During the news conference and today President Obama made the point that legislation that would help create jobs was sitting in Congress awaiting Congressional action. And that fact just kind of died away; I didn't see anyone pick up that message.
We have a major problem: the House is controlled by the Republican party and they won an overwhelming and historic election in 2010. They feel they have a mandate to cut government spending and they ran on that platform claiming that this would create jobs.
JOBS are the main thing here and there are two really simple things that Congressional democrats could do to pressure Republicans and help the White House with it's jobs message. Right now, the White House is pointing to Congress because that's where the action is and POTUS keeps trying to remind folks that there are things that could be done but only by Congress. Now, Republicans are not going to have a floor debate over a jobs bill because they would lose that one. They have to be forced to have that debate. The White House with House and Senate Democrats could announce, jointly, a Democratic jobs bill. And then Reid could bring it to the floor in the senate and Pelosi could attempt to do so in the House and see if any House Republicans could be pressured to support a comprehensive jobs bill and bypass the speaker to force a floor vote.
The fact of the matter is; the President has no power to bring legislation to the floor and all the stimulus measures he's suggested: an infrastructure bank, more spending on research and education is not going anywhere in the Republican house. So, to change the conversation requires not simply Presidential leadership but a real live bill that comes to the floor, that was scored by the CBO, and that targets the jobs issue. This dramatizes the issue for the public and more importantly the media and changes the conversation from an abstract issue to a real live one. The best example of this is the dramatic results the Ryan budget; brought to the floor and voted on had on public opinion. Republicans talked about this in '10 but there was no bill to point to at the time and no vote to dramatize the issue. That changed. Similarly, we need a bill to fire up the jobs issue and make the policy choices stark and immediate for people.
That fight can only happen in Congress and it can only happen if Congressional Democrats get on the same page and attempt to bring a bill to the floor and that the White House stands by them and uses the bully pulpit to pressure for a vote on a jobs bill. Just as Democrats did on Medicare.
That's my take. Congressional Democrats need to take action rather than simply rely on Medicare to win back the house; that won't help in the senate. A fight over a jobs bill, through, would IMO.
A massive jobs bill is a fight we can't win in Congress; but it's one Congressional Democrats should want to have.
