All Articles Tagged "CBC"
Obama to CBC: The Speech, Not the Soundbites
(Eurweb) — The sound bites and subsequent headlines that some media outlets posted from the President’s recentspeech to the Congressional Black Caucus have set off a firestorm of Obama criticism; waging arrogance, insensitivity and a lack of action for the current plight of African Americans in this country and especially in light of the current economic crisis. Ironically, the same speech landed in our in box, as we (The Electronic Urban Report) are recipients of news from the White House press office. For us, the speech resonated a tone of inspiration and passion for African Americans, and for all of America.
Black Politicians Face Tough Reelection Battles
(Washington Post) — As many as one-quarter of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus could face significant primary opposition in their new House districts in 2012, a development that could significantly change the face of the CBC and/or reduce its membership heading into 2013. With nationwide redistricting slightly more than halfway done, at least 10 of the 41 members of the CBC already have well-known politicians eyeing their new districts. As Roll Call’s Shira Toeplitz noted on Monday, a few of those members are actually facing matchups with current or former Members of Congress who are white. These members include Reps. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), Hansen Clarke (D-Mich.), Laura Richardson (D-Calif.) and Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.). But others are facing primaries with ambitious black politicians who see opportunities in newly drawn districts.
Obama Responds to Black Voters' Discontent
By Charlotte Young
As discontent with President Barack Obama’s administration has steadily risen in the black community, Obama took the time to speak directly to black voters in an interview Monday night on BET News.
The Washington Post reports that the interview was “especially timely,” as it aired a day after Obama received negative feedback from members of the Congressional Black Caucus to the speech he gave at their annual dinner. In his speech, he urged caucus members to “stop complaining and march with him.”
Rep. Maxine Waters called his comments “curious” and told MSBNBC that the president “got off script and got a little bit beside himself.”
In Monday’s interview, Obama defended his record asserting that he is working hard to help those in the south side of Chicago to those living in Los Angeles barrios and Appalachia. But he remained firm in his stance to keep government programs issue-focused, as opposed to race, stating that “that’s not how America works.”
“And so when we put forward a program like, for example, the health-care bill, our focus is people who don’t have health care,” Obama said in the interview with BET News. “Now it turns out that the majority of folks who don’t have health care are also working families, and are disproportionately African American and Latino, but that doesn’t mean that it’s only for them.”
The black community has seen unemployment rates of 16.7 percent compared to the national unemployment rate of 9.1 percent. In response, the CBC accused the Obama administration of failing to focus African American concerns and launched a summer jobs tour.
Support for Obama has been slipping across all voter groups. Among African Americans, his 83 percent approval rating five months ago has dropped to 58 percent in a recent Washington Post-ABC news poll.
Obama recognized his administration failure to clearly communicate what they were doing to Americans and also relayed that he understands the frustration and impatience of Black Americans.
“Some of the things, though, that have been plaguing the African American community for too long, those things are going to take years to change,” he said.
Obama to Black Folk: Stop Hating, Start Marching
(Politico) — Against a backdrop of slipping support among African Americans and widely acknowledged tension with black members of Congress, President Barack Obama delivered a fiery defense of his record at a Congressional Black Caucus gala Saturday night. Judging by the audience’s reaction — the president’s words often brought the crowd to their feet — Obama went a long way toward silencing his critics. Like a minister preaching to a restive choir, Obama used familiar cultural touchstones to remind the audience of his roots, including Biblical references, a rhythmic cadence and his own humble beginnings as the son of a single mother who sometimes relied on food stamps. He then challenged his naysayers with a list of legislative accomplishments that he said will uplift African American communities: middle-class tax breaks, money for college education and summer jobs programs.
Black Caucus Conference Focuses on Jobs
(NPR) — The annual meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus kicks off Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Michel Martin speaks with CBC Chairman Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) about African-Americans’ 16.7 percent unemployment rate and why the CBC has not been more aggressive in criticizing President Obama.
