President Barack Obama is holding the White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth today. The White House says:
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. Following the opening session, senior administration officials will host discussions on job creation and expanding the economy.
I’m getting ready for a business trip to Pittsburgh so I will post my modest proposal for job creation next week. While creating jobs is a "political imperative" for Obama and congressional Democrats, I don’t think much more than talk will come out of the jobs summit.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur, co-chairman of the bipartisan Jobs Now! Caucus, told the Washington Post:
What's a bit ironic to me is they were able to figure out how to help the big banks without any summit, but now that they are talking about helping people, it is a year later and they need a summit. What is that all about?
It's about symbolism (Message: I care).
Consider: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is co-moderator of the breakout session on "Paving the Road for Small Business Job Growth." Geithner is a BFF of Wall Street banksters.
But, hey, you can judge for yourself. The opening and closing sessions, and some of the breakout sessions will be streamed live, beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Meanwhile, for the millions of Americans who are unemployed or underemployed, there still ain’t nothing going on but the rent -- or underwater mortgage.