Sunday, May 06, 2012

Why Republicans Have It Wrong on the Economy

Guess what? Europe is officially back in a recession. Unemployment is up, profits are down. But not here in America. Not yet anyway. And the reason? While European countries inflicted huge cutbacks in government jobs and services, American government invested in the private sector.

True, government jobs and services are on the downturn in the US, but the difference is that while Europe exercised austerity measures, America had a stimulus package.

Despite the hand wringing and protests from the right, the federal government single-handedly saved the American auto industry. Had the Republicans been in power in 2008 we would no longer have an auto industry in America today. And millions more would be out of work.

What concerns me is that this could have a ripple effect on our economy. Will Europe’s economic woes, based on Republican ideals of economic austerity, translate into a recession here, despite our best efforts to create an economy that is slowly but surely improving?

And Americans need to ask themselves if they are better off now than they were at the end of the Bush regime. A regime that seems to have brought down the world economy in the blink of an eye. They need to ask themselves that question, because the answer is invariably “Uh….yeah.”

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