Is anyone else as tired of this latest talking points by Republicans that continually goes unchallenged by the media -- spending cuts are going to create jobs. John Boehner claims he's got hundreds of economists who agree with him after Chris Wallace points out that a lot of economists don't agree with him, but of course Wallace didn't bother to ask him what some of their names were.
How about we fix our trade laws and quit rewarding companies for outsourcing American jobs? Heaven forbid that never seems to be part of the conversation from our politicians when the topic of jobs comes up.
Nicole: Anyone wish that Wallace the Lesser would have asked him for just one or two of the names of those "200 economists" that Boehner insisted agree with this ridiculous meme? It's one that Rep. Robert Hurt (R-VA05) also repeated in a widely-disseminated op-ed this weekend:
As the failed trillion dollar stimulus proved, increased government spending did not create the millions of jobs promised and only added to our record-breaking deficits and over $14 trillion in debt. The new projection that this year’s deficit will reach nearly $1.5 million only reinforces the need to cut up Washington’s credit cards once and for all.
That is why I have been proud to support many measures that have come before the House that will rein in out of control government spending and help put Central and Southside Virginia on a true path towards a long-lasting economy recovery.
Those measures include voting to cut non-security discretionary government spending back to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels and voting to repeal the budget-busting government takeover of health care, cutting $2.6 trillion over ten years and reducing the deficit by $700 billion. The House has also voted to cut Congressional budgets, to end the wasteful mandatory printing of bills, and to end the taxpayer funding of presidential election campaigns and party conventions, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Failed stimulus? Are we in the midst of another Great Depression? No? Wasn't that the purpose of the stimulus, to pull us back from the brink? The only reason it didn't do better were all the stupid concessions added to get the Republicans to sign off on it. And as far as jobs are concerned, the unemployment rate is still bleak, but to ignore that the Obama administration -- even with all the obstruction placed before them by the Republican Party -- managed to create more jobs in 2010 than Bush did in all eight years of his term put together is fundamentally disinforming the public.
But that's the plan for the GOP. If you get enough right wing people on traditional media and right wing blogs repeating ad nauseam that the stimulus didn't work, well, then no one challenges these failed ideas that Boehner advocates. And it may backfire on them in the end:
Obama felt the need to push health reform while at the height of his influence. GOP activists may feel the same way about spending. They should be wary.
This isn’t to say that some immediate well-targeted spending reductions are a bad idea. They are not. But the mindless across-the-board cuts (excluding, of course, defense, veterans benefits, homeland security, and Medicare), the GOP has in mind seem both clumsy and counterproductive in today’s economy.
Just as Democrats paid a steep price for pursuing health reform at a time of high unemployment, so may Republicans pay dearly if they try to rapidly shrink government while the economy remains weak. Ideological purity is one thing. But it rarely trumps bad timing.
