Clinton Global Initiative: Jobs Focus

20 September 2011 |permalink | email article

Former president Bill Clinton convenes his seventh annual Clinton Global Initiative today in New York City, where he will push corporations and nonprofit groups to create jobs as U.S. employment stalls at 9.1%. More than 50 heads of state, including President Obama, are among the estimated 1,200 business leaders, humanitarians and celebrities expected to attend.

Clinton said, “It’s going to be very difficult for us to return to full employment and dramatically robust growth until we find a way to unlock the capital reserves in the $2 trillion in corporate money … that is not being invested now and the more that $2 trillion that banks have in cash reserves.”

For Obama the timing is perfect given that creating jobs is this year’s key theme. At Clinton’s request, the president will command an international audience and speak about his $447 billion jobs plan when addressing the summit on Wednesday. To attend Clinton’s summit in New York City, participants must commit to tackling the focus issues, and companies or individuals who do not keep that pledge cannot return.

Perry’s VRA Problem

The Justice Department said Monday that Texas’ state House and congressional redistricting plans didn’t comply with Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, indicating that maps approved by Gov. Rick Perry gave too little voting power to the growing Latino population in the state. The Justice Department is separately deciding whether a voter ID law signed by Perry violates the VRA.

What They Said

“She doesn’t have the ability or the resources to go beyond Iowa at this point.” – Republican strategist Ed Rollins, who recently stepped down as Michele Bachmann’s campaign manager, raises serious questions about whether she will have enough cash to compete with Mitt Romney and Rick Perry in South Carolina, New Hampshire and Florida.

“Barack Obama is careening down the wrong path towards re-election. He should be working as a president, not a candidate. And most of all, he should be bringing the country together rather than dividing it through class warfare.” – Democratic strategist Mark Penn, who ran Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign against Obama, suggesting the president has wandered into the thicket of class warfare that will only compound the difficulties before his climb to re-election. [A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found 81% support the president’s plan to raise taxes for millionaires.]

Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels told 2012 GOP presidential candidates they had a responsibility to conduct a “more candid and honest” conversation about the nation’s financial burdens, particularly Social Security and Medicare.

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