The Republican Job Creation/Victory in 2012 Plan is a variation on the plan that has worked very well for them these past 30 years or so, namely —
1. Screw Everything Up
2. Blame Democrats/Liberals/Leftists
3. Win!
In fact, the only time this plan seems to fail for them is after a long run of dominating both the White House and Congress, and at least part of the electorate catches on that, just maybe, it wasn’t Democrats who screwed everything up. But this enlightened effect doesn’t seem to last very long, however, possibly because Dems fail to capitalize on it by taking over news media and ceaselessly repeating a few catchy talking points to drive home the point that Republicans screw everything up.
The precise plan right now is to jam through their insane “fiscal sanity” measures, which will cost the nation 700,000 jobs and cut economic growth by as much as 2 percentage points. Then, throughout 2012 yammer endlessly about “Obama’s economy.” Win!
Greg Sargent, who insanely is trying to be sane, writes,
Even if you disagree with these analyses, you’d think the fact that there are now two of them reaching similar conclusions would be newsworthy enough to break through the din of Beltway deficit-reduction fetishizing. The argument about budet cuts is too often framed solely as an argument between so-called deficit “hawks” and “doves,” as a dispute between those who say steep cuts are necessary and those who say they’re cruel and extreme. The fact that outside analysts think that budget cuts could actively hamper the recovery deserves to be part of the discussion.
Mais non, dear readers. That makes sense. Therefore, it won’t happen.
See also: Paul Krugman, “Not Enough Bureaucrats” and “Leaving Children Behind.”
Update: Now, here’s a man with clarity. Indiana Republican Governor Mitch Daniels said that cutting budgets is essential even if it costs a lot of jobs. He’s not even bothering with “underpants gnomes” thinking that cutting budgets magically will create jobs. He knows that the times demand budget cuts, because this will result in a leaner, meaner electorate that will not only vote for Republicans but will gratefully accept whatever the Corporate Overlords dish out.
I can’t reconcile the concept of fiscal sanity with the idea the we spent over a trillion dollars fighting some morphing abstraction in Iraq, and we continue to pour hundreds of billions into Afghanistan to battle that same abstraction. Fiscal sanity to me would mean putting money into infrastructure—something tangible— that would create meaningful jobs here in America and return a handsome dividend in a created commonwealth.
The Republicans see a bad economy as the way keep the House, and win the Senate and Presidency in 2012, and then they can really go nucking fut’s.
I know I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again:
The Republican job creation plan is to turn our workers so desperate, that every man, woman and child in this country will work for next to nothing, then the richer countries can outsource jobs back to us because the Chinese and Indian workers are getting too rich and fat, and it’ll be their turn to learn their lesson.
Do you think there’s any buyer’s remorse after November, or do you think the sheeple are still happy as they’re another step closer to being led to slaughter?
I just saw this joke on BJ – A union member, a Teabagger and a CEO are sitting at a table. There are a dozen cookies in the middle. The CEO takes 11 of them, then turns to the Teabaggers and say’s, “Hey, you better watch out! That union member wants part of your cookie!”
I might be alone on this forum in saying that the Teabaggers aren’t 100% wrong in wanting do do something about runaway deficit spending. And I’ll go further and say they are right to criticize Obama, but for all the wrong reasons (I see Obama as a corporate stooge, not a “Marxist” as the righties claim).
While I favor cutting the deficit, the devil is in the details. As Swami pointed out above, pouring over a trillion dollars in to the twin ratholes of Iraq and Afghanistan was a gigantic waste – imagine if instead all that money had gone into rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure. Although military spending creates some jobs, the “bang for the buck” is pathetically small, and a huge percentage gets skimmed off by greedy CEOs in defense no-bid contractors (Halliburton, for example).
Privatization is another big fiscal disaster. I don’t think most Americans realize how much Bush privatized (everything from the military to FEMA), at huge cost with a big reduction in efficiency. Bush tried (but failed) to privatize Social Security, but I’m sure that the Republicans haven’t given up on that, and fully intend to privatize Medicare and the Postal Service too. At the state level, there is a big push to privatize highways (turning them into tollways), municipal water supplies, publicly-owned electric power utilities, public schools, prisons, fire and police departments. All these privatizations come with a price tag which gets passed down to the peons in the form of “user fees” which are a hidden tax increase (one which falls most heavily on the poor and middle class).
And then there is TARP, the big welfare program for Wall Street CEOs. The amount of money that was generously given away to the banksters could have paid off every home mortgage in America.
