After Friday's disappointing jobs report, it was hardly surprising that unemployment was at the center of President Obama's and the Republican Party's respective weekly addresses over the weekend. But the way in which the two sides presented the issue tells us a great deal about the nature of the debate.
For his part, the president talked about the transportation bill he just signed, and the importance of infrastructure investments in growing the economy. This hardly seemed controversial -- we have infrastructure projects that need to be completed; we have construction workers who want to get back to work; so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the value of connecting the two.
On the other hand, we also saw Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) deliver the GOP address, blaming the struggling economy on ... health care reform.
"[The president's] doubling down on policies that are holding us back and making things worse, starting with his health care law," the Republican lawmaker said, adding, "This health care law just flies in the face of what America is supposed to be, and repealing it would revitalize our economy."
Now, I've never spoken to Buerkle, and I have no idea if she actually believes this nonsense. It's possible she said this because someone handed her a script and asked her to read the words on the page.
Either way, it's important to realize how ridiculous the argument really is.
No one should be satisfied with the 80,000 jobs that were created in June -- and as best as I can tell, no one is -- but policymakers aren't able to address the problem if they don't understand it. And if the Republicans' weekly address is any indication, the GOP hasn't the foggiest idea what it's talking about.
Blaming the sluggish recovery on a law that won't be fully implemented until 2014 is just silly. The conservative talking points may persuade voters who don't know better, but there is no credible evidence -- literally, none -- that the Affordable Care Act is hurting the domestic job market.
Indeed, if the law were necessarily a drag on job creation and economic growth, we'd see evidence of it in Massachusetts, where a state-based version of "Obamacare" -- created and implemented by Mitt Romney -- is in effect. Is "Romneycare" hurting Massachusetts' economy? Not at all, though if Ann Marie Buerkle has evidence to the contrary, I'm all ears.
What's more, Greg Sargent recently talked to Joel Prakken, the chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, and Mark Hopkins, a senior adviser at Moody's Analytics, asking whether repealing the Affordable Care Act would improve the economy. Their answer was unambiguous: scrapping the law wouldn't help at all.
So what would help? Supply and demand still rule the day -- the economy is hurting because too many businesses have too few customers. Hire back the hundreds of thousands of teachers, fire fighters, and police officers who've been laid off in recent years, and we create a whole lot of new customers in a hurry, while lowering the unemployment rate by a point almost overnight.
Add in investments in infrastructure, and maybe some intervention from the Federal Reserve, and you have a recipe for vast improvements. It's a shame Ann Marie Buerkle and her colleagues disagree, isn't it?
Leave a Comment:
I'd add one more thing. The economy would be better if the "job creators" had more incentive to produce goods and services rather than merely speculating on prices of stocks and real estate. But they don't.
The amazing thing is she said the line with a straight face.
I hear you Ron. I keep shaking my head in disbelief. Its like a bad SNL sketch.
Not at all. Perhaps you read about the 13,000 pages of new ACA regs? How about the new taxes it contains, or that the IRS will enforce these new regs, with the ultimate power of putting you out of business and into jail? Yeah, that's a real incentive to hire now </snark>
http://news.investors.com/article/617361/201207061857/13000-pages-of-new-obamatax-regulations.htm
Drink as much Kool Aid as you want, Shooter. The economy is in the crapper for the same reason it was in 1930. Too few people are sitting on too much money, and it's not circulating, and demand is weak. If you can't understand Econ 101, much less history, then there is nothing to be done to help you. As the old saying goes, "Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig."
Well, I'm going to try and teach you to sing anyway.
Business is the only institution that creates wealth. (Goods and services) No new wealth means no new jobs, no new tax revenues, and no new "demand". Any questions?
Shooter, you don't even understand the business cycle. Go back to school.
Slinky...,
His problem is continual, deliberate misrepresentation (and worse), not lack of understanding. He is one of those who makes the kool-aid for others to drink.
Misrepresentation? Where?
The ignore features is a wonderful thing.
I'm trying, but the hurt won't go away! Call the Webmaster. The feature is broken on Chrome.
No, it isn't. I use Chrome all the time. Do you have a script-blocker extension installed? If you do, you need to make exceptions sometimes.
You must ignore those ruffians in the NSDAP, Herr Weisberg. They do not truly represent our nation. We must show that we are better than they are!
And how will all these civil servants be paid? By taking away money from other people.
