Biden: We Can't Recover All the Jobs Lost

Vice President Joe Biden gave a stark assessment of the economy today, telling an audience of supporters, "there's no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession."

Appearing at a fundraiser with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) in Milwaukee, the vice president remarked that by the time he and President Obama took office in 2008, the gross domestic product had shrunk and hundreds of thousands of jobs had been lost.

"We inherited a godawful mess," he said, adding there was "no way to regenerate $3 trillion that was lost. Not misplaced, lost."

Claims for jobless benefits fell by the largest number in two months last week, but were still high enough to signal weak job growth. Meanwhile, the Senate on Thursday failed to pass an extension of unemployment benefits.

Biden said today the economy is improving and noted that in the past four quarters, there has been 4 percent growth in the economy. Over the last five months, more than 500,000 private sector jobs were created.

"We know that's not enough," the vice president said.

Last week the White House put out a Recovery and Reinvestment Act update claiming that between 2.2 million and 2.8 million jobs were either saved or created because of the stimulus as of March 2010. In signing the Recovery Act into law on Feb 17, 2009, Mr. Obama said the measure "will create or save 3-and-a-half million jobs over the next two years."

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20008924-503544.html

many of whom are associated with "too big to fail" corporations. These guys now sit in their luxurious homes and cars and vacation palaces, saying, "Who knew?" the real estate prices would go down, or the bank instruments would be worthless? And we the American people are left holding the bag, while Richie Rich still gets his tax cuts for the rich and his heirs don't have to pay tax on millions transferred when Richie Rich dies. :grr:

incredibly patronizing. if he can't do what's needed we can find someone else.

who have and want to move operations out of this great country to places that offer cheap labor and lack of environmental controls.

We're also not going to anything to tie immigration, legal and illegal, temporary and permanent, to the need for more workers here in this country.

A lot of people are going to wonder why they bother to show up to vote.

The only thing good coming our way is Lip Service.

My views aren't very popular around here, and it's good to know that I'm not alone.

The national candidates are picked for us and the local candidates get swamped out with name recognition. We actually do have very little choice of who 'represents' us.
Obama sounded good going in, I sometimes wonder why I voted for him because of is ongoing policies. They're not helping us all that much when they actually get implemented.

One reason that I vote Dem is because the Dem picks for Supreme Court and lower federal courts are almost always far superior to the Republican picks, and federal judges are almost impossible to remove.

I still think that Dems are far better on the environment and women's issues.

I used to think that the Dems were better on education, but NCLB and Arne Duncan's policies (Newt Gingrich is a big supporter of them) made me drop that idea. I vote Dem on local school boards unless I know the Dem to be an idiot and the Republican not to be a religious nut case.

we are a minority, but we are correct. cold comfort, i'm sure.

Maryland is hot in late Juhne.

Thanks for your support. If we put our views out there, more folks might show some support. One or two folks sitting on the fence might jump our way, too.

the other is to give hell to the Demo-fascist conspirators and the fools who believe and support them.

about it.

i guess you don't know patronizing lip service and excuse-making when you see it.

Or too young to know what it was like before the these unfair trade agreements and the abuse of the H-1B visa.

instead of the bankers.

Most of those jobs went to China or India, and are certainly not coming back. Employment is the last thing to recover in a recovery, and we are going to have to reconstruct labor policy in a big way to even put a dent in the losses.

i should know, i'm the king of the pessimists. but in this case it is an admission of failure of obama's strategy.

frankly, i don't think a real case can be made that jobs absolutely CAN'T be recovered. how can it be outside the realm of possibility?

And please do not mischaracterize my comments, or Mr. Bidens. Neither one of us said that all jobs are lost and not coming back, only some. And that is irrefutable, for the reasons proferred.

The upside is, if we rethink out labor policies and new job markets (expanding in the technology fields, for instance) we can probably create ones to fill the gaps of those lost.

look into enforcing the MFN on China and others, and think about putting tariffs on stuff that comes in from countries with bad labor and environmental records, we would be in better shape.

That's not even dumping or renegotiating WTO, clamping down on abuses of H1B and L1 visas, or, gasp! controlling our borders and linking immigration to the need for more workers.

We could also revise our buying habits.

i never said "all" jobs.

realism? deciding in advance that we can't solve a crucial problem? no that's pessimism and an admission of failure of current attempts as well as low bar-setting for the future a failing administration.

irrefutable? only time and effort will prove that, therefore, neither refutable or irrefutable.

Our corporations decided to offshore and outsource, which means move operations outside the US and to turn big chunks of their operations over to foreign owned companies. This, coupled with the fixation of public companies on quarterly earnings and short-term profits, has led our private sector to become net savers, even in times of expansion (individuals are usually net savers, in all economic cycles).

