The Presidential Planner
Email ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: With unemployment at 10.2 percent, President Obama will today try to refocus on his domestic agenda, holding a day-long jobs summit. Officially dubbed the Jobs and Economic Growth Forum, the White House announced the summit just a week after the unemployment figures hit a 26-year low in October, prompting some critics to say it’s little more than a publicity stunt, ABC News' Matt Jaffe and Karen Travers report. “The forum will be an opportunity for the president and the economic team to hear from some of the leading CEOs, small business owners, labor leaders, nonprofit heads and thinkers about ideas for continuing to grow the economy and put Americans back to work,” the White House says. The president will deliver opening and closing remarks at the summit, and in between, senior administration officials will host discussions in groups about job creation and expanding the economy. The 130 attendees for the jobs forum will include small business owners, experts from the green jobs sector, business leaders, academics, mayors and representatives from nonprofits. Confirmed Attendees Include:
Eric Schmidt, Google
Randall Stevenson, AT&T
Surya Mohapatra, Qwest
Frederick Smith, FedEx
Brian Roberts, Comcast
Bob Iger, Disney
James McNerney, Boeing
Andrew Livens, Dow
Peter, Solmssen, Siemens
Stephanie Burns, Dow Corning
Phaedra Ellis Lamkins, Green for All
Reed Hundt, Coalition for the Green Bank
Larry Mishel, EPI
Alan Blinder, Princeton University
Paul Krugman, Princeton University
Joe Stiglitz, Columbia University
Bob Greenstein, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University
David Ickert, Air Tractor
Woody Hall, Diversapack
Rose Wang, Binary Group
Anna Burger, Change to Win
Leo Gerard, United Steel Workers
Joe Hansen, United Food and Commercial Workers
Randi Weingarten, AFT
Mayor Frank Cownie, Des Moines, Iowa
Mayor Julian Castro, San Antonio, Texas
Mayor Ed Pawlowski , Allentown, Pa. “What the president is looking forward to tomorrow is having a broad discussion with and getting ideas from a whole host of people in the private sector — people that run fairly large companies like FedEx, Google; small business owners that — the engine of our economy that do most of our hiring; financial experts, those others that have ideas,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, “The government alone is not going to create and doesn't have the primary responsibility to create the jobs that will get our economy moving again. That's the private sector. What I think the president wants to do is hear from them on the type of environment that we can have that would allow for that hiring to take place.” In the evening, the first family will attend their first National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony on the White House Ellipse. The 87th annual lighting by the National Park Foundation and the National Parks Service is steeped in tradition: When the president flips the lights on the tree, he will be flipping the same tree-lighting switch every president has used since 1923. Mr. Obama will speak beforehand and the first lady will read “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” to the children in the audience. “Per the White House requests, this will be the greenest National Christmas Tree ever,” Mark Shields from the National Parks Service said in describing the tree, which will be fashioned entirely this year with LED lights. About 10,000 people are expected to come out to see the annual tree lighting on the Ellipse, with performances by Sheryl Crow, Jordin Sparks, Common, Celtic Woman and Randy Jackson hosting. The National Christmas tree will be on display tonight through Jan. 1st, 2010. — Sunlen Miller
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This so called job summit will revolve around helping unions and creating more government jobs thus insuring more votes for democrats. This administration is shameless.
Posted by: Kathy | December 3, 2009, 7:43 am 7:43 am
Clueless and arrogant. New jobs are not created by threatening employers with government taxes and regulations. They are not created by adopting policies that discourage free trade by implementing tariffs and restrictions. They are not created by imposing rules that prevent non-union hiring in government grants and incentives. They are not created by demonizing entire professions, industries and vacation destinations. They are not created by supporting bankrupting the United States government. They are not created by imposing huge taxes on energy, thus bankrupting individuals, local and state governments and raising everyone’s costs. They are not created by taking money out of the real economy and spending it instead on a huge non functioning government health program.
Posted by: mickeymat | December 3, 2009, 8:29 am 8:29 am
He needn’t have invited the following as none of them know how to create jobs:
Phaedra Ellis Lamkins, Green for All
Reed Hundt, Coalition for the Green Bank
Alan Blinder, Princeton University
Paul Krugman, Princeton University
Joe Stiglitz, Columbia University
Bob Greenstein, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University
Anna Burger, Change to Win
Leo Gerard, United Steel Workers
Joe Hansen, United Food and Commercial Workers
Randi Weingarten, AFT
Posted by: Barry Christmas | December 3, 2009, 8:47 am 8:47 am
Jake Tapper, job summits are only good when they are “real” and not just a “dog and pony” show! AND, why has ABC decided not to investigate the latest questions about what is now being called “climate-gate”? In this economy can the dwindling middle income
American survive an increase in taxes and utilitie bills for something that is a scam on the public? Be an advocate for the public and investigate what could be a huge travesty on the public in general!!