Demand, is always with us. Having the money to act on wants and needs isn't. Where do people get that money? Jobs. Where do jobs come from? Business.
The joke here is that civil servants will spend enough to stimulate business, while Govt. simultaneously discourages business with rules, reg, and unread programs. Does anyone else see the conflict here?
the stupid hurts.
Hey shooter I have a great idea .
Why don't we privatize all the Government functions Police , fire , roads , parks everything and use taxpayer dollars to pay them .
That money will be real money not like it is now where we give it to those same people ....then it won't be government
Oh wait ....That would be the same thing.
How about pay as you go .
Fires , by the fire truck and gallons pumped .
Police ? Burglaries $450, Car theft ,$575
Roads . Just call the paving company for the section in front of your house and the rest of the roads become tolls . Only cost you $5.50 to drive to the grocery store .
Well, it seems you would know all about that.
Hey shooter give us a list of these rules and regulations you republican's would be so proud to repeal.
So a wealthier community that can afford to contract out as many public services as possible - even though some of those services are performed by OTHER communities' public services, and their law enforcement is supplied by the Sheriffs' Department (public sector), proves that money talks. Great. If you have it. The article even has a quote from a spokeswoman (paid for the city, I'm assuming through barter like chickens and free backrubs) that what they were able to accomplish in their city should not be used as a template anywhere else.
Thanks Slappy - I was just about to point that out .
They can say "Our community works very well as we have a big gate and no poor people "
We can afford the best......we are the ruling class
Sandy Springs, GA has done about the same thing under the same conditions. They've only been doing it for about a year, so the jury is still out on how effective it is. But there are already problems with neoptism and favoritism in contracting.
That's what I'm wondering. These contracts start out sort of like bidding out for garbage/recycling collection. They get foot in the door, make impressive savings in the beginning.
This may change later.
I am serious, profit must go up for private companies. If they have to buy new equipment, who will pay for it?
Now, the claims seem to be the problem in Maywood, address the claims. Sometimes managers have to discipline employees. This also happens in private corps, people somehow think the management will harm themselves if they discipline the bad apple employees.
And yes, the contracting begins. Do voters vote in the contractor or city managers. Do city managers get kickbacks? Does anyone see what goes on behind closed doors?
What was Tony Soprano's job?
http://www.tonysopranoonmanagement.com/samplechapter.html
But it's such a good lie .
No facts, just innuendo...custom made for Faux ,CNN and PBS and the rest of the stenographer class to take a clip and tell us
Republicans say "This health care law just flies in the face of what America is supposed to be, and repealing it would revitalize our economy."
Now in entertainment news.....
A Sound bite depth of understanding
America too stupid for Democracy .
Perhaps Buerkle is auditioning to be Romney's running mate. She seems to have it all: bland, white and mendacious.
And she's a woman. Apparently. Just wave anything vaguely female around, and the 'war on women' meme will just go away, right? Hell, if they really believe that, Romney will pick Sharon Angle as his running mate.
So...I think to myself "I'd like to hear what Rep. Buerkle has to say about her apparent inability to understand simple concepts". I go to her website and click the contact me button and get this "Regrettably, I am unable to reply to any email from constituents outside of the district. Please enter your zip code to verify residency and go to the next step" I imagine there are other elected officials who do this but I have never seen it. Maybe I'll go find one of her districts zip codes and ask her who the moron was who wrote her address - Eric Cantor? John Boehner? Jim DeMint? My 5 year old nephew?
Actually, in Congress, they all do that. Just enter all your contact info, with a zip code from her district (not that you'll get a reply).
find the address of a local library and use that
don't be sorry you are from TX. You are the informed one! You have common sense. )
But it does not matter if she is making sense to the educated because she is playing to her base who seem to lack the basics of a good education. Even good old Ronnie said "trust but verify" The Republican base just trust and see no need to verify.
How the hell do these people sleep at night?
They don't.
They sleep during the daytime, hanging from the attic rafters, their leathery wings keeping out the cursed sunlight.
Best reply ever!
:)
I have seen the "Bikini Graph" many times - the bar graph that shows jobs added / lost since the beginning of the Great Recession.
