New York columist, Charles M. Blow, contrasts then candidate Barack Obama’s words last October 2008, with the current dire unemployment situation facing nearly one in five Americans.
Obama in his speech in Toledo, Ohio one year ago said, “Right now, we face an immediate economic emergency, and that requires urgent action. We can’t wait to help workers and families and communities who are struggling right now — who don’t know if their job or their retirement will be there tomorrow; who don’t know if next week’s paycheck will cover this month’s bills. … We need to pass an economic rescue plan for the middle-class, and we need to do it not five years from now, not next year, we need to do it right now”.
Obama went on to state, “So today I’m proposing a number of steps that we should take immediately to stabilize our financial system, provide relief to families and communities and help struggling homeowners. It’s a plan that begins with one word that’s on everybody’s mind, and it’s easy to spell: J-O-B-S.”
One year later, the unemployment figure just topped 10.2 % in October, and when combined with underemployment, which includes partime workers who want to work full time, the broader measure of unemployment is a whopping 17.5 percent.
Blow writes that President cannot keep forever reminding the American people that he inherited the crisis.
Sure, the crisis started under Bush. But with the current unemployment situation more than 50 percent from when Obama came to office, it is time for him to stop passing the buck.
