It's ironic that the CEO who is expected to defend his company against anti-trust allegations this week is the only person on the Sunday shows being honest about how to get Americans working again.
AMANPOUR: But you say significant stimulus. Obviously, this is a political environment where the only real conversation is about cutting. Do you see any expectation or possibility of a climate for more stimulus?
SCHMIDT: Well, that's a political question, but the current strategy is ludicrous. You have a situation where the private sector sees essentially no growth in demand. The classic solution is to have the government step in and, with short-term initiatives, help stimulate that demand. If they do it right, they'll invest in income and growth-producing things like highways and bridges and schools, new opportunities for the private sector to go then build businesses. Today not only is there no demand coming out of the government, but because of the housing crisis, nobody sees any improvement in their own liquidity, so nobody's buying anything.
AMANPOUR: So this is a pretty dark picture that you're painting. Add to that no confidence from the consumers and businesses sitting on something like $2 trillion worth of profits which they're not going to spend, apparently. Is the president -- does he have a material problem with the business community right now?
SCHMIDT: The real problem is not the business community. The real problem is the Democrats and the Republicans fight for one point or another in a political sphere while the rest of us are waiting for the government to do something concrete and predictable. What business needs is predictable, long-term plans. We need to know, where is government spending going to be; what are the government programs going to be, and off we go. Business can create enormous numbers of new jobs in America. All we need to see is more demand. What's happening right now is businesses are very well-run; they have a lot of cash; they're waiting for more demand. At the moment, business efficiency allows them to grow at 1 percent or 2 percent, which is what we're seeing today. They don't have to hire more people. And until we solve that problem, people are going to sit idle, and it's real tragedy.
Wait, what's that? Businesses are not holding jobs hostage because they're waiting for more tax cuts? It's because there's not enough demand for products and services to justify hiring new workers? Why, that's dirty liberal talk!
You know, Republicans are absolutely right that uncertainty is keeping corporations from hiring. But they have it 100 percent back asswards as to why. It's not because they fear taxation. Hell, most corporations effectively pay no taxes at all. It's because THERE'S NO DEMAND FROM CONSUMERS. These perennially wrong supply-siders are missing that this uncertainty is stemming from the demand side: People don't know if they'll be employed next year. People are living with upside down mortgages. Their real wages have remained stagnant, unlike these CEOs and hedge fund managers. In short, consumers are nervous and unwilling to spend money they think they might need for the rainy days ahead. And the Republicans in Congress, with their obstructions and filibusters and holding the country and economy hostage for partisan gain, THEY'RE the ones creating the uncertainty.
But we're not going to see that truth on the Sunday shows.
