'Millions of Dreams Ruined'

Dean Baker reminds us that:

... The United States is still down almost 9m jobs from its trend path. We are losing close to $1tn a year in potential output, with cumulative losses to date approaching $5tn.

These numbers correspond to millions of dreams ruined. Families who struggled to save enough to buy a home lost it when house prices plunged or they lost their jobs. Many older workers lose their job with little hope of ever finding another one, even though they are ill-prepared for retirement; young people getting out of school are facing the worst job market since the Great Depression, while buried in student loan debt. ...

We still have a substantial number of unemployed -- millions above full employment level (and that's not even including discouraged workers and the underemployed):

Yet how much have you heard from Washington lately -- from either party -- about the need to do something to help with this problem? Sure Republicans would stand in the way of doing more (though they favor doing less, e.g. cuts to unemployment compensation, food stamps, etc.), but that's partly a reflection of the Democrat's failure to make an issue of obstructionism in the press. Why haven't Democrats made an issue of helping the unemployed at every opportunity in the same way that Republicans make an issue of the debt, etc.?