The US House and Senate Republicans have wasted a year blithering about our federal debt. Today we need jobs! Honest jobs.
Former Representative Heather Wilson, now candidate for US Senate, is quoted saying that the expense of the federal stimulus programs started by the Bush Administration has been "jaw dropping." Whatever. The feds have poured trillions into shoring up banks and helping states maintain jobs. New Mexico used some of the ARRA recovery money two years ago to help pay public school teachers. It worked! Well, except for the banks part.
Our Albuquerque Public Schools are looking at a deficit that they cannot cover from their own revenues. Costs will have to be cut to match available revenues. Teachers that leave or retire will not be replaced this year. Classes will get larger, again. Some electives will not be offered.
In states that have Republican governors, the outcomes have been more severe and threatening to any economic recovery. They have already laid off hundreds of thousands of public employees, and especially teachers. Given weak revenue forecasts for the next year, there will be more layoffs before the 2012 election.
The loss of that many middle-class public sector jobs has more than outweighed the benefits of the federal spending. So the Republican governors prove themselves right again! Our government does not make jobs, it destroys them!
Now, let me get this no-nothing conservative philosophy right: America will create jobs when we cut spending. There is no logic to that position. The states that have had to cut public employees have not seen a private sector rebound to make up for those losses. Those states are lead by Republican governors.
Even after those states cut taxes on the ultra-rich, they and the corporations have not "created" new jobs. "Job creators?" NOT!
Oh, they argue that it will take time for "the Market" to accept the new reality of lower taxes on the Rich and more unemployed teachers to respond. In the meantime, a lot of teachers and others don't have work, don't have benefits, and are struggling.
The Republican-led block on funding the FAA is another example proving that cutting spending cuts jobs. During the shutdown of the FAA for lack of new funding, critical functions of the agency were preserved, but non-critical jobs like planning, design and construction of airports and other facilities were shut down. Tens of thousands of construction workers were "furloughed" without pay. The FAA quit paying its bills. A lot of private companies were hurt, and many more were frightened by the prospect that their next job for the FAA was dead. That righteous fiasco pulled hundreds of millions of dollars out of the domestic US economy at a critical time in this Great Republican Recession. One consequence of ignorant Republican economics is to drive America into another ditch.
The truly sad background to all this ranting and stalling is the Republican's determination that President Obama will look bad - see, he didn't create any jobs! And look at all the money the Obama Administration "wasted" on so-called stimulus projects. The Republicans wouldn't allow the federal government - the spender of last resort - to spend enough to create or preserve jobs.
In the meantime, US corporations are reporting astonishing profits during a recession, and eye-popping amounts of cash reserves! With corporate profits up, shareholders (the Rich) are doing quite well, thank you very much. Speculators are thriving on commodities like oil, copper, food and more. And the Repubicans (or as one critic calls them, the Republicons) have not offered a single bill that would create a single job today or encourage private sector spending on new projects. Maybe in 2014 or so, after the next Republican is elected president.
The solution? Print and spend money as fast as Washington can! Every day the Republicans delay any solution that would create jobs, is another day that Americans suffer without work. Every day they delay committing to a "Marshall Plan" for the US, to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, our roads and bridges, our water and sewer systems, our ports and more crumble further, creating greater drains on our economy.
Federal spending directly and indirectly creates jobs that private industry is unwilling to do. Putting people to work at decent wages supports demand for goods and services, helping to lift the economy. The federal government has become the buyer of last resort, our last hope to kick-start the US economy back to life!
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