Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Where Are The Jobs, OJ?

Another day, another economic report indicates that Republican budget cuts would cost the economy hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The Republican plan to cut government spending by more than $60 billion dollars will cost the unemployment rate dearly, according to a new report from Moody's Analytics.

According to Moody's chief economist Mark Zandi -- who the Washington Post reports "has advised both political parties" -- Republican plans to slash government spending will impact the GDP in such a way that would eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs this year and the next.
From the report:
The House Republicans' proposal would reduce 2011 real GDP growth by 0.5% and 2012 growth by 0.2 percentage points This would mean some 400,000 fewer jobs created by the end of 2011 and 700,000 fewer jobs by the end of 2012.
Republicans were nonplussed by the findings.

"The fact that a relentless cheerleader for the failed 'stimulus' -- which the Democrats who run Washington claimed would keep unemployment below 8 percent -- refuses to understand that ending the spending binge will help the private sector create jobs is sad, but not surprising," a spokesperson for House Speaker John Boehner told Bloomberg.

To recap, Orange Julius knows more about the private sector economy than Mark Zandi because Zandi actually remembered the stimulus saved or created a couple million jobs.  What Republicans don't want to talk about is the 700,000 jobs that their budget cuts would cost between now and the next election and the growing consensus from the private sector that the Republicans are about to blow a hole in the economy on purpose, presumably to try to blame Obama and win in 2012.

Enacting a budget plan that would force the President into either cutting hundreds of thousands of jobs and sinking the GDP or shutting the government down (effectively causing the same thing, only in a much shorter time period) seems like a pretty good way to do it, eh?

Precisely what they are counting on.  So they attack Zandi's opinion on the stimulus instead of dealing with his company's conclusion that Republicans will put hundreds of thousands out of work on purpose.

And instead of creating jobs right now, Boehner and company are saying that the national debt is "immoral", but putting that many Americans out of work to do nothing to reduce it?  That's perfectly "moral" in the GOP playbook.

Where's the jobs, OJ?

[UPDATE]  It's not just Boehner who wants to put you out of work for your own good.

In an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep today, Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN) was asked if budget cuts should still go forward, even if they would result in widespread job loss, and replied “yes”:
INSKEEP: I want to ask something that a lot of people are confronting right now, as they deal with the federal deficit as well as state and local deficits that need to be closed. Are budget cuts — government budget cuts — worth it, even if they end up seriously costing a lot of jobs right now?
DANIELS: The answer is yes.

Cut taxes for the wealthy, cut jobs for everyone else. Vote Republican!

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