As a direct result of this shift in private business toward net savings, the government must run a deficit. The alternative would be that the US would need to run a trade surplus, which would require a fall in prices and wages via domestic deflation (which would make debt burdens worse in real terms), or a fall in the value of the dollar, and/or an increase in productivity so that our exports gained market share. Considering our status as the world's reserve currency, the latter isn't likely.

So the solution, in simple terms, is to increase our deficit and direct the spending toward the creation of a national jobs program with wages that are not too competitive with private sector wages.

It's not at all complicated from an economic perspective. It simply takes a level of political will that this administration appears to lack.

WTF? We're Democrats. We know how to make things work.

We went to the moon.

We won World War II.

We beat the Commies.

That was us, Democrats.

GOP didn't want to spend money on space.

GOP didn't want the U.S. to get into WW2, they saw war as a money maker.

GOP wanted to nuke the Commies.

Democrats saved America, We the People and their GOP asses.

>"Vice President Joe Biden gave a stark assessment of the economy today, telling an audience of supporters, "there's no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession."

Hey buddy - have you noticed the population is increasing? "Restoring" is not what we need, and if you are spending your time making apologies for that, we need to get someone new. We need "Creation", someone to talk about and build a plan that supports the creation of the new 30 million or more that we need right now, not to mention the future. Don't waste our time talking about the past.

>"We know that's not enough," the vice president said

You are damn right that's not enough. Not nearly enough.

Holy crap. No wonder nearly 50% of the "unemployed more than 6 months group" is old guys, if this is what they are spending their time on.

there is no hope for regenerating 8 million jobs, thus consigning those people to a permanent underclass in this
country ok on DU?

How about he stands up and offers to put all those people to work for a day, say $100, to come up with the ideas he is not
able to generate on how to create 8 million new jobs.

No wonder we are in trouble.

And, btw, I didn't say it was because of his age. I said "if that is what they are spending their time on".

And if people are spending their time coming up with excuses instead of plans and solutions, then it would explain a lot.

That's not ageism, that's a discussion of a course of action. Much like the futility in making snarky comments on a bulletin board.

of the unemployed just like it would not require a mention of their race, ethnicity, religion or gender.

about how incorrect it might be to discriminate or stereotype a group based on age, race, ethnicity, religion, or gender, I would be on your side.

But if I say a group of 18-25 year olds that have never been in the work force need to work on resume and networking
skills, vs a group of older adults who have a work history, know how to get to work on time, and have homes that are
being foreclosed who need to use the skills and assets they already have to figure out how to create jobs for themselves, I am talking about a course of action that may or may not work for them. It is exactly what the employment division at the state does all the time, and it's not ageism.

When one of the peers of a group, one that I happen to be in, especially a very public represetative of that group who has been given a great privelege to lead everyone says "there's no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession", and I say that is a terrible example for our group, and that if our group follows that advice it is a path to ruin, that's not ageism. That's a reality, and we can debate whether it is or is not.

Even the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics thinks it is important enough to identify us under separate groups. You think perhaps they think the needs, goals, and, wait for it - actions - might need to be different for different ages, incomes, even races? It's not ageism to point out that older folks are being hit harder than most: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703961204575280753219161046.html#project%3DLONGTERM1006%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive

If the Vice President of the United States wouldn't give our opponents ammunition to say "Well, if he can't, just vote for me and I will get it done", and the government no longer has a reason to point out how many of this group have joined the long-term unemployed, and when they aren't the target of a useless pursuit of deficit reduction, then maybe these things won't matter. But until then until then the actions of this group, which quite likely need to be different from the actions of other groups, matter quite a lot. And if one of our members acts in a way that is contrary to our best interests, and I suggest that it would be detrimental if others are following the same course of behavior, that ain't ageism.

I do understand what you are saying, but I, respectfully, disagree.

Good night.

Or a design.

"There's no way to stop the gusher"

"There's no way to close Gitmo"

"There's no way to get out of two wars anytime soon"

"There's no way to slow climate change"

"There's no way to improve public schools"

"There's no way to pay everyone a living wage"

"There's no way to remove Big Insurance company profits from the American Health Care system."

"There's no way to change the way we elect our representatives in America."

"There's no way to reduce the influence of lobbyists in Washington."

And on and on and on...but there IS a way to give Billions to failing banks, or war profiteers, or tax cuts to billionaires!

however it might be more accurate to say "there's no easy way".. These things can be changed but its going to take time and effort and pain and cooperation from all sides, Dems and Repubs.. hmm, take it back.. maybe you were correct "there's no way".

control of both the White House and the Congress?

<< "there's no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession." >>

Yes there is.

In order to sell a product here, XX % of that product must be made here. If not, tariffs kick in and the $$$ used for social programs and/or small business that will make that product here.

It can be done. It was done here.

What I hear VP Biden saying is that the corporations have opened their new markets and have no intention of coming back to this carcass we call the U.S. They don't have to come back and they won't have to comply with any regulations because it's cheaper to buy off the gop and Democrats to keep any sensible trade policies and regulations at bay.

