News that state legislatures are about to hacksaw their budgets may be the most unsettling thing in the paper today. After last week's elections, Republicans now control the legislature in more than 20 states. Because in times like these, the government must stop spending money, right?
Republicans who have taken over state capitols across the country are promising to respond to crippling budget deficits with an array of cuts, among them proposals to reduce public workers' benefits in Wisconsin, scale back social services in Maine and sell off state liquor stores in Pennsylvania, endangering the jobs of thousands of state workers.
Except that the federal stimulus spending worked, for one thing. And it would have worked even better had states not cut back on spending. Now the feds are turning off the spigot. If the states cut yet more, they could strangle the economy, for real. The idea behind deficit spending is that the government spends borrowed money to keep the economy going today, and then later, when the economy has recovered, revenue grows enough that paying it back is not so painful.
Republicans like to say the stimulus failed, but they've also shown they'll take all of the stimulating they can get. The politician at left up there, next to Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Virginia), is Virginia's Republican Governor Bob McDonnell. A proud leader of the Republican renaissance, McDonnell has lately been dishing stimulus checks out of the state's tobacco fund by the millions of dollars, including a $300,000 to the $17 billion credit card company Capital One. "Stimulus Bob" knows the votes are in growing the economy.
"We are doing everything we can to recruit high quality jobs and investment to the Commonwealth," he said. On that point, he's really very smart.
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I would say let them and when the economy of these states goes to pot, voters will reinstate the democrats. However, I'm not a republican that believes in sacrificing the greater good for short term political gain.
That's the same attitude that left Democrats in the position of having to pick up the pieces after 8 years of Bush.
I'm so glad that I live in DELAWARE!!!!!
...and thnak god you folks voted for a normal senator...
I wished I lived in Delaware with you. I'm glad you all voted for someone with some symblance of common since. Congratulations
So to save the economy, you lay off workers? Not that its an impressive acrobatic feat, but instead of getting people work, they want to cut jobs? Where is the logic?
The most recent employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics stated
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
Seems we can look forward to that number continuing to grow. More candidates for unemployment and other assistance programs. This is the same thing Christie is trying to do in New Jersey. He is "balancing the budget" on the backs of teachers and state workers while advocating more tax cuts for the rich.
You see, they never really explain where they're going to cut spending when they're on the campaign trail. Now that they're elected, all those people who voted for them will probably be in the unemployment line soon.
When the market crashes again, they (Republicans and Tea Party people) will be the first to cry fowl on the Dems for not keeping a tighter rein on Wall Street. They will most likely blame the president. See, they really are the party of Ambiguity.
Well, that's the logic that was used to put Republicans back in office and a lot of those that cast that vote are going to be the ones who hurt the most. Sad but true. The holidays are coming and so is the deadline for some who are receiving unemployment. They better purchase their Christmas dinners and gifts now -- if they haven't already.
The States that cut their own throats won't be doing their people any good. Oh, well - that places the rest of us in a relatively better position, anyway...
Just like in Texas where they are going to try to get rid of Medicaid and Insurance for kids. It will save us 60 billion but what about our humanity?
http://www.texastribune.org/texas-health-resources/health-reform-and-texas/perry-talks-dropping-medicaid-on-cnn/
Alan Grayson wasn't just spouting smoke when he said the Republican Health Care plan was to: "Die Quickly".
I would love to see what he has to say about Texas.
"Humanity", a four letter word to Republicans.
or in Maine, where their statewide universal health care will be completely eliminated.
My Down East friends are sorely hurting. The victory of LePage heralds the end of Yankee practicality and community values in the great state of Maine. His victory is attributed to the influx of a$%holes from MA who were unhappy with their state's progressive bent.
And when you do that, they put a strain on state run hospitals and their staff. The emergency rooms become full of people who don't have insurance and/or state medicaid. Then the state will want to shut down the state run hospital because it doesn't have the money to keep it running. The humanity -- went out years ago when the "bottom-line" became the judge of humanity. We will see more people trying to open free clinics because more people will be without health insurance. And if this upcoming Congress successfully repeals Health Care Reform -- all those Americans who put Republicans back in power are going to regret their votes.
Read the article ... hairs on the back of my neck stood up at Troy Newman's “I feel like a little boy on Christmas morning".
