The front-runner merry-go-round for the Republican nomination continues. I try to pay it no attention but it's hard to do given the non-stop coverage by the news stations. All you can be sure of is that whoever the eventual candidate is he (or she) will be in favor of the same policies that got us into the ongoing financial crisis. After the New Hampshire debate, Robert Scheer posted an article on Truthdig and The Nation that notes "It’s as if the sound government regulation of the financial industry implemented in response to the Great Depression—not its polar opposite, the radical deregulation fueled by Republican free market zealots—was the source of our banking meltdown...It was precisely the legislation that their party pushed through Congress, and that Democrat Bill Clinton shamefully endorsed, that launched the era of unregulated credit default swaps and mortgage-based securities that came close to destroying the entire economy."
Meanwhile Congressional Republicans continue to ignore and oppose the American Jobs Act but rather push for funding cuts to government programs they oppose as the price of avoiding a government shutdown. Sickening behavior. We can only hope that they will be defeated in 2012 and that the fear mongering, outright lies, and election rigging and vote-denying proposals (identity cards, registration restrictions, changes to electoral college procedures) don't succeed this time around.
In the New Hampshire candidates' debate, as the WSJ reported, the candidates all strongly supported "the dismantling of government regulations drawn up over 40 years, using a candidates’ debate here to call for the scaling back or elimination of environmental, labor, financial and health-care rules." This is what a Republican victory would mean in 2012. But I think it would turn the clock back even further - maybe to pre-Depression conditions. In the words of George Santayana:
"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
Showing posts with label obstructionism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label obstructionism. Show all posts
Friday, September 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Protect the Rich, Screw the Unemployed
Republicans and a few Democrats have prevented passage of an extension of unemployment benefits. The bill did not come to the floor for a vote today and 2,000,000 will lose their benefits in December. Merry Christmas.
The opponents of the extension are generally the same clamoring for the continuation of the Bush tax cuts for the rich. So let’s get this straight - a one year extension of unemployment benefits would cost $60 billion dollars of short term deficit. The Bush high-end tax cuts will cause a structural deficit of $700 billion over the next 10 years. Hmm - this somehow makes sense to a deficit hawks.
For every dollar in unemployment benefits there are two dollars pumped into the economy - more economic activity means more jobs. The unemployed will spend the money, not hoard it. One thing appears quite clear - the Bush high end tax cuts suck at job creation.
Some Congressman oppose the benefits because they claim it keeps people from looking for a job. I guess living high on the hog is easy when you get $290/week.
We have never cut off benefits when the unemployment rate was this high. The jobless rate is 9.6% - if we factor in the underemployed, the figure is closer to 17%.
How these people can sleep at night is beyond me.
Obama met with the leaders of the Party of No today and they made some progress on, you guessed it, compromising on the tax break extensions for the rich. While the President doesn’t pass legislation, he can use his bully pulpit to get the public behind what makes sense and he can twist arms in the halls of Congress to get the Democrats on board. They still have a majority in both houses.
The opponents of the extension are generally the same clamoring for the continuation of the Bush tax cuts for the rich. So let’s get this straight - a one year extension of unemployment benefits would cost $60 billion dollars of short term deficit. The Bush high-end tax cuts will cause a structural deficit of $700 billion over the next 10 years. Hmm - this somehow makes sense to a deficit hawks.
For every dollar in unemployment benefits there are two dollars pumped into the economy - more economic activity means more jobs. The unemployed will spend the money, not hoard it. One thing appears quite clear - the Bush high end tax cuts suck at job creation.
Some Congressman oppose the benefits because they claim it keeps people from looking for a job. I guess living high on the hog is easy when you get $290/week.
We have never cut off benefits when the unemployment rate was this high. The jobless rate is 9.6% - if we factor in the underemployed, the figure is closer to 17%.
How these people can sleep at night is beyond me.
Obama met with the leaders of the Party of No today and they made some progress on, you guessed it, compromising on the tax break extensions for the rich. While the President doesn’t pass legislation, he can use his bully pulpit to get the public behind what makes sense and he can twist arms in the halls of Congress to get the Democrats on board. They still have a majority in both houses.
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