The biggest story of the year is how Republicans starved the economy

[KamaAina]

http://www.eclectablog.com/2016/08/the-biggest-story-of-the-year-is-how-republicans-starved-the-economy.html

The conservative media can’t stop complaining that we’re in the midst of the worst recovery since World War II — despite the fact that it’s likely that more private sector jobs will be created in President Obama’s second term than have ever been created in four years under any Republican.

A little-noticed report from the Economic Policy Institute earlier this month should have been national news, but was drowned out the sturm und drang of the campaigns and low-grade trauma generated by Donald Trump’s constant toxic mix of abuse and gaslighting.

Here’s the conclusion EPI came up with as it examined the role government investment has played in the last four recoveries:
The recovery since 2009 has been historically slow, and the disappointing pace can be explained entirely by the fiscal austerity imposed by Republicans in Congress.

Here’s what that looks like in graph form — and you’ll notice that the Reagan recovery that Republicans rest the entire credibility of their party upon was largely driven by government investment.

[Wounded Bear]

1. K & R ......for visibility..nt

[Hortensis]

21. Bad times make people MORE conservative.

Republicans have done their best to maintain bad times through the Obama terms.

This all has been driven by a determination to keep and grow right-wing power.

And behind that is the determination to continue the right wing's transfer of power and wealth from the many to the few.

Good news: They're not doing so good this last decade and have lost more ground than gained.

Once we elect Hillary Clinton, if we get control of the Senate we will put a final bullet in the head of this 40-year-old plot against America as it was and is meant to be.

[kairos12]

2. +100

[the_sly_pig]

3. You see the effect everywhere...

Over the course of time the tax burden has been shifted from corporations to the citizenry. The slow starvation of the tax base has been seen over time. I first noticed this back in the 1990's when working for Xcel Energy, they reduced the price of a commercial Kwh and raised the residential rates.

The reduction of living wages combined with the increases in executive compensation and union-busting has resulted in our current situation.

And health care has been turned into a commodity. At my last physical the nurse tried to upsell me on two blood tests. The result is that doctors are now salesmen and who can tell if test results are accurate or a means to secure future income.

[BREMPRO]

4. as a good friend of mine used to say " this is it" ... end of story

EPI please get this into the MSM...

[Scurrilous]

5. K & R

[Blue Idaho]

6. They have been willing to demolish the economy

In the hope that the President will be blamed. It's malpractice of the worst kind.

[lastlib]

9. ^ ^ ^THIS! ^ ^ ^

They want the black guy to be seen as an abysmal failure--when in fact, it is THEY themselves who are the abysmal failures! Along with their snake-oil, tax-the-poor-feed-the-rich piss-on economics, they are willing to bring down the entire nation and its economy solely to blame the black guy in the White House. They will try the same crap with Hillary Clinton as President, and they don't care who suffers, as long as it ain't their rich buddies. DESPICABLE, the lot of them!

[Beartracks]

14. As you say, they'll try it with Hillary, too. Which means...

... Obama's race is not the reason they've been doing it with Obama. His race is just a convenient fact to get the hairs up on that part of their base that's racist.

Fact is, they have and will do this shit to any Democrat.

=========================

[Blue Idaho]

22. Racists and Sexists...

I don't doubt that the republicans will try to dismantle President Hillary's agenda, but I also know the color of President Obama's skin outraged the knuckle draggers on the right...

[LittleGirl]

13. Worst congress ever! n/t

[Cosmocat]

24. Fucking assholes and the worse thing is it is fucking obvious

and this country just won't hold the asshole responsible for it.

Notice in that chart the biggest spending off a recession, yeah, that's right, St. Ronnie ...

[Fast Walker 52]

25. I echo that statement completely-- the lack of calling out the GOP by the news media

for the horror they are, is just beyond insane.

[LongTomH]

7. A big K&R!!!!!

Grover Norquist wanted to reduce the size of government until it could be "drowned in a bathtub;" the Repugs are doing a good job of reducing the size of the economy until it can be "drowned in a bathtub."

Maybe that was their goal all along!

[Martin Eden]

26. "reduce the size of government until it could be drowned in a bathtub"

That is indeed their long term goal, which ultimately includes eliminating Social Security and Medicare.

Rethugs have a problem, though. These programs have a tremendous amount of popular support and it is pretty close to political suicide to try eliminating SS & Medicare through direct legislative assault. Instead, their strategy is to convince the public these "entitlements" are no longer affordable and hard choices must be made.

This brings into play Grover Norquist's "starve the beast" strategy. Cut taxes as much as possible; maintain loopholes for wealthy individuals & corporations; ramp up military spending; and the result is Huge. Budget. Deficits. Republicans profess to be "fiscal conservatives" but budget deficits skyrocketed under Reagan and GW Bush. We call them idiots for believing in the failed theory that decreasing taxes will increase revenue, but we need to understand their long term goals can only be achieved with Huge. Budget. Deficits.

When you examine their actions in that context, the results make perfect sense. They're starving the federal programs they want to eliminate; rewarding their wealthy campaign donors with tax cuts; and they can blame the black guy for the huge budget deficits and slow economic recovery.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. Keep in mind that Republicans only pinch Democratic pennies....

Republican pennies pay for bridges to nowhere.

[Akamai]

10. Great point! And they're only interested in austerity during Democratic times as well.

[NewJeffCT]

23. good point - the presidents

that were in office for the other 3 lines on the graph were Reagan, Bush 1 and Bush 2.

Reagan turned our country from a net creditor to a net debtor to pump up the economy.

[CaptainTruth]

11. Good article, not sure about the author. I loved LOLGOP's work but they blocked me on Twitter.

Still not sure why. I never said anything negative to them, only replies of agreement. Just ... odd, I guess they don't want my agreement & encouragement. Just makes me wonder about a person, I mean, they don't want fans & readers?

