An economic recovery is on track, unless Congress screws it up

[ProSense]

An economic recovery is on track, unless Congress screws it up

By Steve Benen

The new monthly jobs report wasn't quite as strong as some had hoped, but it wasn't necessarily awful news, either. As Matt Yglesias noted, &quot M)ake no mistake -- this economy is growing and has been growing steadily for months. It's not booming and it's not undoing the damage of the prolonged labor market weakspot, but it's definitely growing and the situation is definitely improving."

I think that's right, but I also wonder whether Congress will screw it up.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said something the other day that stuck with me: "Something has gone terribly wrong, when the biggest threat to our American economy is the American Congress."

That's profoundly true. Americans elect officials to serve and advance their interests, not act against those interests, and yet, arguably the single greatest threat to a more robust economic recovery in 2013 is posed by congressional Republicans.

- more -

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/01/04/16348808-an-economic-recovery-is-on-track-unless-congress-screws-it-up

That's the quote of the day.

The economic recovery is coasting along in a very stagnant pattern. There are still too many public sector layoffs and not enough job creation.

US economy adds 155k jobs in December, jobless rate unchanged

By Steve Benen



Going into this morning, expectations were that that the new report from Bureau of Labor Statistics would show the economy added about 160,000 jobs in December. As it turns out, in the preliminary report, the expectations were quite close.

The BLS reported this morning that the overall economy added 155,000 jobs last month, while the revised unemployment rate was unchanged at 7.8%. As is often the case, austerity measures undermined the employment landscape -- while America's private sector added 168,000 jobs in December, the public sector lost 13,000 jobs, including over 11,000 teachers. (President Obama's American Jobs Act was intended to prevent this, but congressional Republicans refused to vote on his proposal.)
<...>

For the 2012 calendar year, the nation added over 1.83 million jobs, which is down slightly from 2011, but is the second best annual total since 2005. The private sector, meanwhile, added over 1.9 million jobs last year.

Politically, I suspect most will find this report underwhelming -- because it is -- but this should, in theory, only serve to remind policymakers and the rest of the political world that the economic recovery is not yet robust, and focusing on deficit reduction and austerity instead of economic growth and job creation is misguided and counterproductive.

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http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/01/04/16347906-us-economy-adds-155k-jobs-in-december-jobless-rate-unchanged

Where is the jobs bill and economic stimulus?

Clue for Congress: Deficit reduction and spending cuts do not create jobs. Austerity does not create jobs.

[earthside]

1. Without filibuster reform ...

... a minority of a minority of Repuglican U.S. Senators will have the power to screw it up.

Tell your Senators to support the Merkley-Udall filibuster reform rule.

[unblock]

3. i supoprt filibuster reform, but as long as republicans control the house,

they'll demand their pound of flesh anyway.

[earthside]

5. But the filibuster lets the House off the hook.

There is some hope that a coalition of the remaining 'moderate' Repuglicans in the House along with the Democrats could pass some meaningful legislation (like we saw earlier this week).

But if 41 Repuglican Senators (or less ... the 'hold'), can still demand 60 votes for cloture, then the House doesn't even have to have votes since it is pointless.

This present filibuster rule is so bad that it is really responsible for much of what has gone wrong in Washington. How any Democrat in the U.S. Senate could not want a substantive change is beyond me.

[unblock]

2. the problem, i fear, is that the cuts will be back-loaded, i.e., long-term "entitlement" cuts.

one of the reason "chained-cpi" has so much appeal is the timing of WHEN it reduces the deficit -- not much at all in the first year, a little bit more then next, and so on. it's back-loaded. the contractionary effect on the economy isn't much to worry about for quite a number of years.

if congress decides it likes that sort of thinking, we could wind up with spending cuts that eventually gut social security and/or medicare but don't do much damage to the economy in the short term. so there may be little political price to be paid in the short-term, which is where politicians live.

personally, i think congress is selfish enough to avoid too much spending cuts in the short term, precisely so as not to tank the economy or in any event piss of their constituents and donors. but that's exactly what worries me, because it paints a target on long-term programs like social security and medicare.

[onehandle]

4. Seems to me that recovery was a lot more drastic with a Democratic House.

The teabagger takeover stagnated the recovery.

Time to get this chart out there and encourage voters to get their asses to the polls in 2014.

[Turbineguy]

6. They will.