A top economic adviser to President Obama has told a congressional panel the billions of dollars in the proposed economic stimulus plan should be allocated with social issues in mind, to make sure the money doesn't go to just "white male construction workers" or the highly skilled.
Robert Reich, who served as labor secretary under President Clinton, was speaking to the House Steering and Policy Committee Jan. 7 about funding infrastructure projects across the nation.
"It seems to me that infrastructure spending is a very important and good way of stimulating the economy. The challenge will be to do it quickly, to find projects that can be done that will have a high social return, that also can be done with the greatest speed possible," Reich said.
"I am concerned, as I'm sure many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to high skilled people who are already professionals or to white male construction workers," he said.
Commentator Michelle Malkin said Reich's statements expose "the lie that the Obama administration is actually interested in revitalizing basic infrastructure for the good of the economy."
"No, what Team Obama really wants is to ensure that the least skilled, least qualified workers get jobs based on their chromosomes and pigment," she said.
Malkin cited Reich's own blog, where the Obama adviser wrote of the economic stimulus plan: "I'd suggest that all contracts entered into with stimulus funds require contractors to provide at least 20 percent of jobs to the long-term unemployed and to people with incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level."
This, Malkin wrote, is "spoken like a true-blue wealth redistributor. The 'needs' (read: demands) of politically protected minorities trump the need for competently build roads and bridges."
Reich's blog headline
On his blog, Reich makes his case for, "The Stimulus: How to Create Jobs Without Them All Going to Skilled Professionals and White Male Construction Workers.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.p...w&pageId=86827
That is targeted politics. And I love the quote by Rangel.
Then Rangel noted the "middle class" would be unlikely to create any opposition to funds directed to minorities.
"One thing that you can depend on, you don't have to be worried about what the middle class is going to do. Things are so bad, they have to put food on their tables, get clothes for their kids, get them in school," he said.
When did the middle class become non-minorities? And just WHO is going to bear the brunt of Obama's redistribution of wealth and taxation? The middle class!
So what about poor white construction workers?
They should focus on getting the economy back up, not race based targeted agendas. Get the economy going everywhere. Get more jobs, everywhere. Don't focus on one race to exclude or another race to include.