The White House blog today is pushing a new program called Summer Jobs+. It’s “a call to action for businesses, non-profits, and government to work together to provide pathways to employment for young people in the summer of 2012. It’s about helping people find their first jobs.”
Well, not really. It’s actually about President Obama campaigning for re-election.
When you visit the Summer Jobs+ website, which is a page on the Department of Labor website, you’re immediately hit with this paragraph from Barack Obama:
America’s young people face record unemployment, and we need to do everything we can to make sure they’ve got the opportunity to earn the skills and a work ethic that come with a job. It’s important for their future, and for America’s. That’s why I proposed a summer jobs program for youth in the American Jobs Act — a plan that Congress failed to pass. America’s youth can’t wait for Congress to act. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. That’s why today, we’re launching Summer Jobs+, a joint initiative that challenges business leaders and communities to join my Administration in providing hundreds of thousands of summer jobs for America’s youth.
Obama’s braggadocio about his use of executive power is an obvious campaign tactic. Obama is a Man of Action! He couldn’t wait for Congress to act – he simply acted himself! The notion that lack of a summer jobs program “an all-hands-on-deck moment” is one of the grandest overstatements of President Obama’s tenure. The Summer Jobs+ program is basically a job bank. Somehow, the United States would likely have survived in its absence. But Obama gets what he wants from this program — another campaign talking point. Only this time, he’s using taxpayer resources to do it.