(Obama) had faithfully channeled Summers and Geithner and their conservative approach to stimulus and (financial) reform. Early on, Obama's two key economic officials had argued down Christina Romer, the new chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers, when she suggested a massive $1.2 trillion stimulus to make up for the collapse of private demand. They opted for slightly less than $800 billion. "We believe that this is a properly sized approach to move the economy forward," said Summers, who didn't want to expand the federal deficit or worry the bond market.
(emphasis mine)
If on a November night, you find yourself wondering why we lost the House and winnable Senate races, this is Exhibit A. And thanks to the "Blue Collar Great Depression" (h/t Off The Charts, which Summers, Geithner, and the president failed to recognize the magnitude of (or respond accordingly to), we've lost something more important than congressional majorities.
Midwestern centrists such as Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) have called for an extension of all of Bush's tax cuts, including those benefiting individuals earning more than $200,000 and families earning over $250,000 annually.
...
(Evan) Bayh has called on Congress to extend all of the Bush-era tax cuts, including those benefiting the wealthiest, while the economy continues to recover.
To just go out and raise taxes with no spending restraint, particularly during a recession - [it's] just not the right time to do that," he said during a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC.
Senator Bayh doesn't want the Bush tax cuts for the very top to expire until the economy recovers. But he's emphatic that spending must be cut. How is this coherent?
Annie Lowrey at TWI has a really good piece up about how the unemployed are organizing in preparation for the midterms. Chris Hayes spoke to Lowrey on MSNBC while filling in for Rachel Maddow.
This is a Trickle Downers worst nightmare; those who have been hit hard by the econoCons destruction of the working / Middle class taking concerted, sustained action in support of "the three Gs" -- good jobs, at a good wage, with good benefits.
Be afraid, Reagan Zombies (and neoliberal acolytes). Be very afraid.
Bloomberg - 70% say jobs trump the deficit. Only 28% disagree.
CBS - On Priorities.
Country's Most Important Problem
The economy - 38% The (stupid) wars - 7%
Health care - 6%
Budget deficit - 5% Oil Spill - 5%
Most Important Economic Problem
Jobs and unemployment - 38% National debt - 10% Offshoring - 3%
Home forclosures crisis - 3%
It shouldn't take a poll to get politicians to do the right thing, but polling is all too often a major factor. If this doesn't influence the thinking of the Dem trifecta, I don't know what will.
Here's to Selective Poll - Citing Disorder not striking again.
Neither the Long Depression of the 19th century nor the Great Depression of the 20th was an era of nonstop decline - on the contrary, both included periods when the economy grew. But these episodes of improvement were never enough to undo the damage from the initial slump, and were followed by relapses.
We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost - to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs - will nonetheless be immense.
...
[W]ho will pay the price for this triumph of orthodoxy? The answer is, tens of millions of unemployed workers, many of whom will go jobless for years, and some of whom will never work again.
UPDATE: Robert Kuttner's latest includes a glimmer of hope. Pete Peterson and Team Insane Deficit Fetish aren't nearly as persuasive as the amount of money they've poured into fueling austerity hysteria would seem to indicate. Needz Moar Millyuns, Pete.
UPDATE #2: Via Kuttner, Laura Tyson is in the running to replace Orszag at OMB. According to Bob Woodward's The Agenda, Tyson spoke out against catering too much to the bond market inside the Clinton Administration. So that's a little bit of good - ish news on a very bad morning.
Thanks to every Senate Republican, and perennial screw - up (see: Kickback, Cornhusker) Ben Nelson, the jobs bill was just blocked again.
Ben Nelson voted for Bushicare AKA Medicare Part D, the giant giveaway to PhRMA. Repeat: Ben Nelson voted for Medicare Part D. That alone should disqualify him from being taken seriously on any argument that relates to the budget.
Nelson voted for the Bush tax cuts for the most wealthy in both 2001 and 2003. He voted for the Iraq war. He watered down the recovery act, a critically important chance to get the economy moving again. And he prevented real health care reform that would have further reduced the deficit.
Ben Nelson is not "fiscally responsible." Ben Nelson is fiscally full of crap. Why pretend otherwise?
Not extending unemployment insurance, not reinforcing state budgets is the height of irresponsibility. It really is insane. It cripples recovery, which (attention Senator Nelson) makes our long - term deficit worse.
Ben Nelson is either clueless or craven. One of the two. GFY Ben.
New numbers from Gallup show 60% support for action on jobs.
Consider the language Gallup used. The 60% support is for "additional government spending to create jobs and stimulate the economy." That's far from optimal. Among those who vote for Democrats or potentially would, there is an overwhelming mandate for action.
Friday's job numbers should be setting of alarms. Without the census hiring, the official unemployment rate would be 10%. The BLS has the real unemployment rate at 16.6%.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' Chad Smith:
Under these circumstances, policymakers should have no qualms about passing a robust jobs bill - indeed, they would be derelict not to.
What's the greatest threat to our still-fragile economic recovery? Dangers abound, of course. But what I currently find most ominous is the spread of a destructive idea: the view that now, less than a year into a weak recovery from the worst slump since World War II, is the time for policy makers to stop helping the jobless and start inflicting pain.
It reminded me of the relevance of a commencement speech President Kennedy gave at Yale in June of 1962. JFK covered major areas of domestic policy where "there is a danger that illusion may prevent effective action." Fiscal issues, where "myths are legion and the truth hard to find," were discussed at length. The stated goal was to "separate false problems from real ones." JFK compared conversations about these issues to old records from decades past.
