U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Phoenix Awards dinner in Washington, DC. Photo Credit: Chris Kleponis
President Obama’s speech to the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) this weekend was another rallying cry to pass his new jobs bill. Meanwhile, the country is losing faith in the “hope and change” people voted for less than four years ago.
Some CBC members were upset with Obama after he told them to “stop complaining” about the country’s bad economic situation and high unemployment rates.
The African-American unemployment rate stands at 16.7 percent—a 27-year high that is up 11.5 percent since Obama took office, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In the speech, Obama upset leaders like Representative Maxine Waters (D–CA) when he urged CBC members to “Shake it off. Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying.”
Waters said she found Obama’s speech “a bit curious” and noted that he has not addressed other demographics in such a rough manner.
It was just five months ago that 83 percent of African-Americans held “strongly favorable” views of Obama. Now only 58 percent hold that view, according to a new Washington Post–ABC News poll. In fact, his favorability ratings among all demographics are dropping.
As for the jobs bill, Senate leaders aren’t very enthusiastic about helping it along. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) said last week that the Senate floor was “pretty well jammed now,” indicating it might be awhile before the chamber could find the time.
With the weakest labor market since the Depression, how can the President expect anyone to “march with me,” as he demanded this weekend, when he doesn’t seem to have a clue where he’s going? The new jobs bill—with its tax hikes and retreat from fixing entitlements — proves that.
As Heritage’s Curtis Dubay wrote after the President’s speech regarding the tax-heavy bill:
The brunt of these tax hikes would fall on job creators—businesses that employ workers and investors—that the economy desperately needs to start adding new jobs. Raising their taxes will only cause them to cut further back on their hiring plans or scrap them altogether. And without seriously tackling spending, taxes will have to rise perpetually.
The economy and the American people cannot afford the President’s government-growing, job-killing conception of tax reform.
Thus far, the President’s plans for moving jobs have disappointed both parties and upset nearly every demographic. It is commonly known as insanity to keep doing what doesn’t work over and over again, expecting a different result. The President’s inability to recognize this is propelling him a direction he probably doesn’t want to go.