"5 Ways Republicans Have Sabotaged Job Growth" By Jeff Spross at ThinkProgress

[applegrove]

5 Ways Republicans Have Sabotaged Job Growth

By Jeff Spross at ThinkProgress

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07/06/511940/5-ways-republicans-sabotaged-job-growth/

"SNIP..........................................

1. Filibustering the American Jobs Act. Last October, Senate Republicans killed a jobs bill proposed by President Obama that would have pumped $447 billion into the economy. Multiple economic analysts predicted the bill would add around two million jobs and hailed it as defense against a double-dip recession. The Congressional Budget Office also scored it as a net deficit reducer over ten years, and the American public supported the bill.

2. Stonewalling monetary stimulus. The Federal Reserve can do enormous good for a depressed economy through more aggressive monetary stimulus, and by tolerating a temporarily higher level of inflation. But with everything from Ron Paul’s anti-inflationary crusade to Rick Perry threatening to lynch Chairman Ben Bernanke, Republicans have browbeaten the Fed into not going down this path. Most damagingly, the GOP repeatedly held up President Obama’s nominations to the Federal Reserve Board during the critical months of the recession, leaving the board without the institutional clout it needed to help the economy.

3. Threatening a debt default. Even though the country didn’t actually hit its debt ceiling last summer, the Republican threat to default on the United States’ outstanding obligations was sufficient to spook financial markets and do real damage to the economy.

4. Cutting discretionary spending in the debt ceiling deal. The deal the GOP extracted as the price for avoiding default imposed around $900 billion in cuts over ten years. It included $30.5 billion in discretionary cuts in 2012 alone, costing the country 0.3 percent in economic growth and 323,000 jobs, according to estimates from the Economic Policy Institute. Starting in 2013, the deal will trigger another $1.2 trillion in cuts over ten years.


...........................................SNIP"

[SoutherDem]

1. The Republican plan is like this

The house is on fire, so lets cut off the water to save money. Makes sense right?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. Great analogy!

[unblock]

2. only 5?

that's letting them off easy.

[indepat]

3. The enemy within can be known by their

handiworks.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

4. Did TP leave out Rs' THREE-YR delay of transportation funding for THREE MILLION construction jobs?

Did TP leave out Rs' THREE-YR delay of transportation funding for THREE MILLION construction jobs?

That ended only just today. The President signed a bill Congress finally approved only a few days ago.

From http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/highways-bridges-and-roads/236519-obama-signs-highway-bill

Obama signs highway bill By Keith Laing--07/06/12 06:08 PM ET

President Obama signed a $105 billion transportation bill on Friday, bringing to an end a three-year fight over road and transit spending. ...

Obama has touted the highway bill as a jobs bill, and at the White House signing ceremony he was surrounded by construction workers and students. ... 'First of all, this bill will keep thousands of construction workers on the job rebuilding our nation's infrastructure,' Obama said .... Obama argued at the transportation bill signing on Friday that lawmakers in Congress should send him more bills like the measure he was signing into law.

'My hope is this bipartisan spirit spills over into the next phase,' Obama said. 'That we can start putting more construction workers back to work--not just those that were already on existing projects that were threatened to be laid off--but also getting some new projects done. 'My message to Congress is the same thing I've been saying for months now-- let’s keep going,' Obama continued. 'Let's keep finding ways to work together to grow the economy and help put more folks back to work. There's no excuse for inaction where there's so many American trying to get back on their feet.'"

[Cosmocat]

6. Mr. Spross left out the number one thing, BY FAR

at both the federal and state level, Rs have eliminated 600,000 public sector jobs.

This is for real jobs, actual jobs, ELIMINATED, vs speculation on jobs or stimulus.

This is 600,000 people who have lost their jobs, lost their incomes.

THIS is why the unemployment rate is stuck in the low 8s while there has been a SUBSTANCIAL number of jobs in the sainted private sector over the last three years.