Congressional Black Caucus Chair Seeks to Support & Critique Obama
Unlike the extremely outspoken Rep. Maxine Waters, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Rep. Emanuel Cleaver has attempted to promote the cause of African-Americans through polite means. While he stands by many CBC members’ critiques of the president’s failure to address black unemployment, he has done so without fiery words. Cleaver understands that his group must be free to pursue black interests in Congress, even if that means going against the opinion of America’s first black president. But at the same time, the former mayor of Kansas City is highly sensitive to appearances. A black president being attacked by fellow African-American politicos can help fuel hostile foes of Obama’s legislation. The Miami Herald reports that Rep. Cleaver tries to balance the CBC’s scrutiny with support of the president — but this balancing act is not easy.
Miamiherald.com has more on this black leader caught in a political catch-22:
Cleaver is a lifelong Democrat who prizes political loyalty, and black unemployment has put him and the group he leads in the awkward position of criticizing the policies of a president they admire, but not the president himself.
“It’s not personal,” Cleaver said. “They’re attacking his policies, or lack thereof, with regard to this gigantic unemployment problem among African-Americans. If we can’t criticize a black president, then it’s all over.”
When lawmakers swarmed around Obama as he was leaving the House of Representatives chamber after his recent speech on jobs, caucus members were in the crush, eager for a handshake, a pat on the shoulder or an autograph.
“This is an unprecedented circumstance where an African-American president who is an iconic, heroic figure enjoys a status with African-Americans that no one since Martin Luther King has enjoyed,” said former Rep. Artur Davis, D-ALA., who was a member of the black caucus until leaving office a year ago.
Obama a Challenge for Black Caucus Leader
(Miami Herald) — As the debate over jobs turns into the latest political tug-of-war, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri walks a careful but candid line. As chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, he has been at odds with President Barack Obama over the administration’s response to soaring unemployment in the African-American community. Nearing 17 percent, joblessness among blacks is at a three-decade high and almost twice the overall unemployment rate. The black caucus wants the president to do more. But the group’s efforts are freighted with political sensitivities, given Obama’s unique role as the first African-American president and the sometimes untethered animosity that his election has triggered. ”If Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem, we probably would be marching on the White House,” Cleaver said. “There is a less-volatile reaction in the CBC because nobody wants to do anything that would empower the people who hate the president.”
Obama's Aversion To Ugly Wins
It was supposed to have been a grand, new, unprecedented push on jobs engineered more for its symbolic impact than what it could really deliver. Still, the goal was game change after the White House felt besieged by weeks of testy Congressional Black Caucus town halls and accusations of detachment in the wake of a very bad, very ill-timed decision to vacation Martha’s Vineyard. It took a downgraded hurricane to bring the First Family back down from moving on up, a message from Mother Nature that, hey, optics mean everything in politics. Not begrudging your need to take a vacation – we all need one, as does a father of two who happens to lead the free world. But, when unemployment still hovers at a fixed 10 percent, the last place you should be is a location synonymous with old money elite. Taking a bus ride prior to lavish destination through very white and rural Main Street without even a pit stop at a friendly black corner adds vinegar to the situation.
Instead, this particular President presents an awful, rather redundant tendency of offering his … platform on a platter, giving his opponents the ammunition they need to stage an effective blowback for 2012. Granted, he’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t since Republicans are making it obvious. But, he’s also the President, and one would think he has a choice or can offer the impression of having the strength or political muscle of choice in shaping outcomes.
