President Obama / Eighth pivot to jobs

Less than two days after President Obama devoted a rare impromptu press briefing entirely to a single local Florida crime story, Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer sent an email to select reporters Sunday accusing the rest of Washington of taking “its eye off the ball on the most important issue facing the country.” Pfieffer then announced that Obama would be giving two economic speeches Wednesday, one at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., and another at University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Mo…

This is not the first time the president has admitted focus has been lost and then declared a pivot to jobs. As the Washington Examiner‘s Byron York documented before Obama pivoted to jobs in this year’s State of the Union, the White House previously attempted five such pivots before 2013. Throw in the SOTU, and a May pivot to jobs at the height of the Obama scandals, and this is, at least, the eighth pivot to jobs of Obama’s presidency.

Why now?

With Congress set to leave for August recess at the end of the week, Obama’s new jobs message appears designed to set the table for the upcoming government funding battles this fall. First, the continuing resolution that is currently providing the authorization for keeping the government running expires September 30. A new CR will be needed, and Obama will be looking to add as much new spending on to that agreement as possible, and maybe even score some new tax cuts.

Then, sometime later this fall, and possibly even into the winter, the Treasury Department will tell Congress they need to raise the debt limit, again.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via Morning Examiner: Obama’s eighth pivot to jobs | WashingtonExaminer.com.

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