Going the Wrong Way

While the news cycle has been covering the turmoil in Egypt (Mubarak apparently has just left Cairo), there have been some domestic developments and non-developments that warrant mention. 

Congress has not done anything to address the unemployment rate and increase jobs.  Jobs creation in January was lower than expected.  Much of this was likely due to the severe weather.  Meanwhile, the House Republicans have done nothing on a jobs bill, contenting themselves with their ever-erroneous whining about the negative impact of government spending. 

House Republican budget proposals  (Note 1) have, as expected, shifted the burden of deficit reduction to women, children and the poor while simultaneously eliminating jobs creation programs.
(1) Apologies for the above link - it contains the self serving comments of the Republican chair but it effectively shows their priorities.  For a good analysis of how these changes affect society's most vulnerable see the WonkRoom post at this link) :
- Changing House Rules to allow for unlimited, unfinanced tax cuts (i.e., pay as you go only applies to spending cuts)
- Cutting $2 billion from jobs training programs
- Cutting $1.1 billion from community health centers
- Cutting $1 billion from high speed rail, effectively eliminating  numerous jobs
- Cutting $758 million from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which amounts to about a 6 percent cut to a program providing food assistance to low-income women and their infants.
– Cutting $210 million from Maternal and Child Health Block Grants, which amounts to about a 33 percent cut in a program giving low-income pregnant women, mothers and their children access to health care.
– Cutting $27 million from the Poison Control Center, which would essentially eliminate a program supporting local poison control centers and funding a hotline directing residents to their local poison control office.

Meanwhile the Obama Administration has moved to cut home heating subsidies to the poor by $2.5 billion and revise the rules on mortgages.  The latter would require higher down payments and start to eliminate the role of Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, the traditional entry to home ownership for the middle class.  Meanwhile, Obama's 2011 most recent foray into jobs creation has been to ask the Chamber of Commerce to (pretty please) step up to the plate and create jobs. 

Are these people all crazy or what?

Here's the Obama - Biden plan for the economy.  It's somewhat outdated but would be interesting to see how effective they will be in prioritizing and implementing the remaining elements of this.