President Obama's Jobs Commission - Outsourcers and Masters of the Universe

President Obama has named the members of his "Council on Jobs and Competitiveness" headed by GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt. Emptywheel took a whack at Immelt and his outsourcing to China last month here. Obviously Immelt knows how to create jobs, just not so sure he knows how to create jobs in the USA that can allow the US unemployed to earn a living wage.

And really, that is my biggest complaint over all with the "Council" appointed by President Obama. There are two, count'em, two, persons representing workers on this council, Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO and Joseph T. Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Besides Trumka and Hansen, the other non-CEOs on the Council are Laura D'Andrea Tyson, President Clinton's Economic Adviser and John Doerr, senior partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Neither Tyson nor Doerr can be said to be particularly sympathetic or empathetic to workers, much less the 25 to 30 million un and underemployed.

The rest of the members represent the CEOs of the world:

Jobs and the Cat Food Commission

Have I mentioned recently that I NEED a FREAKIN' JOB?

Well, I do. As do many millions more of my fellow citizens. I'm feeling a bit too lazy to go get the official figures but just last week, the official Unemployment rate was 9.9% (roughly 15 million). Add in another few million for the Underemployed and a few million more to cover the folks who have given up, "self-employed," and the other groups not counted and the figure is probably doubled or more.

So what do we get? Scaling back of the so-called Jobs Bill to appease the Deficit hawks.

Under fire from rank-and-file Democrats worried about the soaring national debt, congressional leaders reached a tentative agreement Wednesday to scale back a package that would have devoted nearly $200 billion to jobless benefits and other economic provisions while postponing a scheduled pay cut for doctors who see Medicare patients.

Nothing about scaling back on fighting two wars of choice. Nothing about raising taxes on Hedge Fund managers who pocket Billions and pay taxes at the Capital Gains rate. (Parenthetically, why is "unearned income" felt to be so much more valuable than "earned income" that it is taxed at less than half the rate of earned income? Doesn't that fly directly against the traditional Horatio Alger effect that hard work is one of the primary positive attributes in the US and should be rewarded?)