There are times when taking a new, untested approach to solve a
problem after exhausting all other options is a brilliant idea and often
a method of last resort. Obviously, no sane person would deliberately
pursue a course of action that experts doomed to failure, and especially
if there were living examples of a particular agenda’s failure. After repugican economic policies created a world-wide recession, many
European nations imposed harsh austerity measures that have proven to be
abject failures, leading repugicans to champion austerity as if
results would be different because America is exceptional. If nothing
else, one can say with confidence that when repugicans find an economic
policy that fails, they are duty-bound to repeat it regardless the
consequences.
The latest fourth quarter report on GDP growth revealed precisely
what economic experts not working for the Heritage Foundation have
predicted for four years; reduced government spending during an economic
recovery retards growth. Although the news was not entirely bad, the repugican’s drive to enact harsh austerity measures predictably
produced the same results
England has experienced
as their gross domestic product fell 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter
of 2012. The data released yesterday showed that the U.S. economy shrank
in the fourth quarter of 2012 also, and the 0.1 percent contraction is
entirely attributable to cuts in
government spending;
precisely as economists have warned for nearly four years. Britain’s
conservative government was criticized by the International Monetary
Fund for their steadfast, and errant, belief that austerity is the key
to economic success despite its failure that now threatens their credit
rating. Still, they persist defending austerity in spite of a looming
triple-dip recession repugicans are wont to repeat for America in their
spending cut frenzy.
America’s private sector is doing just fine, and the good news is
that personal expenditures, non-residential investment, and business
investment were all up, but repugicans promise to decimate GDP growth
by enacting sequestration cuts experts warn will
reduce GDP growth by 0.7 percent
in 2013 and destroy as many as one million jobs. The repugican’s
budget guru, Paul Ryan, decried the sequester cuts and negative
impact on jobs during his failed bid for the vice-presidency, and said, ”
Now
there’s one thing we’re going to have to deal with to make sure we
protect jobs around America, and that is these devastating sequestration
cuts.” This week, Ryan said “
I think the sequester is going to happen-we can’t lose those spending cuts” because “
Democrats rejected the repugican cabal’s replacement legislation”
that cut the food-stamp program, slashed Medicaid, defunded the
Affordable Care Act, and disaster relief, and failed to produce their
own Draconian cuts. However, Ryan is lying.
President Obama’s initial deal to avoid the fiscal cliff paired a tax
increase on the wealthy with spending cuts of $1.22 trillion over 10
years, including “
a new measure of inflation that slows the growth of government benefits,” including Social Security, $400 billion in savings “
from
federal health care programs; $200 billion from other mandatory
programs like farm price supports, $100 billion from military spending;
and $100 billion from domestic programs.” The repugicans balked at the
President’s balanced approach and now Ryan is pushing for austerity that
is guaranteed to kill jobs, reduce GDP, and send the economy into a
recession; typical repugican goals.
The repugican cabal’s passion for austerity by way of spending cuts and deficit
reduction to harm the poor, middle class, elderly, and children may lead
one to believe President Obama has not cut spending during his first
term, but the facts tell a completely different story. In fact, under
the President’s stingy
economic policy, “
the
federal deficit has fallen faster over the past three years than it has
in any such stretch since demobilization from World War II,” and as the shrub's wars are winding down and
government spending fell, so did GDP, but it is still not enough for repugicans. An economist with the Center for American Progress said, “
we
know what will happen if policymakers don’t work to scrap the sequester
and eliminate the useless debt limit policy: We will have slower
economic growth and job creation this year and in the future,” which
fits right in with repugican attempts to imitate Europe’s disastrous
austerity measures and keep America’s economy barely surviving at best,
and falling into a deep recession at worst.
If there were no living, real time examples of conservative
governments imposing austerity that devastates economies, one might be
think that repugicans were making a last ditch attempt to save the
economy, but now that most European nations, and now America, are
struggling because of reducing government spending, they could be
forgiven. However, the repugican cabal knows precisely what austerity will do to the
economy, and as Paul Ryan himself said, sequester cuts will devastate
the economy and kill jobs, but the repugicans are going forward anyway.
What America’s economy needs, and what every real economist advises, is
government stimulus such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
that, by all accounts, saved America’s economy and prevented a
nation-ending deep economic depression. House repugicans still have not
even considered passing the President’s American Jobs Act because they
know it will grow the economy and put Americans to work, and with no
chance of making President Obama a one-term President any longer, their
remaining goal is killing jobs, the economy, and imposing real economic
hardship on the American people; a feat they are incredibly proficient
at.