In the case of this week’s big pivot to job growth, we found President Obama getting low-blowed and punked again, this time allowing GOP pettiness to overshadow any decent headlines on Administration jobs initiatives. Just as he became the first Commander-in-Chief in U.S. history to preside over a credit downgrade, he is now the first to allow a House Speaker to reject a scheduling request for a speech before a Joint Session of Congress. Insult to injury is when he actually let House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) reset the date, pushed by a Caucus sandbox that wanted Americans to watch bickering tea party-panderers deliver Best-of-Obama-Jokes. It’s not the best legacy of firsts to have when already a first black President. And in all the President’s gut instinct reflex not to fall into the trap of “angry black man” on public tirade, he’s not offering the stare-down of any restored masculinity, especially in an age when black men are being systematically emasculated into limp-wristed social stooges. Some measured “don’t-f***-with-me” push back from the most powerful brother on the planet would be nice.
When we’re looking for Muay Thai roundhouse kicks on old fools’ heads, the White House stomps off and pouts in a corner, soon followed by soft-power Tai Chi punches on the virtues of “bipartisanship.” But, calls for political comity fall on deaf ears because a weary public that doesn’t really follow political process all that much doesn’t care – it just wants a solution, regardless of how sloppy it might end up.
What’s also missing is some aggressive pragmatism in what the White House has announced insofar as its jobs plan. There are platitudes about tearing down red tape and putting the onus on Congress to get something “legislative” done. We can’t realistically expect a “second stimulus” in the current budget climate now dictated by Super Committee. But, there could be a combination of used ideas mixed in with new stuff that’s simple and quick in application.
Some economists have suggested now is the time to strongly consider a wide-ranging “debt forgiveness” program, which could be useful for the unemployed on brink of foreclosure. The federal government might not have any more money for an emergency mortgage loan program. Yet, why not keep the component that permits unemployed homeowners not to pay their mortgages for a set period?
Additionally, where is the large “credit forgiveness” program where credit rating agencies cease negative reporting on those unemployed due to recession-driven layoffs? Again: something that allows enough time to get folks on track and in recovery.
While a $5,000 tax credit to companies for hiring seems sensible, it’s not really applying needed pressure on employers hoarding nearly $2 trillion in cash that could otherwise be used to fill vacancies. Legislation already introduced by Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) eliminates discrimination on the basis of being unemployed; Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) wants to cut out the widespread practice of employer rejection based on negative credit scores.
In the meantime, the Administration could examine a larger national unemployment insurance program that offers several options: 1) working for benefits to keep the jobless busy and taking away an excuse from employers who won’t hire long-term unemployed; 2) facilitating a technology training program as a way to rejuvenate lost skills while out of market; 3) investing in opportunities for some to attend public universities full time (rather than community colleges) on in-state tuition and drawing on a combination of conditional unemployment benefits, Pell Grants and student loans; 4) or, drawing on benefits as the jobless are trained on key trades, from manufacturing to cosmetology. It could be a way to revive the unemployed.
This White House forgets football fans love ugly wins. They also dig soul-stirring inspirational speeches in the locker room before kick-off, like Al Pacino’s classic pre-game monologue in Any Given Sunday. Every moment wasted in a now aimless El Segundo road trip on quest for “bipartisanship” is a moment when the President should be searching for a bully pulpit and yelling “charge!” On jobs, folks are looking for their medieval Scottish hero in blue paint who moons the enemy.
Charles D. Ellison is Chief Political Correspondent for The Philadelphia Tribune, author of the critically-acclaimed urban political thriller TANTRUM and a nationally recognized, frequently featured expert on politics.
Why Is Maxine Waters Going Off?
Grainy YouTube footage and sensationalistic headlines paint a portrait of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) gone mad.
“The Tea Party should go straight to hell!” was Waters in finger-waving fury and a chorus of call-and-response. It was a stunning display of raw snap, like the pop of air pressure released in an airplane cabin.
Much of the confounded analysis on Waters’ recent tirades paint her as “angry black woman” on emotional punching spree. Rattled commentators on FOX News are whining about it in pouting fits of “how dare they.”
