The Turning Point, Maybe

I've been saying for a while now that Obama's needed to take his case to the people for the dire need of the stimulus bill to try to save our economy from a depression. This morning he did so with a WaPo opinion piece.

By now, it's clear to everyone that we have inherited an economic crisis as deep and dire as any since the days of the Great Depression. Millions of jobs that Americans relied on just a year ago are gone; millions more of the nest eggs families worked so hard to build have vanished. People everywhere are worried about what tomorrow will bring.

What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives -- action that's swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis.

Because each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse.

That's why I feel such a sense of urgency about the recovery plan before Congress. With it, we will create or save more than 3 million jobs over the next two years, provide immediate tax relief to 95 percent of American workers, ignite spending by businesses and consumers alike, and take steps to strengthen our country for years to come.

This plan is more than a prescription for short-term spending -- it's a strategy for America's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, health care and education. And it's a strategy that will be implemented with unprecedented transparency and accountability, so Americans know where their tax dollars are going and how they are being spent.

In recent days, there have been misguided criticisms of this plan that echo the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis -- the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can meet our enormous tests with half-steps and piecemeal measures; that we can ignore fundamental challenges such as energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive.

I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. They know that we have tried it those ways for too long. And because we have, our health-care costs still rise faster than inflation. Our dependence on foreign oil still threatens our economy and our security. Our children still study in schools that put them at a disadvantage. We've seen the tragic consequences when our bridges crumble and our levees fail.

Every day, our economy gets sicker -- and the time for a remedy that puts Americans back to work, jump-starts our economy and invests in lasting growth is now.

From a human standpoint, he's right. It's a clear, logical argument. Obama need to take this and take it to the people, take it his Youtube address, take it to the TVs and the radio and the internet. He's starting now. He needs to ramp this effort up quickly.

From a partisan standpoint, the notion that the longer the bill is delayed by the Republicans the more jobs are lost by the Republicans needs to be the friggin' centerpiece of the argument. That's what we need to see Democrats out there saying. Bipartisan playtime is over. The GOP is trying to sink the country to get back in power. It's time to call them on it and smash them down for it.

Tomorrow morning we'll see the monthly job numbers for January. They are going to be hideous. Another half a million jobs lost at least, and maybe far more. The unemployment rate will near 8%. The U6 numbers will top 14%, nearing the rate of one in 7 Americans lacking a full time job.

Republicans have successfully framed the argument as "tax cuts good, wasteful pork spending baaaaaaaaaaaaaad". The argument needs to be "saving the economy good, tens of millions of Americans unemployed and thousands of businesses closed, really friggin bad." Those January job numbers will be all over the news, and Obama needs to use them to reframe the argument.

That framing is up to Obama. I'm glad to see him moving on this issue. The time to act on the economy, not react to the Republicans, is now.