Can We Kill Unemployment With 1000 Paper Cuts?

With unemployment at 10.2%, pressure is mounting on the president from many corners (including this page, if my rants may politely be called "pressure") to stoke job creation. Will he do something about joblessness? Almost certainly, says the Wall Street Journal's economics editor David Wessel. Will it that stimulus be as big as Obama's liberal critics hope? Don't hold your breath, he says.




Wessel predicts a flurry of stealth stimuli. In other words, death to joblessness by a thousand paper cuts. My gut tells me that a series of small job-focused measure would be the most political palatable thing to do. But my eyes see a report that Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer is predicting a larger jobs package on Obama's desk my Christmas. Of course, the last time we heard about hard deadlines for progressive bills it was Obama calling for a health care bill before the official end of summer, and that deadline has seen more extensions than a 2009 jobless benefit.