While this travesty was in the making, these corrupt politicians split us up according to religion/race/region and set us after one another. So instead of burning down the bastille when we get ripped off, we are distracted by ourselves.

Stick a fork in her. RIP America.

"tough shit you may never find a job that pays a living wage ever again." In addition, it seems to me more indicative of a refusal to do a god-damned thing about our economy and how fucked up it is and instead he's just resolved to let it go along as it is. Easy for him HE isn't unemployed and trying to find work while paying to go back to college and wondering how he's going to cover his health care expenses. What the fuck did we put them in office for if they're not going to actually fix (or even attempt to fix) any damn thing? Just saying "well we can't (or more likely than not won't) do anything about it isn't something to applaud.

well, ok, maybe not silver lining. Perhaps brass...

with light rail connectors, new schools, renovation to create better affordable housing, solar roofs for all government buildings, affordable health care clinics...and pay for it by ENDING TWO WARS, ending tax breaks for corps that offshore jobs and taxing the rich! I'm SICK of the "We Can't Do It" attitude of our government. The way exists, but the political WILL does not!

Expect the '99ers" to become 'the new black'. (reference to fashion, not race)

Good-paying jobs are fleeing this country. Not only is manufacturing a lost cause, but jobs traditionally thought of as safe from 'free trade' are also going to countries with lower wages and standards of living.

THERE IS LITTLE REASON FOR MONEY-DRIVEN ENTITIES TO EMPLOY AMERICANS ANY MORE.

They may call it a great recession, but we're about to discover that it's the new normal for the American economy.

Anything we can develop and manufacture here can be made somewhere else, for MUCH less.

Our only friggin' hope (excuse my french) is that we run out of oil quickly. As soon as ocean transport becomes prohibitively expensive, America can re-emerge as a self-sufficient nation with a decent (but more modest than current) standard of living.

Pray (if you believe in that) for the death of oil. It's our only hope.

It is totally within the power of the federal government to cause a return to pre-collapse employment. They would however be crushed by those with concentrated wealth, who are unwilling to lose it.

Economic growth is less than the expansion between the rich and the poor. They will claim there is growth in the economy, but it is totally concentrated into the pockets of the wealthy.

The government has the ability to create full employment. It's simply a matter of political will.

Full employment wouldn't even be popular because vested media interests would rail so hard against it that popular opinion would sway.

who probably will have to turn to crime in order to eat and then they will be employed in the prison labor slave industry we have created.

There are jobs, you just have to be in prison to get them at 20 cents an hour or whatever.

You have to admire all the interlocking parts.

:(

Good point.

I'm surprised when I read somebody else has been thinking like me.


I've often wondered if the economy has been purposefully scuttled so that younger able bodied people have some hard choices. The lower middle class can't afford college unless they get benefits by joining the military. The 'empire' needs soldiers to fight its wars for oil and hegemony.

without realizing it, I suspect.

"Free trade" deal with Korea

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8642930

I think the only way to recover the job losses would be another economic bubble perhaps fueled by perhaps green business but even then I doubt we will ever get back to where we were. The numbers are against us.

about the root causes of jobs being cut, shipped overseas, forcing employees to do more work for the same pay and billions are wasted on military excess and wars? Putting that money to work on changing our country in the way of green technology among other things would help create new jobs.

It's going to be a long time before we're back to where we were.

money to the masses.

bring every last troop home from the occupations in the middle east and use the money that would have been spent there to start a WPA program to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. This will put some money in the pockets of Americans who will gladly spend it and the economy will then take care of itself.

Along with offering returning troops training in the health care professions, then start a transition to single-payer health care.

Each day, 273 people die due to lack of health care in the U.S.

We need single-payer health care, not a welfare bailout for the serial-killer insurance agencies.

for that. And does he have any possible solutions for it? Or are they just going to throw up their hands and write it off? And then what becomes of the unemployed? I don't think the country will tolerate permanent huge unemployment. Of course they have a gigantic propaganda machine in the MSM to program people to accept it.

Kill all the stupid one way "free" trade agreements.

is the black market. Underground economies don't give a crap about negative oratory and prognostications. Matter of fact, the worse the news gets, the bigger they grow. Was a time when the Italians sold more shoes on the black market than went onto store shelves. Governments get lazy about employment for the people and the people get motivated to create their own economy, or die.

How about increased tariffs? Last week I bought a package of plastic shower curtain hooks made by the "American Plastic Company." In China. Would it really have cost so much more to make those lousy hooks in the USA? I'm happy to pay more if it means Americans have jobs.

He's telling us we'll get a shit sandwich and like it, and if we DON'T like it, they 'll give us a KNUCKLE sandwich.

Who the hell do we think we are to think we're entitled to an active economy? We're serfs and we damn well better not forget it.

The way it's going, there won't be ANY jobs OR money. People will work at the point of the gun and the whip. And those will be the lucky ones; the rest will be left to starve in the gutter.