Two American Nobel prize winners for economics think that governments must compromise to stabilize the economy, but our current Nobel-winner president thinks he need not compromise on his American Jobs Act.
“Probably the best thing politicians can do is quickly reach compromises and have coherent plans going forward,” said 2011 laureate Thomas Sargent, who appeared Tuesday with co-laureate Christopher Sims on CBS’s The Early Show. President Obama’s jobs proposal failed on a procedural vote in the Senate later that day. Several Democratic senators expressed their opposition to the president’s proposals over the past few weeks.
With votes coming on the component parts of the American Jobs Act, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney promised that the White House “will insist that every measure here deserves broad bipartisan support,” adding that “we will not be satisfied — you can be sure — if only one or two or three of them pass — because all of them should pass.”
Lest there be any doubt about the president’s negotiating strategy, Carney reiterated “that we will not be satisfied if a measure does not succeed and reach the President’s desk.” His remarks echoed those of White House Senior Adviser David Plouffe, who indicated before the vote that Obama would not compromise on any item in the American Jobs Act.
When reminded that Democrats “could have passed a portion of the bill [Tuesday],” Carney responded that “we wanted a vote on the full measure is because we believe in every piece of it . . . so we’re going to keep at it.”
Similarly, Plouffe claimed that Obama is “eager to work with Congress,” despite the apparent unwillingness to yield on any aspect of the bill that Congress rejected.
