Jobs recovery: the hard way

Of all the people in the Obama administration’s economic team, Christina Romer, has, in our mind, emerged as the most sensible and appears to be a straight-shooter. Here she is commenting on the jobs picture:

A top White House economic adviser said Sunday "you'll get no argument from" her on the need to improve the miserable jobs picture.

Council of Economic Advisers chief Christina Romer said it's devastating that some workers have been unemployed for two years and that job losses were continuing nearly a year after passage of the so-called stimulus bill.

But then, she loses us:

She added that she wants to work on convincing firms that are considering hiring to take the plunge.

Romer also appeared to back a House effort to pump an additional $75 billion in federal spending into the struggling economy and pointed to targeted programs like longer COBRA health insurance coverage and "cash for caulkers" -- energy saving retrofits -- as ways to expand growth.

"The sense that we need to do more is overwhelming," she said.

Yeah, eff-it! Go ahead, guys, take the plunge!

That ought to be Team O’s new economic recovery slogan because jumping in with two feet (or more precisely, head-first) is precisely what small and medium-sized businesses will be doing as pending legislation in healthcare reform and cap and trade contain taxes that will absolutely hammer these very businesses if they’re passed.

And we’re assuming that this $75 billion of federal funding that will be “pumped” into the economy is not be confused with the $150 billion son of Porkulus, recently passed by the House that is to fulfill all the jobs promises broken by the $787 billion Porkulus the Elder that became law in February of 2009.

We have an overwhelming sense, also, Ms. Romer, but from the short yet not comprehensive list of “pumping” and “stimulating” in the paragraph above it’s not borne from a belief you guys need to do more.