Read more:http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/08/0...html?hpt=hp_c1Wake up GOP: Smashing system doesn't fix it
By David Frum, CNN Contributor
August 1, 2011 7:42 a.m. EDT
Editor's note: David Frum writes a weekly column for CNN.com. A special assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2002, he is the author of six books, including "Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again," and is the editor of FrumForum.
(CNN) -- I'm a Republican. Always have been. I believe in free markets, low taxes, reasonable regulation and limited government. But as I look back at the weeks of rancor leading up to Sunday night's last-minute budget deal, I see some things I don't believe in:
Forcing the United States to the verge of default.
Shrugging off the needs and concerns of millions of unemployed.
Protecting every single loophole, giveaway and boondoggle in the tax code as a matter of fundamental conservative principle.
Massive government budget cuts in the midst of the worst recession since World War II.
I am not alone.
Only about one-third of Republicans agree that cutting government spending should be the country's top priority. Only about one-quarter of Republicans insist the budget be balanced without any tax increases.
Yet that one-third and that one-quarter have come to dominate my party. That one-third and that one-quarter forced a debt standoff that could have ended in default and a second Great Recession. That one-third and that one-quarter have effectively written the "no new taxes pledge" into national law.
There was another way. There still is.
Give me a hammer and a church-house door, and I'd post these theses for modern Republicans:
1) Unemployment is a more urgent problem than debt.
The U.S. can borrow money for 10 years at less than 3%. It can borrow money for two years at less than one-half a percent. Yes, the burden of debt is worrying. Yet lenders seem undaunted by those worries.
Meanwhile, more than 14 million Americans are out of work, more than 6 million for longer than six months. The United States has not seen so many people out of work for so long since the 1930s.
2) The deficit is a symptom of America's economic problems, not a cause.
When the economy slumps, government revenues decline and government spending surges.
Federal revenues have collapsed since 2007, down from more than 18% of national income to a little more than 14%. To put that in perspective: That's the equivalent of losing enough revenue to support the entire defense budget.
Federal spending has jumped to pay for unemployment insurance, food stamps and Medicaid benefits.
Fix the economy first, and the deficit will improve on its own.
Cut the deficit first, and the economy will get even sicker.
3) The time to cut is after the economy recovers.
Businesses are hoarding cash. Consumers are repaying debt. State and local governments are slashing jobs. (Since 2009, the number of Americans working for government has shrunk by half a million, the biggest reduction in civilian government employment since the Great Depression.) Right now, there's only one big customer out there: the federal government. How does it help anybody if the feds suddenly stop buying things and paying people?
I see you are going for the "Obscure Sci-Fi" avatar reference award.
(Logan's Run, one of my favs)
To the OP:
We will see a double dip recession as state/local/federal governments cut spending to make the tea party happy, and one of the larger components of GDP, "G" is gutted.
We will get to see the results of Supply Side economics put into action.
Hopefully we can put the final nail in the coffin of that ty theory once and for all.
The Tea Party accomplished what it set out to do. You gotta give them that. But the GOP, I feel, will suffer in the long run.
dumbass..
Ofcourse having a balanced budget is not tied to future unemployment in this country. The economy is not interlinked with fed interest rates, lender confidence, nor the strenght of our currency.
You heads have it all figured out. We need to pass a JOBS bill!!! oh yeah, in the meantime we wont address all the factors that contribute to prices skyrocketing, transportation cost soaring, and effects of Employers unwillingness to higher employees.
But employers do hire employees... just not in America. The question is how you address that compe ive factor from America.
deregulation of industry. more individual rights, abolish the minimum wage, abolish corporate taxes and capital gains. More capitalism.
Statism contributes to unemployment. Infact.. involuntary unemployment would be near impossible if everyone had the same access to buisiness ownership. But that's not the case. Liscensing, regulatory boards, etc all give the advantage to the rich.. who can afford to jump through all the hoops.
More deregulation? You've got to be kidding... Have you not been paying attention the last 3 years?
Corporations shouldn't pay taxes? Oh god, you're stupid. They paid taxes in the 1990's and we actually ran some surpluses. They and people are now paying lower taxes and the economy is in the tank.
Abolish the minimum wage? Yeah, that'll create plenty of jobs, Third World sweat shop jobs...
Great Plan though!
Really? Small reductions in future spending increases is going to cause a double dip recession?
When the GOP's fake patron is St. "Govt IS the problem" Ronnie, smashing the system IS the GOP fix for govt.
