2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumTo fix a problem, one must first understand it
Posted with permission.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/09/12639982-to-fix-a-problem-one-must-first-understand-it
To fix a problem, one must first understand it
By Steve Benen
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Mon Jul 9, 2012 8:00 AM EDT
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.
Video @ link~
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 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?
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,438 posts)makes me want to pull my hair out. The argument used to be that the "uncertainty" about the law being implemented due to the pending SCOTUS decision was restraining businesses but now that that's been resolved, the constitutionality of the law shouldn't be an issue anymore (unless, of course, you're Rand Paul). Of course, now the Republicans are trying to keep things "uncertain" by vowing to repeal law as soon as they have the ability to do so and their plans for what to "replace" it with are, well, rather "uncertain" as well. The law itself is being used by the Republicans and their Tea Party as a scapegoat IMHO for why the economy isn't improving as fast as it needs but it really is a "red herring" as far as the economy is concerned.
Wounded Bear
(58,721 posts)THEN you can come to understand it, then possibly "fix" it.
When people are making shit loads of money off of the status quo, the last thing they will admit is that a problem even exists. Re: health care/reform; you don't have to go much farther than their saying that "We have the best health care system in the world" to realize that they don't really believe that there is even a problem. For them, the system is working just fine.
Wondering Soul
(9 posts)The solution to our problem lay within the answer to that question.
babylonsister
(171,094 posts)of that during dimson's reign. Funny, no one cared then. I'll worry about job creation and healthcare...