It’s the culmination of a cantankerous string of classic Waters gracing many television screens and online virals. There she was in Detroit: “The Congressional Black Caucus loves the president, too. We’re supportive of the president, but we’re getting tired, ya’ll. We’re getting tired. And so, what we want to do is, we want to give the president every opportunity to show what he can do and what he’s prepared to lead on. We want to give him every opportunity, but our people are hurting. The unemployment is unconscionable. We don’t know what the strategy is. We don’t know why on this trip that he’s in the United States now, he’s not in any black community. We don’t know that.”
But, there is more to this, a political calculation that Waters herself is hoping will pay tremendous dividends somewhere down the line. While her outbursts and keep-it-realism in Congress is the stuff made of legend, Waters has used it skillfully to her advantage since her days as a rising star in the California state legislature. If anything, keeping it loud and on the offensive keeps the heat of a taxing House Ethics probe off her back. She’s essentially putting her political enemies on notice: beware.
Putting Waters out front is also a well-planned attempt by the CBC to show frustration with the President, representing a deliberate and last ditch effort for access to the White House. Tensions had been mounting between the CBC and the Obama Administration since before Obama was elected. Whispers in Washington tell of a President soured on the Caucus since pretty much half of it dissed him in favor of initial 2008 primary favorite Hillary Clinton. Some observers partly blame the Caucus for the unnecessarily long and caustic primary battle between Clinton and Obama – if black Members of Congress had, simply, unanimously supported their former member when his tide began rising, it could have ended a bit more gracefully.
Instead, there were Democratic superdelegates like Waters and current CBC Chair Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MI) who made high profile gambles on Clinton, perhaps unable to sever old ties from the stickiness of political favors. CBC endorsement of Clinton seemed to egg her on to the very end (Clinton: “I must be doing something right if they don’t like him”). After all, the Clintons were at one time seen as honorary black political royalty.
Obama, in turn, felt slighted. And some say he’s been a bit “prickly” about it ever since.
It’s one of the main reasons behind the CBC enjoying very little access to the White House in comparison to their colleagues in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. During the course of one year, the CHC held four meetings with the President in contrast to the CBC being invited only once – and they had to beg for the next sit down.
While speculation has bubbled to the surface since Inauguration, no CBC Member wants to admit on record that there are tensions. Or, that they messed up in 2008 and are now suffering for it. One nasty conspiracy theory floating about is that the CBC Members embattled by very public and politically devastating House Ethics probes are among the very ones who supported Obama’s primary opponent.
Unleashing Waters is acknowledgement that the tensions have in many ways hampered CBC policy efforts on the black unemployment issue. And, running a multi-city jobs tour where Members get to rally black constituents is a clever way to get community backing without openly maligning the President – although that’s exactly what’s happening. Waters is highly skilled at employing political theatre like acupuncturist finding the perfect pressure points. Already, it’s forced the White House to pivot and focus on the black unemployment issue, dispatching senior officials to CBC town halls and, suddenly, planning speeches in Detroit and at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial celebration. At some point, perhaps upon return from a lavish and ill-picked Martha’s Vineyard vacation, the CBC might get another meeting in the Oval Office.
Charles D. Ellison is Chief Political Correspondent for The Philadelphia Tribune, author of the critically-acclaimed urban political thriller TANTRUM and a nationally recognized, frequently featured expert on politics.
Lawmakers Trade the Town Hall for Job Fairs
(Christian Science Monitor) — With unemployment locked in double digits in many congressional districts, the defining political event of the summer for many members of Congress is becoming the jobs fair, sponsored by lawmakers to connect constituents with actual hiring prospects. The concept has taken off with conservative Republicans as well as liberal Democrats serving some of the poorest communities in America. The political advantages are two-fold: The events cast members as doing something about the nation’s jobs crisis while at the same time shielding them from public confrontations with angry voters. It means town-hall meetings – once a staple of the congressional summer season – are now in decline thanks to the testy summer of 2009, when health-care protests helped launch the tea party movement and provided endless grist for opposition campaign ads.