Not going to do when it's still cheaper to hire and live in China, India, etc.
The US needs to break out of that cycle of having China dump all their export money into their bonds. Not that it's going to happen with the current crop of politicians, but that would be the first step IMO.
The GOP Lies: 97% of Small Businesses Would Not be Affected by Increasing Taxes on the Wealthy
The an ax dogma of the Republican Party is strongly rooted in mythology. The theory that tax cuts create jobs has been discredited by the results of George Bush’s tax policies. The Republicans cling to the myth that “small business” owners are the “job creators,” and so they oppose proposals to eliminate the Bush rate cuts for even those earning over $250,000. But relatively few small business owners earn $250,000—in fact, fewer than 3 percent of the 20 million people who file business income on their personal tax forms (the 1040s) earn that much.
3 percent of 20 million? That's, uhm... almost... uh...
A LOT! UNACCEPTABLE!
Employers do not hire when they don't have a sense of if their future costs and profits go up or down. I think the quickest way to get employers highering again is to eliminate Obamacare, and to place a maximum increase on tax increases. If the government could not raise marginal rates by say, more than 1/2% a quarter, then there would be less future negative surprises for employers.
Last edited by Wild Cobra; 08-02-2011 at 04:17 AM.
I would generally agree if I had hope the economy would recover. With the changes since 2007, I worry it never will.
From where we sit, it seems a reasonable worry.
"to get employers highering again is to eliminate Obamacare"
WTF?
The Repug cuts are going to hit Medicare, allowing the current "patch" to expire, and then cutting more, meaning doctors will get less and more doctors won't take Medicare/Medicaid patients, ing over those paitents who will have to switch doctors and/or travel further to find a doctor. Red-state rural bubbas will be hit hard, but they'll keep voting, ignorantly, for Repug sociopathy.
"to place a maximum increase on tax increases"
cutting taxes doesn't create jobs, LIAR. With higher taxes in the Clinton years, 350K jobs/month were created.
Last edited by boutons_deux; 08-02-2011 at 10:14 AM.
You would be wrong, as usual. It's not cheaper taxes or economic certainty that makes GE outsource their jobs to China. It's the cheap labor.
Debt Ceiling Deal Will Cost 1.8 Million Jobs In 2012
The Economic Policy Ins ute, a top nonpartisan think tank, estimates that the deal struck this weekend to raise the nation’s debt limit will end up costing the economy 1.8 million jobs by 2012.
Top economists and CEO’s have also weighed in against the deal and said that GOP concessions to the Tea Party will cost our economy dearly. Pimco CEO Mohamed El-Erian warned that the deal will lead to less growth, more unemployment, and more inequality. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman called the plan “a disaster” and “an abject surrender” that will “depress the economy even further.”
The Center for American Progress’s Michael Ettlinger and Michael Linden argue that while the deal “goes straight in the wrong direction,” Congress can redeem itself by using the so-called “super committee” mandated by the bill to focus on job creation
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/201...-jobs-in-2012/
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aka, pro-cyclical govt action (as opposed to counter-cyclical) that deepens/lengthens the criminal Banksters' Great Depression.
It isn't cutting literacy programs?
Absolutely. Unlike the federal government, most states can't postpone the necessary cuts.
States can't print money like a sovereign country (but maybe Ricky Bobby Perry can pray to God for some Alamo dollars)
Pentagon lands extra $50 billion out of debt deal
ut of a bill that was supposed to cut government spending and waste wherever it is found, lawmakers managed to cobble together an additional $50 billion for the U.S. Defense Department's budget, using an accounting trick to disguise the move.
Instead of cutting $400 billion from the Pentagon's budget over the next 12 years like President Barack Obama proposed in April, Republicans put their own cuts at $350 billion over the next 13 years, leaving the nation's defense apparatus an extra $50 billion it hadn't planned on.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/0...e+Raw+Story%29
I had read that the cuts start slow (21B in 2012). I don't see how 21B = 1.8M jobs.
It's not only the cheaper labor. There are other factors, with taxation and regulations being two major factors.
If you weren't so short sighted as for looking for a single solution, then you might understand that all factors need to be looked at.
It's a scare tactic. I'll bet more jobs would be lost with the uncertainty of tax increases. If the government left well enough alone, the economy would be far better I bet. Uncertainty is a killer, and when the party in power talks about tax increases, we always have economic disaster.
Last edited by Wild Cobra; 08-02-2011 at 08:34 PM.
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