Economic policy is consequential stuff, which makes the details of a proposal very important. As blogged by Carolina Journal Managing Editor Rick Henderson yesterday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has confirmed to Carolina Journal’s Don Carrington the details of the president’s jobs bill, which he campaigned on here in North Carolina and continues to campaign on around the country. The president fails to tell Americans a very important detail about his plan– but now confirmed by Secretary Duncan. A transcript of the exchange between Duncan and Carrington is below.
Oh and by the way, Mr. Obama’s Democratic colleague, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), refuses to allow a vote on the president’s bill despite Mr. Obama’s continued campaign mantra to “pass this bill.” And that makes the president’s rhetoric embarrassingly inaccurate to anyone who cares to look beyond his campaign speech and obviously designed as red meat for his disgruntled political base which he evidently believes will not look beyond his speech.
In a call-in session with reporters this afternoon prior to President Obama’s appearance in Texas promoting his American Jobs Act, Education Secretary Arne Duncan confirmed to Carolina Journal’s Don Carrington that the jobs bill would fund positions for only one year.
A transcript of the question and answer follows:
Carrington: If you look at each state, it is very clear to me that these are just jobs for one year. So if you were going to do this over two years, you would have only half as many jobs. Am I correct?
Duncan: I think that’s exactly right and those are the kinds of tough calls and tough decisions that states would have to make of whether to do more now or whether to spread it over a couple of years. This doesn’t solve all the challenges that states are facing, but it’s a huge step in the right direction. But your math is exactly accurate.
For the the full story on the American Jobs Act and what this economic policy really means for North Carolina, read Carrington’s story here.