Out of curiosity, I went to FRED – Federal Reserve Data and looked up:
All Employees: Total nonfarm (PAYEMS)
If you click On Edit Graph - underneath graph on left under "FRED" icon - a page is displayed that lets you pick a whole bunch of options including date range, frequency, and units (defaults to Thousands of Persons). If you select Change - Thousands of Persons, and then click Redraw Graph button, you get the "Bikini Graph" - OK line not bars - from 1/1/1939 (unless you have changed the date range).
I picked Frequency = Quarterly, Aggregation method = Sum (this smooths out the jaggedy line)
Why do I find this interesting?
What exactly has changed from 2005-2006 and now? If you think of jobs as a crop, the growing conditions were terrific in the 90's. Not so good in the 2000's. Then the crop got hit with a hailstorm. We did some replanting and fertilizing (Recovery Act) but we are now - seems to me - back to the not so good like in the 2000's.
I'm thinking that the jobs crop is so pitiful since 2000 because so many of the seeds are not being planted in our fields. Out-sourcing - off-shoring. We will not get back to where we want to do until we STOP.
maphi, to replicate the late nineties you need,
Historical context is usually more important than individual policies, and why economists are almost always wrong.
Shooter, you left out a marginal tax rate of 39%. You know, the main reason the deficit ran sky high in the last decade?
Shooter, really: people have shown you to be wrong minded on every single topic you respond to time and time again on this site.
But still you spout absolute and utter nonsense. Over and over again.
You must be a paid troll. Do they pay you well enough to keep getting hammered on this site? Or if they don't is your ego so large as to think you are right?
My mother used to say "When at least three people tell you you're sick, it's time to lay down." Dude, you are sick.
Just sayin.
Well Slinky, we'll be back to 39.6% and more Jan 1. Are you really expecting that to stimulate business?
Not now, but then we didn't have 10 years of it cranking up the debt. Currently, it's going to have to go back into reducing the debt instead of being used for something else like paying teachers or firemen or policemen or funding infrastructure repairs and upgrades—precisely the kind of things that will put money back into circulation.
Seriously, you really need a quality education.
Shooter
"Historical context is usually more important than individual policies, and why economists are almost always wrong."
I guess that is why your on here blaming obama all day , and economist are almost always wrong ? in gop la la land any way
"Well Slinky, we'll be back to 39.6% and more Jan 1. Are you really expecting that to stimulate business?"
It will pay down the debt , remember? The debt you people claim is destroying america and its economy , why do you people always need to be reminded about the rhetoric you cram down everyone elses throats every day ?
And how is the job creation from those tracking 10 years later ?
No. Tax increases will not pay down the debt. any increase in revenue will immediately be spent.
Yeah, right Shooter. /sarcasm off/
Right shooter , america has never paid for any of the wars we have fought , or paid down our debt , do you work for michell bauchman 4 president ?
Trolls typically use the same propaganda point over and over and over again no matter how many times those propaganda points are refuted. It is impossible to have a serious discussion with the aggressively deceitful people of the right.
Team, we must stay focused.
Wow, I had to do a double-take on the Weak-ly republican address symbol.. This lady is better than Henny Youngman at dry humor! She forgot to mention though that her party has sacrificed the well being of "Amercians" legislatively (to get that N#gg3r out of the White House) and consistent with their win at any cost plan, is currently backing a Mor-moonie Men's Warehouse reject with a silver tongue as opposed to somebody who is more suited to the party's right wing fringe constituency (see Adolf Hitler)..
The number reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at 8:30am on the first Friday of each month is the seasonally-adjusted change, from the previous month, in the total number of employees on non-farm payrolls. The economy actually added 475,000 total jobs in June. The number of people employed in June, 2012 is more than 3 million greater than it was in June, 2011.
Remember, this was not an ordinary business-cycle recession. It was a financial collapse. Under the circumstances, I think adding 3 million jobs in a year is very impressive
This woman just screams the talking points and political rhetoric that she has been fed. She shows no genuine thought nor opinion in this address. Do the American people believe this drivel???
Few of them actually believe it, I'm sure, but too many will not hesitate to accept a lie that they find useful.
I for one like how Shooter only responds when he thinks he has a "gotcha" point to make, then slinks off like a coward when he's proven wrong. It shows consistency, something sorely lacking with today's GOP's leader.
Trolls don't actually stick around to make points, they just throw out specious assertions and disappear back into the muck.
Sh!tter has stated in the "Obama pushes middle-class tax cut..." thread that he has been "banned at several other blogs". Those blogs must have higher standards than this one. :-(