Just . So. Scary.
Just wait til you see Christian Children's Fund commercials about children in the US. Then we'll have to talk reality.
This is like back during the Great Depression when the New Deal was working but the debt of the country was going up so they stopped the spending the economy started back sliding. When the USA got involved in WWII and put everyone to work either in the military or working to support the military it's what finally pulled us out of the Great Depression. scary SCARY thought w/ the GOP in charge of the House that over the next 2 years we're going to back slide unless we go to war - BUT WAIT we've been to war - they just didn't make the citizens of this country PAY for the wars while we've been in there and that is one of the reasons we're in this economic situation at the moment. What if we had all had to sacrifice for the wars while we were in Iraq and Afghanistan instead of while we were trying to get out of the wars? Our Economy would be in better shape now.
Lets sell Post War bonds to the wealthy to help pull this country out of the Great Recession! Lets get back to growing our own food and to ration the supplies in this country of stuff that is imported so that we start manufacturing stuff in this country again. NOW THESE things would return us to the Greatest Power EVER with the STRONGEST economy EVER!
OldEnough-85: my response, That(Post War Bonds) is basically what Ben Bernanke says he is doing re: FED decision noted on 11/3/10, but it is not going to work. Wall Street and Corporations are, already, minimally doing 1 of 3 things, 1.hoarding their cash(They have a $$Trillion plus in their coffers), 2. investing in gold(look at the price of it), 3. investing in emerging markets because they get more bang for their/our bucks, that the FED gave them at essentially no interest, they also lend it back to us and make a profit on that ..because they didn't get enough under TARP. Also don't forget about those bonuses, they haven't gone away. So what makes Bernanke think they will change their spots now--I don't think so...this has been going on since 2008. Also why did Bush create tax breaks and skew them to benefit the rich when we were in 2 wars, look at where and when the job losses actually began, it was Long before Obama came into office and was just starting to turn around but oh well. To be clear I do not give Obama a pass either since he kept Summer and Geithner et. al. and didn't stand up to Wall Street. (I remember my father telling us about the CC camps..we have forgotten our history from as simple as 8>10 yr. ago to The Great Depression and before, see what Andrew Jackson did in regards to the Banks. What happens when you forget your history, it repeats itself and from what I can see at a greater vengeance than ever before.
@Old Enough -- totally agree with you about growing our own crops. We have thousands of farmers in the United States that could grow all we need. The farmers in small communities could really succeed if they grew products -- especially fresh veggies -- that could be locally sold to community members -- that would take money out of the grocery stores. Maybe grocery stores would start looking at local farms and develop relationships with these farms to purchase their products. The federal government need to stop paying farmers not to grow products and instead -- support them in growing products that will feed Americans right here at home.
Rachel, this is a terrible issue in Louisiana right now. I wrote about it at HP here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erica/cajun-college-101_b_773481.html
It galls me to think that Bobby Jindal was so adamant about refusing stimulus money, while the fact that we're losing said money is the reason why our university will probably lose its flagship status. How can we compete with no Classics, no Library Science, a ridiculously pared down foreign language department, and the loss of our Writing Center?
Erica,
I heard about that from an op-ed. I'm from Louisiana and to think that LSU is going to be scaled down then all the rest of the state universities will follow. Jindal cut a lot of programs after he was elected. Why Republicans have this mentality of "let the private industry handle it" -the private industry mucks up so much that is why the federal government gets involved because the leaders in the private sector practice so many types of discrimination or cut short the services they say they provide. I really don't trust a large majority of private sector companies to do what they say they're going to do. We will see what this Republican leadership is going to bring in the coming months -- joy or pain. I took more than 2 years for us to get into the situation in which the country finds itself, it's going to take more than 2 to get us out. We truly expected microwave results -- NOT!
One of the first things McDonald did upon entering the governor's office was slice the public school budget and reopen the rest stops that Governor Kaine had closed. It doesn't surprise me that he's giving money to Capital One. It's no huge secret in Virginia that he is a corporate governor. At least, it's not a secret to those of us who care to actually look.
That has to mean that the Pleaidian's Plan did not make the paper!
