truly ‘uninsured’ is considerably less than the number of unemployed. Insurance is important, don’t get me wrong, but isn’t a job? Isn’t employment, FAR more critical? A guy or girl needs a job NOW to pay the bills, buy food, pay the rent…heck! Buy insurance!
Shouldn’t Obama be investing himself and his efforts much more in the economy; creating an environment that promotes business, prosperity and jobs rather than this, his little pet project of government run health care?
Who said anything about ‘government provided jobs’? The government is not the engine that drives the economy or CREATES prosperity, but there is a LOT the government can do to, as I said earlier ‘…create an environment that promotes business, prosperity and jobs.’ Lower business taxes, reduce government intrusion, stop villifying ‘profit’ as an evil result of commerce. Obama raised the minimum wage that businesses are forced to pay entry level, mostly teenage, employees. In doing so, he increased the cost of doing business all across the board. Shouldn’t his actions ENCOURAGE rather than DISCOURAGE the private sector? Isn’t our nation’s prosperity and encouraging businesses to bring people back to work more important than health care? Seriously!!
tehabwa: You’re a good little Obama disinformer, Teha. I’m sure he’s proud.
Filed under: Pet Health Insurance
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
The best way for Obama to help the 15 million unemployed, is to change his whole presuppositions about his political beliefs. He twists and turns so much as he flip-flops around on issues and rhetoric.
So maybe he could flip-flop a little more drastically.
In order to help the 15 million unemployed, he could make the Bush tax cuts permanent, he could put all corporations back into being privately run, and he could drop all pretense of backing the unscientifically motivated cap and trade. If he did that, stocks would go through the roof, companies would hire, entrepreneurs could start up more businesses, manufacturers would have to again have a full assembly line, and our nation would be begging to have more work-visa permits given to those in other countries. We wouldn’t be able to keep up with the employment demands.
He won’t–if they get jobs they won’t vote Democrat anymore.
Yes if he were truly concerned about the American worker he would be doing something about that
I would rather obama did nothing, because everything he tries to improve, is by increasing government, and giving labor unions more power.
obama hates the non-union private sector, which is where millions of jobs have been lost.
No I do not, Neocon.
Its all about putting the country in debt. That should be his new slogan.
What happened to conservative credo of Government not interfering in capitalism?
Shouldn’t the unemployed get off their lazy asses and get a job, isn’t what the right always says.
Now you want Obama to step in? Make up your minds.
Now for my take: yes he should do something, my recommendation would be to promote new industries as the manufacturing sector is losing.
Yes because without jobs health care won’t matter. If people can’t eat they won’t health care. Obama’s agenda is only self serving.
To help unemployment one would have to stop taxing an spending like a madman.Mandates are also killing jobs ,cap n trade will be the death blow to millions of workers. Will they stop no, Dem’s just are not wired that way.
So you don’t want government-provided health care, but you do want government-provided jobs? This seems kinda hypocritical to me.
The free market is good at providing jobs. It’s not so good at providing health care coverage for everyone. I believe Obama has provided an environment that promotes business, prosperity, and jobs, as proven by the economic turn around our country has already seen since his inauguration. However, I think it’s foolish to expect the free market to handle all of our problems.
We are nearing ten percent unemployment in our nation that is a depression. I do feel at this time that getting people back to work so they can have health care is more important to our economy and well being.
If Dubya had concentrated on any of those things then maybe we would have those circumstances that you speak of.
I know Clinton did not hand off said circumstances.
He is working on getting people back to work. Unemployment is the last thing to change as the economy improves. Always has been. Things will improve when employers are willing to hire more people. It’s slow going and painful but that’s how it has always been in this country. Reagan had to put up with it just like Obama is now.
This is how a free market works. The rich lay people off so they can stay rich rather than cutting their pay so that people can put food on their tables. Blame Obama or Bush all you want but the reality is that the wealthy are in control of how their money is going to be spent. When they realize that a small cut now can be worth so much more in the future, these problems will diminish.
Uh, you seem to have been living off-planet. He’s BEEN focusing on the economy, including the stimulus to slow unemployment and create jobs (which his critics tried to prevent).
No, 15 million is NOT a bigger number than 48 million (and counting), but covering uninsured is NOT the only goal of reform. It will help everyone too have costs contained so people who have insurance now can keep it, and to bring down government spending — not to mentin things like improving quality of care, and preventing insurers from dumping people the moment they need health care.
22,000 DIE every year because they ave no access to health care, many of us suffer because we need care.
Obama is a smart man with a big staff. He’s been able to do more than one thing at a time.
It’s not Obama’s fault that unemployment is the last thing to improve during recovery, OR that Republicans stripped out much of the stimulative parts of the stimulus bill (before refusing to vote for it).
Still, thus far, he’s cut the unemployment rate by 2/3.
It takes time for an economy nearly tanked by wing-nuts to recover; there’s no getting around that.
Reducing health care costs helps every family, business, and level of government be able to spend elsewhere, or even reduce total spending.
"opting not to pay COBRA" — right, they should go without food to keep insurance.
BTW, you left out the biggest group of uninsured: people with jobs that don’t offer affordable health care.
Unemployment is already done at the state level, so why would the federal government need to mess with it?