Top priority must be jobs

Two weeks from the start of the Christmas shopping season, both consumers and merchants could use a few reassuring words from the president.

What they don't need are more big promises of federal gifts or baffling boasts of how many jobs have been created or saved.

Unemployment is high and getting higher. A forthright assessment is overdue, along with practical solutions.

A jobs summit to be hosted by President Barack Obama at the White House next month would be a good forum for such an address. Obama is right when he says, "It's important that we don't make any ill-considered decisions - even with the best intentions - particularly at a time when our resources are so limited."

Resources for employers are limited too, and they're not going to resume robust hiring until they're more confident in the future. Few have seen times quite like these. But the economy is growing again, and there is cause for optimism.

Stimulus spending and bank rescues did help soften the economic shocks. And remember that some stimulus spending is still in the pipeline. Projects such as the upcoming construction of an elevated highway to connect the Port of Tampa to I-4 will create lots of good jobs. And equally important, the toll road will be a permanent economic asset to the region.

Too little of the stimulus has gone into similar investments in sustainable productivity. Obama's brazen overestimate of jobs he produced is demoralizing, especially to those who have been laid off. Many examples of overstatement have been in the news, including the riding lawn mower purchased for a national cemetery with $1,047 from the stimulus - and credited with saving 50 jobs.

The White House also was wrong that stimulus spending would hold the unemployment rate at no worse than 8 percent. It is 11 percent in Florida and probably going higher.

Most people haven't lost their jobs or homes, and they won't, but their confidence remains low for a number of reasons Congress and the president don't seem to grasp. Too many changes are on the way with too many unknown price tags. Consumers are anticipating higher prices for health insurance, higher energy costs and the end of the Bush tax cuts. Layoffs for many workers remain a possibility.

The spending needs of Social Security and Medicare have gone up as revenue has fallen. There is no end in sight to the expenses in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Here in Florida, where the state constitution requires a balanced budget, lawmakers have made it more expensive to fish, to smoke and to license a car, yet a recent analysis by the Pew Center on the States lists Florida among the 10 states in the most financial trouble. It says "state expenses are expected to outstrip state dollars and lead to budget shortfalls for each of the next three years."

Spending on non-essentials must be brought under control at every level of government.

Obama should make his top priority the nearly 16 million people out of work, and he should make that clear. For 22 months in a row the economy has lost jobs.

Market-based incentives work best, but even direct federal grants to states, counties and cities to help hire workers under two-year contracts to provide needed services would be a better use of stimulus dollars than to fund unnecessary projects or help a select few buy houses they can't really afford. Obama should welcome practical, creative solutions from the experts attending the jobs summit.

Once the jobs return, the value of houses will stabilize, tax revenues will increase, and consumers will start buying again.