I'm so glad I live in CALIFORNIA!!!!
just one comment:
stop using the outlined font!!! if there is one thing i know about as a seasoned graphic designer- it's typography.
it's very difficult to read.
So, the plan seems to be to scuttle jobs and growth and blame it on "Teh Evil Obamacare!!1!!one!"
What's worse is that these newly-Republican state governments will get to draw all the lines for the congressional districts for the next 10 years. That means 10 more years of under-represented progressive populations.
We are about to see what a real depression is. The Repubs have no shame in their hypocrisy. They are unAmerican. Take away from the declining middle class and help their rich buddies. Watch the puppet strings CORPORATE elected REPUBLICANS will dance by. Thank God, He's in control when FOOLS are loosed.
Listen. I hate to be the wet rag on here, but I have to point out that with all of our complaining about the minor, yet foretelling, advance that Republicans made on Nov. 2nd. I would have to say that had as many people who voted for Obama 2008 had voted again in the midterms, perhaps we wouldn't be licking our wounds now.
Those who didn't vote to support the Democrats should have nothing to say right now other than, "Gee, maybe I shouda voted." I hope the same have learned a lesson and will be on alert come 2012.
Republicans officials are just as scary and greedy as they have always been. They are expert at manipulating fear in people, only this time they used the Tea Party to do their dirty work. Unfortunately, they are playing ping pong with Americans - Americans being the battered ball. They are swiftly going after Obama and are going to try to dismantle all that he has put through, in particular the weakened (via Reps) Health Care Reform Bill.
Okay, so Obama caved in a little (or perhaps a lot), but that shouldn't stop those who voted for him from supporting him. We also let the ball drop. Voting isn't a fad, or the latest cool thing to do. It's our responsibility to impress on everyone we know that can vote, to vote. Let's hope this turn in voter strength for the Reps, is heard loud and clear by those that didn't vote.
I'm so glad I live in NY! Thank-You New York City for saving the rest of this state!
I love NYC, my hometown! Now that I don't live in NYC, I see how it had shaped my politics and am so happy that I stand for the rights of the people to have equal lives full of all the freedoms we well deserve.
We New Yorkers are perceived as hard core. But I know that deep within each citizen is a heart of gold. Well, even if a little cynically tarnished, gold nonetheless.
This is all so that they can point at OBAMA and say see I told you he wasn't doing his job, it all failed, they do not wan to compromise again anything, cutting jobs and funding so that they can say that what Obama was trying to do left us like this --the this will be an even greater mess than we are in right now along with gridlock...
Thanks to all who listened to SP, Tea Party and GOP and supported these bafoons and their thinking, you are getting what you voted for. ....gridlock to the 9's
Im thinking we are going to have a massive case of 'voter remorse' in the next midterms. The neocon supporters havent a clue about what they have done to themselves and the rest of this country but they are about to get educated.
Erica-prof=The dumbing down of America, critical thinking..duh what is that? What do you think No Child Left Behind did, it left every child behind....let alone what they did in regards to the History Books in Texas, which effects every child and ultimately everyone.
To all who do not have GOP Governors, take off the blinders this will have national effects...you are forgetting your history if you think otherwise..
They have to cut jobs. They can't spend more than they bring in. Simple math people. That's why our economy is in the dumps now. All those government workers are going to have to suffer just like the non govt. workers have for 2 years. We can't just keep spending what we don't have. They should cut back on unemployment also so people will actually try to go out and find a job. handouts must stop now.
Punishing the Black man in office will come back to bite those one issue progressives voters who thought the President was their poodle.
Punishing the Black man in office will come back to bite the poor and middle class whites who cannot get over their racism.
The joke is on them. PBO AND his family is set for life. Once he is out of office in 2 or 6 years he is going to be ok.
Let the cuts begin.
I have worked for the school system and it is money wasted as is most public employees. Less work more pay and benifits. Start the cuts now.
Actually, PA alcohol laws are ridiculous and the state store system needs to go. Allowing privately run liquor stores will help the economy, as the state store system has a monopoly and it shows in poor selection and higher prices than surrounding states. Opening the booze market will be good for everyone.
I'm surprised Repubs want to do this, considering the undercurrent of guns-and-religion conservatism that raises a hue and cry every time relaxing restrictions on the demon drink comes up for debate.