Posted by: ross | December 3, 2009, 8:51 am 8:51 am
White House cannot have a credible jobs conference and refuse to invite the Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, LABOR does not create jobs. ACADEMIA does not create jobs. BUSINESSES (especially small ones) create ALL the jobs… and they were SHUNNED from the meeting by a president who does not understand our free enterprise system.
Posted by: TexGEOas | December 3, 2009, 9:10 am 9:10 am
unions have never created a single job
Just another lame photo op
Posted by: nothing more than a photo-op | December 3, 2009, 10:10 am 10:10 am
will these be “real” jobs or just more hogwash from the adminstration
Posted by: nothing more than a photo-op | December 3, 2009, 10:12 am 10:12 am
“We want to make sure it is not just the public sector doing this in a vacuum,” said Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama. “It’s important we engage the private sector as well.”
A vacuum/echo chamber is exactly what exists within this administration and how decisions are made. The WH is run by secretive Chicago political thugs/hacks. At less than 10%, the Obama Cabinet has the LOWEST percentage of members with any PRIVATE SECTOR EXPERERIENCE than any administration in the past century (see washington examiner, obama cabinet, 10%, private sector experience). It’s not even close – the next lowest administration has 3 times more experience (Kennedy, just under 30%). Even Carter had 30%+.
And this is the adminstration that will lead us to economic recovery? Don’t think so – the leadership of this administration does not have the experience to do so and it’s pretty obvious that the reason Obama and his cronies are so interested in expanding government to unprecedented rates is because government, academics, and legalese is all they know how to do.
Posted by: tjp612 | December 3, 2009, 11:00 am 11:00 am
Four months analyzing Af-Pak and then making a decision he could have made in one day.
One day for a job summit doing nothing when he should have been working on it every day for the last four months.
THAT’S your administration at work.
Posted by: Live! From DC! It's Sat Night! | December 3, 2009, 11:53 am 11:53 am
Real unemployment is a lot higher than 10.2 percent. Sure wish you would do some investigative journalism on those who have quit looking or are underemployed.
Posted by: bunnykins | December 3, 2009, 2:02 pm 2:02 pm
“Check job creation numbers by year and presidency and tell if the Dems or Republicans are more credible on job creation– and try to do it without lying….LOL!!”
The One is off to a great start, isn’t he? No “lying” necessary….Jobs lost since The One was coronated is measured in the millions…and counting.
Posted by: tjp612 | December 3, 2009, 3:11 pm 3:11 pm
Posted by: tjp612 | Dec 3, 2009 3:11:03 PM
A person would have to be a biased fool to not understand the economy was in virtual free-fall collapse when Bush left office.
The economy was hemorrhaging close to 700,000 jobs in a month, the stock market had collapsed, major banks and financial institutions were going bankrupt, foreclosures and bankruptcies were going through the roof.
And you’re foolish enough to blame this on Obama, or expect a wave of a magic wand to fix that mess? That was a major world-wide economic collapse and all western industrialized nations have been struggling towards recovery.
Your biases and lack of clear thinking are showing.
Posted by: tierra | December 3, 2009, 4:10 pm 4:10 pm
With the “Jobs Summit”, the jobs will be flowing like rivers of honey and unicorns will roam about the land.
Posted by: John Q Public | December 3, 2009, 5:28 pm 5:28 pm
“The economy was hemorrhaging close to 700,000 jobs in a month, the stock market had collapsed, major banks and financial institutions were going bankrupt, foreclosures and bankruptcies were going through the roof.”
Hmmm….well, average unemployment during the Bush years was 5%, home values were high, the stock market reached record highs, and personal wealth reached historic highs. You don’t mention these inconvenient facts.
I don’t blame Obama for the state of the economy upon assuming office. I don’t expect any quick fixes. I do blame him for a $787,000,000,000 ($1 Trillion including interest) “stimulus” package that has been an abject failure and a grab-bag of liberal goodies and handouts. I blame him for his anti-business positions, for his taking over of Chrysler and GM, his thuggish behavior towards GM and Chrysler bondholders and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. I blame him for his reckless spending and deficits that are FOUR TIMES LARGER THAN ANY INCURRED BY BUSH. I blame him for attempting to ram through “healthcare reform” that will provide the foundation for the government take-over of healthcare.
It’s not about his party. It’s about his policies and positions.
Posted by: tjp612 | December 3, 2009, 5:37 pm 5:37 pm
I blame him for his reckless spending and deficits that are FOUR TIMES LARGER THAN ANY INCURRED BY BUSH.
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Again, more nonsense. The deficit for 2009 in spending commitments was already $1.2 TRILLION dollars when Obama took office.
p.s. – all of the supposed Bush economic successes were artificial – based on unsustainable debt and phony economics – and ended in failure.
Posted by: tierra | December 3, 2009, 11:02 pm 11:02 pm