[Iris]

15. Maybe confused you with someone else?

[czarjak]

12. Sounds like...

"I hope he fails."

[UCmeNdc]

16. This is the main reason why the recovery was so slow and painful.

The press just does not cover the GOP's failures.

[Lucky Luciano]

17. Story of the year?! More like decade/century. nt

[smirkymonkey]

18. K&R

[Cary]

19. Repblicans met during PBO's first inauguration

They agreed to obstruct absolutely everything in order to make PBO look bad, regardless of the sequences to WE, THE PEOPLE. Republicans proceeded to do just that and some Republicans admit it.

Yet people are surprised by an article like this or deny it's validity?

[Vinca]

20. If only those on the right would consider facts for a change.

According to them, this is a third world country on the brink of total destruction by evil brown people sneaking over the southern border. In reality, the people causing destruction are elected Republicans in Congress and statehouses.

[pampango]

27. More of the same on tap from the GOP in a Hillary administration:

Republicans on the Hill said that much of what Clinton has proposed during her campaign amounts to unfinished agenda items of the Obama administration — and they don’t expect her to have any more luck than he did while facing an obstructionist Republican Congress. “If she wins, her four years will look a lot like the last six years of Obama,” said one influential House Republican staffer. “She’s talking about things the president couldn’t get done; why does she think she will have more luck?”

Some Republicans warned that Clinton will have less. Groups like America Rising PAC have spent years researching the most effective attacks on Clinton. “There is a long history of Republicans opposing pretty much everything Hillary Clinton has done, from trying to reform health care in the 1990s to what she was doing as secretary of state — there’s a long memory there,” said Holler. “Assuming she wins, Republicans could in some world say the message here is that we have to compromise with Hillary Clinton. I’d be very surprised if that was their takeaway.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/hillary-clinton-presidency-gop-plan-227427

[TeamPooka]

28. K & R nt

[Angry Dragon]

29. kick

[stuffmatters]

30. Austerity=sManaged cruelty; austerity=sPrivatization. Right now main target is the VA

Austerity is the main tool for Repubs & Wall Street Dems to starve a public that doesn't vote for them (minorities, students aging boomers "hippies" to them))..it's simply managed cruelty.

Austerity is also their major mechanism towards privatizing a public institution: by starving the service they deliberately create an artificial crisis to claim "the govt'" broke it, and only fire selling off that govt service (including it's pension program btw) to one of their Corp Overlords is the only way to "save" that service.

It's the obvious reason why the simple adjustment/solution to Soc Sec(Scrap the Cap; they've not allowed even raising the cap for years) has never passed in Congress. I don't know if any version of Scrap The Cap has even ever made it to either floor for a vote.

Look what an impossible conundrum they put the USPS in and look who's in ALEC to benefit, both UPS & Fed Ex.

Right now the Koch Bros(ALEC) highest profile campaign is privatizing the VA; they already achieved legislative traction recently in their Kansas. Instead of Congress over the years fixing the VA by more funding, to address the needs of a system predictably overburdened by aging Viet Vets and 21st century war wounded, they push aggressively for Vets going to private hospitals...
and the slippery slope is obvious.

[elleng]

31. Central Bankers Hear Plea: Turn Focus to Government Spending.

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — Central bankers who gathered here to discuss better ways of jump-starting slow economic growth received a surprising message from their lunchtime speaker on Friday: Stop. You’re making things worse.

Christopher A. Sims, a Nobel laureate in economic science, told the annual conference that increased government spending was required to lift the world’s major economies from stagnation. The pursuit of innovations in monetary policy, he said, is diverting needed attention from the inaction of fiscal policy makers.

“So long as the legislature thinks it has no role in this problem, nothing is going to get done,” said Mr. Sims, a professor at Princeton. The best hope, he said, “is that people at central banks are willing to say publicly that this is what is necessary.”

Developed nations have leaned heavily on their central banks since the 2008 financial crisis. The United States, Europe and Japan have all relied on low interest rates to encourage increased spending by businesses and consumers even as government spending has remained relatively austere. Mr. Sims is among a growing number of experts who warn that this experiment has reached its limits.

The central banks have pushed rates to historically low levels. The European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan have even imposed negative interest rates, effectively taxing savings to encourage spending. Yet job growth and inflation remain stubbornly weak. Benoît Coeuré, a European Central Bank official, drew laughter from the audience when he noted the “good news” that eurozone inflation had doubled last month — from an annual rate of 0.1 percent up to 0.2 percent.

In the United States, the Federal Reserve responded to the crisis more forcefully than other central banks, and the federal government initially spent more freely. Yet here, too, growth remains slow, inflation remains weak and millions of middle-age people are no longer working.

Mohamed A. El-Erian, the chief economic adviser at Allianz, warned in a recent book, “The Only Game in Town,” that time was running out. If developed nations do not increase spending and pursue structural reforms in the next few years, Mr. El-Erian predicted, they will be locked into a new reality of slower growth.'>>>

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/29/business/economy/central-bankers-hear-plea-turn-focus-to-government-spending.html?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/111678852

[gratuitous]

33. That's quite true

Conservatives don't recognize any role of government spending in the health of the overall economy. It's possible that, as El-Erian said, we could get locked into a new reality of slower growth. The problem is that the haves and the have-mores who run Republican economics are just fine with slow or even negative growth. They're sitting on their pile, and feel quite secure that maintaining things just as they are means they will be on top of the economic heap forever. You might ask the French royal family or the Romanovs about that. Artificially pegging the economic wheel is a good way to invite disaster.

[TonyPDX]

32. The silence of complicit Democrats did nothing to help.