mame
Well-Known Member
So I'm beginning to get frustrated.
Policymakers in Washington have been tunnelvisioning national debt and the deficit this whole time, despite the fact that unemployment remains unacceptably high. Am I the only one who thinks this is ass backwards?
As far as I can tell, it makes more sense to tackle the unemployment problem first for many reasons - including factors like added revenue and faster GDP growth - because lower unemployment would help reduce the amount of money the U.S. needs to borrow each year. But Washington has given up. They dont care about your prospects of getting a job or not - eh, let me be less harsh(and more accurate): The Republicans dont care, the Democrats are too scared and Obama has settled for the harsh reality that nothing is likely to get done this congress.
Allow me to explain this reasoning:
The Republicans are pursuing exactly the same policies that they pursue in normal times. That is - tax cuts and deregulation. The Republicans released their (vague) plan for jobs, calling it a plan for "America's Job Creators" and it is full of exactly the same kinds of policies that they've been pursuing since Reagan; This is not a job creaton plan, this is once again your standard Republican wish-list. Fun. lol..
The Democrats are scared, and Obama is a realist; Neither of these positions are particularly better than the Republican position (let 'em rot!) but they both stem - not from idealogy - but from politics.
You see, the way out is to spend. It doesn't take a genius to realize why Obama and the Democrats aren't touching this one with a 50 foot long pole - they're scared for their jobs(because spending has been so successfully demonized)... On the flip side, that makes the Republican position make more sense as well - they dont want to spend, therefore they have no plans on reducing unemployment. They'll never admit this ofc, they'll just continue to campaign against "runaway" spending and persistently high unemployment as a way to get Obama out of office(remember, more republicans care about getting Obama out of office than who will actually replace him!).
Now, what would the Democrats do? Progressives throughout the blogosphere(because you know, the ones in power are too scared) have been pointing to one thing that's holding the economy from a full and robust economy - the housing bust. More specifically, the enormous amount of debt keeping consumers from, well, consuming is dampening an otherwise moderate recovery (especially when you look at U.S. manufactoring trade balance... manufactoring traditionally is a good indicator of recovery).
There are a few ideas floating around but what it basically comes down to is a sort of "main street bailout" in which the Federal government aggressively seeks to restructure, buy, etc the debt that is holding aggregiate demand down. Another part of the plan would be to raise the federal minimum wage, which in real terms is lower than it has been for what, 50 years? What we accomplish with these two policies is 1) once consumer debt is dealt with, consumers will buy things! 2) Raising the federal minimum wage would help to erase some of the pain felt by the lowest income workers via gas and food(although admitedly market forces would eventually compensate for the extra cost of labor, the short term effects would be helpful).
Policymakers in Washington have been tunnelvisioning national debt and the deficit this whole time, despite the fact that unemployment remains unacceptably high. Am I the only one who thinks this is ass backwards?
As far as I can tell, it makes more sense to tackle the unemployment problem first for many reasons - including factors like added revenue and faster GDP growth - because lower unemployment would help reduce the amount of money the U.S. needs to borrow each year. But Washington has given up. They dont care about your prospects of getting a job or not - eh, let me be less harsh(and more accurate): The Republicans dont care, the Democrats are too scared and Obama has settled for the harsh reality that nothing is likely to get done this congress.
Allow me to explain this reasoning:
The Republicans are pursuing exactly the same policies that they pursue in normal times. That is - tax cuts and deregulation. The Republicans released their (vague) plan for jobs, calling it a plan for "America's Job Creators" and it is full of exactly the same kinds of policies that they've been pursuing since Reagan; This is not a job creaton plan, this is once again your standard Republican wish-list. Fun. lol..
The Democrats are scared, and Obama is a realist; Neither of these positions are particularly better than the Republican position (let 'em rot!) but they both stem - not from idealogy - but from politics.
You see, the way out is to spend. It doesn't take a genius to realize why Obama and the Democrats aren't touching this one with a 50 foot long pole - they're scared for their jobs(because spending has been so successfully demonized)... On the flip side, that makes the Republican position make more sense as well - they dont want to spend, therefore they have no plans on reducing unemployment. They'll never admit this ofc, they'll just continue to campaign against "runaway" spending and persistently high unemployment as a way to get Obama out of office(remember, more republicans care about getting Obama out of office than who will actually replace him!).
Now, what would the Democrats do? Progressives throughout the blogosphere(because you know, the ones in power are too scared) have been pointing to one thing that's holding the economy from a full and robust economy - the housing bust. More specifically, the enormous amount of debt keeping consumers from, well, consuming is dampening an otherwise moderate recovery (especially when you look at U.S. manufactoring trade balance... manufactoring traditionally is a good indicator of recovery).
There are a few ideas floating around but what it basically comes down to is a sort of "main street bailout" in which the Federal government aggressively seeks to restructure, buy, etc the debt that is holding aggregiate demand down. Another part of the plan would be to raise the federal minimum wage, which in real terms is lower than it has been for what, 50 years? What we accomplish with these two policies is 1) once consumer debt is dealt with, consumers will buy things! 2) Raising the federal minimum wage would help to erase some of the pain felt by the lowest income workers via gas and food(although admitedly market forces would eventually compensate for the extra cost of labor, the short term effects would be helpful).