But you don’t hear the Republicans screaming about corporate welfare. Indeed, they never saw a corporate subsidy, bailout or tax cut for the rich that they didn’t like. When they talk about making “painful cuts,” they mean cutting pensions, Planned Parenthood, Medicaid, food stamps, highway maintenance, parks, libraries – pretty much everything that isn’t generating a profit for Goldman Sachs or the Koch brothers.
The other side of the coin is taxation. The Bush tax cuts for the rich were fiscally ruinous. Obama, to his great discredit, made all the right noises about wanting to let those cuts expire, then went ahead and supported extending them. The Republicans, of course, think American corporations (and CEOs) need even more tax breaks.
Trying to argue the above points with the Teabaggers is pretty useless. I’ve tried, and given up. They think the USA is going broke because teachers are living in luxury, Obama is giving 5-star free healthcare to illegal aliens, and “environwackos” are causing the price of gas to rise (the USA would be another Saudi Arabia you know, if only the Sierra Club would stop tying the hands of Exxon-Mobil).
I’m a tad irritated that you would say that, as if no one here understands that deficits are a problem. The problem with teabagger thinking isn’t that deficits aren’t serious; of course they are serious. The problem is that it’s stupid to try to solve the problem purely by cutting spending, especially when those spending cuts are likely to also lower revenues. The biggest reason the federal government is in such a hole is a loss of revenue. New spending on the wars in the Middle East didn’t help, but my understanding is that the biggest cause of the current deficit is a combination of tax cuts and the recession, which put people out of work, which in turn cut tax revenues. I’m not saying that government doesn’t spend money on stupid stuff sometime, but “runaway spending” really isn’t the biggest problem we’ve got right now.
What Paul Krugman and other economists who are not being paid by the Heritage Foundation keep saying is that the Number One Thing that must be done now is get the economy moving again. Economy grows, people go back to work, revenues increase, social service spending decreases, deficit is reduced. However, this will require more government spending. So, ironically, the deficit has to be increased in the immediate future in order to decrease it long term.
On the other hand, big spending cuts that put more people out of work and slow the economy even more will have the effect of increasing the deficit through a loss of revenue. Keep in mind also that when government cuts spending, very often the cost doesn’t actually disappear; it is just deferred or it is shifted onto another government jurisdiction.
For example, last month when the state of Texas was debating Medicaid cuts to balance the state budget, some health care professionals testified that the cuts would cause hikes in local taxes and would also increase the price of health insurance in the state — both of which would be drags on the state economy, likely causing cuts in revenue.
What the teabaggers are proposing is economic suicide and could possibly sink the nation into a genuine depression.
Swami, ‘Gulag, and Candide pretty much said it all ( and you also, Maha!).
Here in Florida Senator Nelson (D), Rep. John Mica (R), and Pauls Dockery (R) state rep. have been working hard to convince Gov. Rick (cenobite) Scott to change his mind in regards to refusing the federal grant of over 2 billion dollars for a high speed rail system. The projected job creation is between 20,000 and 30,000 . The construction industry along with tourism drive Florida’s economy. Scott wants to reject the money on something called” principle”. This is like refusing food stamps because the kids don’t need no high falutin’ food.If Scott rejects it, another state will get the money and jobs and the stimulus it produces.
Ray La Hood has agreed to extend the deadline ’till this Friday in hopes Scott will have a revelation.This is some screwed up shit.
Erinyes…Nothing Scott does will surprise me..Everybody in this state had fair warning that Scott was a crook well before they ever decided to take him in. Scott is not concerned about jobs, he’s got one, he’s focused on power brokering and there is no better way to power broker than to toss billions of dollars and thousands of jobs that Florida desperately needs to the side of the road with complete indifference. It’ll be the ultimate act to show all his underling that they better get in line to kiss his ring because he’ll be calling all the shots from here on out.
I agree, Swami.
Scott reminds me of “Pinhead”, the lead cenobite in Hell Raiser.
” we have sights to show you!”
“oh, no tears please, for its a waste of good suffering”
and my personal favorite: “Just come here and die child, while you still have the option of doing it quickly.”
A union member, a Teabagger and a CEO are sitting at a table. There are a dozen cookies in the middle. The CEO takes 11 of them, then turns to the Teabagger and says, “Hey, you better watch out! That union member wants part of your cookie!â€
Only 7:55 AM and my day has been made already. Thanks Gulag!