Wealth & Money Quote by Jay Carney

Accountability, but with a safety catch. Jay Carney’s line is built to sound like a civic mirror - “we are all responsible” - before it quietly swivels toward its real target: “certainly the elected members in Washington of both parties.” That pivot is the tell. It widens blame just enough to feel nonpartisan and inclusive, then narrows it to the only actors who can actually pull the big levers. The rhetorical move lets the speaker occupy the moral high ground (everyone should care) while still prosecuting a political argument (Congress, especially a divided one, is failing).

Carney was Obama’s press secretary, a job defined by defending an agenda in the key of reasonableness. The phrasing “decisions and choices” is deliberately redundant - managerial language meant to drain drama from conflict and make obstruction look childish. Even “ensure” carries a quiet piece of spin: governments can influence growth and hiring, but they can’t guarantee them. Saying they can implies that if jobs aren’t coming back, someone is choosing not to make them come back.

The bipartisan framing is strategic too. “Both parties” reads as fair-minded, but it also spreads responsibility in a way that preempts charges of scapegoating while keeping pressure on whoever is blocking legislation at the moment. In the post-2008 economy, with high unemployment and constant debt-ceiling and stimulus battles, this is crisis messaging designed to convert policy into a simple story of duty: adults act, Washington dithers, paychecks hang in the balance.