VP Joe Biden Gives Up on Restoring All Lost Jobs

CBS News reported:

Vice President Joe Biden gave a stark assessment of the economy today, telling an audience of supporters, "there's no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession."

Here is a jobs loss/gain chart for this recession from Steve Benen at Washington Monthly's Political Animal blog. It is notable he highlights the Bush job losses in red and Obama job losses/gains in blue.



The chart shows huge job losses of over 200,000 per month during the last five months of the Bush administration and first nine months of the Obama administration. The chart makes it look like the job market has turned around during the last three months. If this is true, why doesn't VP Joe Biden think we can recover the lost jobs? The reason is Joe Biden isn't the complete buffoon many believe him to be. He knows the April and May numbers are pumped up by hundreds of thousands of temporary workers hired for the 2010 Census.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel to Hand over His Gavel

The trickle of Democrats calling for Rangel's gavel had now turned into a flood. MSNBC is reporting Rangel will give up his chairmanship of the powerful House Ways and Means committee in the wake of his admonishment for accepting inappropriate trips. Rep. Charles Rangel faces an ongoing investigation for being a tax cheat among other ethical violations..

MSNBC reported:

WASHINGTON - After being admonished by an ethics panel for accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean, Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., will give his chairmanship of the powerful House Ways and Means committee, NBC News has learned...

But sources indicated Tuesday to NBC that Rangel has been encouraged to step aside before the House votes on a bill to strip him of his chairmanship.

"We don't have the votes to save him," one Democratic member said of Rangel.

Seniors will have to give up some Medicare benefits for Obamacare to work?

Seniors will have to give up some Medicare benefits for Obamacare to work? That is what Democratic Representative Betsy Markey of Colorado has said repeatedly during the August break.

From the Coloradoan:

Some people, including Medicare recipients, will have to give up some current benefits to truly reform the nation's health-care system, Rep. Betsy Markey told a gathering of constituents in Fort Collins on Wednesday.
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Markey has repeatedly said during the August congressional recess that Medicare spending needs to be reined in to help pay for reforming the broader health-care system.

"There's going to be some people who are going to have to give up some things, honestly, for all of this to work," Markey said at a Congress on Your Corner event at CSU. "But we have to do this because we're Americans."

From the size of this crowd outside Rep. Markey's office, I am not sure she is in tune with her constituents.