Republicans Are Telling A Big, Dangerous Lie About The Economy Robert Reich

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-biggest-republican-lie-2013-2



Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) says Senate Republicans will unanimously support a balanced-budget amendment, to be unveiled Wednesday as the core of the GOP’s fiscal agenda.

There’s no chance of passage so why are Republicans pushing it now? “Just because something may not pass doesn’t mean that the American people don’t expect us to stand up and be counted for the things that we believe in,” says McConnnell.

The more honest explanation is that a fight over a balanced-budget amendment could get the GOP back on the same page — reuniting Republican government-haters with the Party’s fiscal conservatives. And it could change the subject away from social issues — women’s reproductive rights, immigration, gay marriage — that have split the Party and cost it many votes.

It also gives the Party something to be for, in contrast to the upcoming fights in which its members will be voting against compromises to avoid the next fiscal cliff, continue funding the government, and raising the debt ceiling.


Read more: http://robertreich.org/post/42965890018#ixzz2KsRasdIX

[pampango]

1. "....the Republican’s biggest economic lie – that the budget deficit is “the transcendent issue ..."

Big lies can do great damage in a democracy. This one could help Republicans in their coming showdowns. But it could keep the economy in first gear for years, right up through the 2014 midterm elections, maybe all the way to the next presidential election.

Here’s the truth: After the housing bubble burst, American consumers had to pull in their belts so tightly that consumption plummeted – which in turn fueled unemployment. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity in the U.S. No business can keep people employed without enough customers, and none will hire people back until consumers return.

That meant government had to step in as consumer of last resort – which it did, but not enough to make up for the gaping shortfall in consumer demand.

The result has been one of the most anemic recoveries on record. In the three years after the Great Recession ended, economic growth averaged only 2.2 percent per year. In the last quarter of 2012 the economy contracted. Almost no one believes it will grow much more than 2 percent this year.

As Reich points out the problem isn't that our deficit is too big; it's that government spending has not been enough to compensate for the decline in consumer spending. And a more robust economy will do more to balance the budget in the long run, than slashing spending when the economy is weak.

[libtodeath]

2. Massive public works spending is the answer

taxes need to be raised on those hoarding cash to pay for it and let it make for job competition.
That will raise wages in the private sector as well,increase consumer spending and increase tax revenue as the economy grows.

[Blanks]

6. The other up side to massive public works spending...

Is that it gives the idle construction workers something to do; something that is not build houses.

If the recovery goes on without putting some of the people involved in housing construction to work; once things get going we will be looking at another housing bubble.

We need to tear down some houses; let some urban areas return to natural habitats (particularly abandoned factories) and refurbish quality old houses. The construction industry needs to be controlled in the recovery and we need to let alternative energy (and energy efficient construction) businesses crop up before the housing industry picks up full steam again.

[pipoman]

3. Robert Reich, traitor to US labor..

I'm not really interested in Reich's finger pointing on the economy until he takes responsibility for the part he has played in our economic decline..

Apparently, some people think it's big news that Robert Reich has decided to publicly endorse Barack Obama. We shouldn't be surprised. For months now, Reich has been criticizing Hillary Clinton on his blog and elsewhere, distorting her policies and her positions. He's criticized Senator Clinton's solutions on the foreclosure crisis, on health care and trade. He's been in the Obama camp for some time.

Despite his reputation as a liberal and a friend of working men and women, Reich knows how to walk both sides of the street. I recall that he rarely, if ever, mentioned unions during his four years as Secretary of Labor. He has no problem backing proposals that cheer business more than labor, like ending the corporate income tax. If you read his recent book, Supercapitalism, you would think Steve Forbes was the writer. But no, it's the former Secretary of Labor calling for eliminating a tax that helps keep down the tax burden on working men and women across this nation. Does Senator Obama support that Reich idea? Is eliminating the corporate income tax going to be part of the "change we can believe in"?

Reich says that corporate responsibility is counterproductive. He thinks it's a distraction. That's beautiful. Here we have a former Secretary of Labor, someone who should know better, taking the GOP line that corporations need to focus on making money and forget about everything else. The movement for social responsibility has promoted ethical decision-making in business, community development programs, day-care centers, HIV-AIDS training, family-friendly workplaces, and more. To suggest that those developments are a distraction from the responsibility of corporations to amass profits for shareholders, as Secretary Reich does in his book, is shameful.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-mcentee/robert-reichs-endorsement_b_97450.html

[OldDem2012]

4. The GOP Tea-Nazis still don't understand what happened to them during the last election....

....or, if they do understand, the old-time GOPers believe it was just an aberration and they will be restored to their former glory in 2014.

I predict that this attempt to push a balanced-budget amendment will not only fail, but it will also add to their crumbling reputation.

[Fumesucker]

5. Is there anything Republican's *aren't* telling big dangerous lies about?