“It’s the economy, stupid.” That’s the message that former U.S. President Bill Clinton has been conveying since his campaign strategist, James Carville, popularized it during their winning 1992 run for the White House – and it still resonates today, as the always-canny Clinton knew when he appeared on the Sunday talk shows yesterday.
America’s 42nd President identified job creation, especially in the high-tech green sector, as well as political reconciliation as immediate imperatives, nationwide.
“I think we need to focus right now on putting the country back to work. And I'd like to see the economic plan that [President Obama] talked about in his address to Congress enacted first; then when the economy starts growing again in a year or two, then I'd like to put hammer down on this deficit problem,” Clinton told CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer on CBS’ “Face the Nation“ on Sunday, September 18.
Speaking in advance of his own Clinton Global Initiative meeting this week in New York City at which 1,200 business and political leaders will convene to discuss the “world’s most pressing challenges” –including an agenda that will focus on “Generating Employment for the 21st Century” and “Sustainable Consumption” – Clinton commended Obama on his recent jobs speech.
“Everyone understands you can't do miracles,” said the former President. “What happened on September 15, 2008, four months before [Obama] became president, was a financial crash. If you go back hundreds of years, these things take about an average of five years to get over. If we want to speed that up, we're all going to have to work together. We all know that if you look at the elections of the last four years, or five years or ten years or 20 years or 30 years, conflict makes great politics, but it doesn't make very good policy. What we need is a cooperative policy that will put people back to work.”
Clinton said the President’s economic plan had the potential to work. “If we adopt the plan … it will create between one and a half [percent] and two percent increase in GDP growth,” Clinton predicted, talking on ABC’s “This Week with Christiane Amanpour.” He added that Obama’s proposals would likely lead to 1.3 million to 2 million new jobs.
In fact, he said, the American Jobs Act represents the best option on the table for lawmakers. “We can’t do much better than that right now,” said Clinton. In particular he praised the plan for “big payroll tax cuts in it, which will benefit the economy by lowering the average family's tax bill by 1,500 dollars…And then by lowering payroll taxes for employers, will make it more attractive for them to hire new people.”
However, Clinton pointed out that, “Those of us who aren't in government, we don't have anything to do with that.” He said industry can come up with its own solutions in support of America and its workers. For example, “AFL-CIO and a couple of its affiliate unions are going to put some of their own pension funds into putting people to work retrofitting buildings and doing other things that will create jobs for their members and for other Americans in a way that will actually make more money for the pension funds than just putting it into the stock market will today. And they'll be in partnership with business instead of having a Washington political fight with them.”
Cooperation and support of high-tech green industries will be key to the recovery, Clinton said. “If you look – there are places all over America, believe it or not, that have low unemployment, high growth, strong home prices, jobs being created, a shortage of skilled workers. And in every one of those places, they have networks of cooperation.”
He commended New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg (News - Alert), whom he said was contemplating offering “land on Governor's Island or Roosevelt Island or the Navy Yard in Brooklyn for a new world-class science and technology research center…[Bloomberg] said that he'll kick in $100 million worth of investment if a group of universities will put one there, because he wants New York, in effect, to rival Silicon Valley as a technology center. That's the kind of thing that works.”
Finally, Clinton emphasized that empowering women and young girls would be key to economic growth, worldwide. “In many countries they're not included,” remarked Clinton, and “that's dragging the economic prospects of everyone down.”
Cheryl Kaften is an accomplished communicator who has written for consumer and corporate audiences. She has worked extensively for MasterCard (News - Alert) Worldwide, Philip Morris USA (Altria), and KPMG, and has consulted for Estee Lauder and the Philadelphia Inquirer Newspapers. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Jennifer Russell
